128 A GARDEN DIARY 



MARCH 8, 1900 



r I "HE pace at which some plants, no matter 

 * how discouraging the weather, manage to 

 swell out their tissues, and to spring aloft 

 under one's very eyes, is an unfailing marvel, 

 and in this unpropitious soil the marvel seems 

 all the greater. So many quite common plants 

 decline to live in it in its natural state, that 

 one's gratitude goes out all the more to the 

 few that are willing to put up with us as we 

 are. Foremost amongst such obliging vege- 

 tables stand the mulleins, and foremost amongst 

 the mulleins stands that really noble person, 

 Verbascum olympicum. If it has a fault it is 

 that it is too good-natured, and too vigorous. Not 

 only does it attain to its robust proportions at 

 a rate that takes one's breath away, but further 

 it increases so rapidly, and with such a reckless 

 prodigality, as threatens to people the whole 

 neighbourhood with its descendants. Seeing 

 that each of such descendants requires as much 

 space for its development as does its parent, 



