VARIETY. 55 



grounds may well put on their holiday attire. June is 

 the youthful gala time of the garden ; and the bold and 

 blushing, smiling and nodding, vain and conscious roses, 

 which would be thought immodest amid the tranquillity 

 of summer or the somberness of autumn, are now 

 received with gladness as the fitting expression of our 

 exuberant emotions. Flowers in abundance, with roses 

 predominating; bright colors and heavy perfumes; 

 with greens and grays and old folks kept in the back- 

 ground — these are the colors for the June jncture, the 

 chords for the June music. 



In midsummer nothing is more delightful than 

 quiet rest under cooling shade. No flashing colors for 

 us now. No Jarring contrasts for the tired eyes. The 

 trees now invite us with their thickest canopy of foliage ; 

 and if beneath them stretches a cool, clean greensward, 

 and if the shadows fall all untroubled hito a still pool 

 near by, we rest amid these scenes with an overflowing 

 gratitude for the kind hands by which they are provided. 

 We have fled the dusty highway, the burning streets, 

 the noise and hurry and commotion of business. Quiet 

 and solitude are our chief desires. These feelings, com- 

 mon to all men at such times, indicate unequiv- 

 ocally th^ duty of the gardener. With so unmis- 

 takable a demand upon him, he is no gardener at all 

 who will not know what he ouglit to do. 



The beautiful colors of autumn are too much looked 

 upon as secondary qualities of the plants which affect 

 them, and their disposition on the grounds is too much 

 a matter of chance. The gardener ought to recognize 

 in these autumn colors another opportunity for the 

 aggregation of scattered beauties. Through these he 

 may produce one more almost spectacular effect before 

 the winter shuts us all indoors away from the enjoyment 

 of his Avorks. Without speaking of the individual excel- 

 lencies of the oaks, the liquidambar, the maples and the 



