Childhood in a Garden ^35 



people plant expanses of Canterbury Bells ; one at 

 the beautiful garden at White Birches, Elmhurst, 

 Illinois, is shown on page in. I do not like this 

 as well as the planting in our home garden when 

 they are set in a mixed border, as shown opposite 

 page 416. Our tastes in the flower world are largely 

 influenced by what we were wonted to in childhood, 

 not only in the selection of flowers, but in their 

 placing in our gardens. The Canterbury Bell has 

 historical interest through its being named for the 

 bells borne by pilgrims to the shrine at Canterbury. 

 I have been delighted to see plants of these sturdy 

 garden favorites offered for sale of late years in New 

 York streets in springtime, by street venders, who 

 now show a tendency to throw aside Callas, Lilies, 

 Tuberoses, and flowers of such ilk, and substitute 

 shrubs and seedlings of hardy growth and satisfac- 

 tory flowering. But it filled me with regret, to 

 hear the pretty historic name — Canterbury Bells 

 — changed in so short a residence in the city, by 

 these Italian and German tongues to Gingerbread 

 Bells — a sad debasement. Native New Knglanders 

 have seldom forgotten or altered an old flower name, 

 and very rarely transferred it to another plant, even 

 in two centuries of everyday usage. But I am glad 

 to know that the flower will bloom in the flower 

 pot or soap box in the dingy window of the city 

 poor, or in the square foot of earth of the city 

 squatter, even if it be called Gingerbread Bells. 



I think we may safely affirm that the Hollyhock 

 is the most popular, and most widely known, of all 

 old-fashioned flowers. It is loved for its beauty, 



