136 A GARDEN OF PLEASURE 



peculiar kind. They flower and fruit at 

 the same time, and the fruit, which is in 

 flavour like a Hautbois, goes on ripening 

 as late as October or November. Every 

 little runner bears its flowers and straw- 

 berries. A basketful of ripe berries was 

 gathered the day that I was there August 

 10. I believe in Shakespeare's time straw- 

 berries were still called ' straeberries,' from 

 the Saxon * strae ' or ' stray,' indicating the 

 habit of the strawberry in putting forth 

 runners to a distance from the parent 

 plant, giving to both independent life. In 

 some outland country places they still talk 

 of the * straeberry.' 



In a beautiful sea garden, high above 

 the sea, half hid in groves of ilex, a spot 

 so sheltered that even in winter the lawns 

 are scarcely ever swept by the wild sea 

 winds, I found the little white sweet- 

 scented* orchis in the middle of the 

 month, growing on the brown parched- 

 up turf. There had been no rain there, 

 nor hardly any dew ; the lawns, destitute 

 of any poor vestiges of verdure, lay * gasp- 



* Commonly called ' Lady's tresses,' or * traces.' 



