FALLEN LEAVES. 5 



it, year after year, a mass of splendid snowy 

 blossom. The Chrysanthemum has three merits 

 above almost every flower. It comes in the 

 shortest and darkest days ; it blooms abundantly 

 in the smoke of the largest cities ; it lasts longer 

 than any flower when cut and put into water. If 

 flowers have their virtues, the virtue of the Chrys- 

 anthemum is its unselfish kindliness. 



In the outer garden, we have been busy 

 with the fallen leaves, brushing them away from 

 the walks and lawn, leaving them to rot in the 

 wood, digging them into the shrubbery borders. 

 This work is finished now, and we have swept up 

 a great stack for future use at the end of two 

 years. The Beech and the Oak leaves we (in 

 opposition to some authorities) hold to be the 

 most valuable, but of course we cannot keep them 

 distinct from the rest. These fallen leaves of 

 which we make our loam for potting purposes 

 what endless moralities they have occasioned ! 

 The oldest and the youngest poets speak of them. 

 It is Homer, who compares the generations of men 

 to the generations of the leaves, as they come and 

 go, flourish and decay, one succeeding the other, 

 unresting and unceasingly. It is Swinburne, who 

 says in his poems 



