FRAGRANT FLOWERS AND LEAVES 283 



which, after rejecting the absolutely hopeless, gave 

 me six rows for the bed. 



For several weeks my speculation in heliotropes 

 was a subject of much mirth between Bart and my- 

 self, and the place was anything but a bed of sweet 

 odours ! The poor things lost the few leaves they had 

 possessed and really looked as if they had been 

 haunted by the ghosts of all the departed chickens 

 that had gone from the fowl-house to the block. 

 Then we had some wet weather, followed by growing 

 summer heat, and I did not visit the bed for perhaps 

 a week or more, when I rubbed my eyes and pinched 

 myself ; for it was completely covered with a mass of 

 vigorous green, riotous in its profusion, here and 

 there showing flower buds, and ever since it is one of 

 the places to which I go to feast my eyes and nose 

 when in need of garden encouragement! Another 

 year I shall plant the heliotrope in one of the short 

 cross-walk borders of the old garden, where we may 

 also see it from the dining room, and use the larger 

 bed for the more hardy sweet things, as I shall prob- 

 ably never be able to buy so many heliotrope plants 

 again for so little money. 



Now also I have a definite plan for a large border 

 of fragrant flowers and leaves. I have been on a 



