434 Old Time Gardens 



the Spurge, Henbane, Rue, Dogtooth Violet, Ni- 

 gella, and pink Marsh Mallow. The latter has ever 

 been to me one of the most cheerful of blossoms. I 

 did not know it in my earliest childhood, and never 

 saw it in gardens till recent years. It is too close a 

 cousin of the Hollyhock ever to seem to me aught 

 but a happy flower. Henbane and Riie I did not 

 know, but I share his feeling toward- the others, 

 though I could not carry it to the extent of fancy- 

 ing these the plants which a young man gathered, 

 distilled, and gave to his betrothed as a poison. 



There has ever been much uncanny suggestion in 

 the Cypress Spurge. I never should have picked it 

 had I found it in trim gardens ; but I saw it only in 

 forlorn and neglected spots. Perhaps its sombre 

 tinge may come now from association, since it is 

 often seen in country graveyards ; and I heard a 

 country woman once call it " Graveyard Ground 

 Pine." But this association was not what influ- 

 enced my childhood, for I never went then to grave- 

 yards. 



In driving along our New England roads I am 

 ever reminded of Parkinson's dictum that " Spurge 

 once planted will hardly be got rid out again." For 

 by every decaying old house, in every deserted gar- 

 den, and by the roadside where houses may have been, 

 grows and spreads this Cypress Spurge. I know a 

 large orchard in Narragansett from which grass has 

 wholly vanished ; it has been crowded out by the 

 ugly little plant, which has even invaded the adjoin- 

 ing woods. 



I wonder why every one in colonial days planted 



