So MAY 



beautiful dwarf white evening primrose (osnothera 

 taraxacifoiia), whose dandelion-like foliage ensures 

 its being pulled away in mistaken kindness even by 

 passing friends, so that out of my original large 

 stock raised from seed I now possess only a few 

 plants. The thistle-like morina, for this same 

 reason, has never lived through a summer in my 

 garden, though I have planted several specimens 

 at different times. I shall have to put a neat little 

 paling, made of wooden labels, round these plants, 

 with the inscription, "Trespassers will be prose- 

 cuted " ; but even then I should despair of Thomas's 

 amendment. A garden boy who, when you point 

 to a handful of cherished plants withering on the 

 grass, can do naught but laugh at the good joke is 

 obviously beyond reformation. 



I wonder if people in general notice how inferior 

 is the song of some nightingales to that of others. 

 The principal bird who inhabits our grove this 

 spring is a very poor singer. When he attempts 

 the delightful jug-jug he makes a sorry failure of 

 it, and even his common notes are as naught in 

 comparison with those of last year's birds. The 

 cold weather may possibly have something to do 

 with it, but I do not think so, for we have now had 

 four hot days and nights, and still his note is a 

 feeble travesty of the song of other days. In spite 

 of a month of cool, wet weather these four days 

 make the garden cry out again for rain. I wonder 

 if anything is due to the original making of the 

 borders some years since ; and yet how hard we 

 worked to get them right ! We dug out their 

 whole length to a depth of over two feet ; the 



