A Little Maryland Garden 159 
varieties, with rose-coloured flowers, are 
lovely, and some day I want to have them. 
But the hardy sort (Hydrangea paniculata), 
with great stiff flower-heads, reminding me 
of nothing so much as the swollen pears of 
horticulturists’ advertisements, I really dis- 
like. They are handsome, hardy plants, 
and moreover they are Japanese, which 
is usually a passport straight to my heart. 
But when I see their flower-heads hanging 
late, turned to a rusty brown, I wonder at the 
state of mind that takes pleasure in such 
dull, papery things. I might feel differently 
if I owned one, for I have known possession 
to change one’s feelings. 
It seems unreasonable to dislike anything 
in the way of plants or flowers, but there are 
some things for which I feel a positive an- 
tipathy. I do not like columbines, and this 
is the more unreasonable as they are home 
wild flowers, and I have often seen their clus- 
ters of red and gold inthe cafions. I seethem 
white and blue, yellow and red, in my neigh- 
bours’ gardens, but I never want them in 
