FRAGRANT FLOWERS AND LEAVES 285 



species with a tinge of pink in the centre set in very 

 handsome silvery leaves. I had never before seen 

 these yellow thistles, but Lavinia Cortright says that 

 they are very plentiful in the dry ground back of the 

 marshes, where the sand has been carried in drifts 

 both by wind and tide. 



The table and house decorations the day that we 

 arrived were of thistles blended with the deep yellow 

 blossoms of the downy false foxglove or Gerardia 

 and the yellow false indigo that looks at a short dis- 

 tance like a dwarf bush pea. 



We drove to Coningsby, as I supposed to see some 

 gay little gardens, fantastic to the verge of awfulness, 

 that had caught Aunt Lavinia's eye. In one the earth 

 for the chief bed was contained in a surf-boat that 

 had become unseaworthy from age, and not only 

 was it rilled to the brim, but vines of every description 

 trailed over the sides. 



A neighbour opposite, probably a garden rival of 

 the owner of the boat but lacking aquatic furniture, 

 had utilized a single-seated cutter which, painted blue 

 of the unmerciful shade that fights with everything 

 it approaches, was set on an especially green bit of 

 side lawn, surrounded by a heavy row of conch shells, 

 and the box into which the seat had been turned, as 



