A Little Maryland Garden = 53 
up tall stalks, six feet high, clothed with blue 
loveliness. And these spires of exquisite 
bloom remained in flower for weeks. Maeter- 
linck describes them as a “‘bluey marvel, cool 
as a fountain, pure as a source, unreal as a 
dream.’ There is something phantom-like 
in the slender wand, graceful and bending, 
with its almost translucent flowers, the 
colour of the distant atmosphere. 
A flower which seemed especially suited 
to this part of the garden was the hardy aster. 
Wherever these grew I had left them, though 
the only kind that came into my enclosure 
had tiny white flowers. Still they were 
good for their airy, cloud-like effect at a 
time when the garden was at its lowest ebb. 
I had read a good deal about Michaelmas 
daisies in English books, without knowing 
that they are for the most part our own wild 
flowers, that make the autumn roadsides 
gay. Last year I found that this was the 
case, and that they might be had in great 
variety for the modest price of twelve cents 
each. So I sent for the purple and rose- 
