A Moonlight Garden 423 



page 292, and I have named it from these lines 

 from The Garden (bat I Love : 



"A running ribbon of perfumed snow 

 Which the sun is melting rapidly." 



At sundown the beautiful white Day Lily opens 

 and gives forth all night an overwhelming sweetness ; 

 I have never seen night moths visiting it, though I 

 know they must, since a few seed capsules always 

 form. In the border stand 



" Clumps of sunny Phlox 

 That shine at dusk, and grow more deeply sweet." 



These, with white Petunias, are almost unbearably 

 cloying in their heavy odor. It is a curious fact that 

 some of these night-scented flowers are positively 

 offensive in the daytime ; try your Nicotiana affinis 

 next midday it outpours honeyed sweetness at 

 night, but you will be glad it withholds its perfume 

 by day. The plants of Nicotiana were first intro- 

 duced to England for their beauty, sweet scent, and 

 medicinal qualities, not to furnish smoke. Parkin- 

 son in 1629 writes of Tobacco, " With us it is cher- 

 ished for medicinal qualities as for the beauty of its 

 flowers," and Gerarde, in 1633, after telling of the 

 beauty, etc., says that the dried leaves are " taken in 

 a pipe, set on fire, the smoke suckt into the stomach, 

 and thrust forth at the noshtrils." 



Snake-root, sometimes called Black Cohosh (Cimi- 

 cifuga racemosa), is one of the most stately wild 

 flowers, and a noble addition to the garden. A 

 picture of a single plant gives little impression of its 



