44 2 Old Time Gardens 



white, if of graceful cut and shape, will have among 

 gay-colored silk attire the charm of Quaker garb, 

 even though its shape be ugly. You know how 

 ready is the owner of such a garden to talk of her 

 favorites, and soon I was told that this plant was 

 " Navy-work." I accepted this name in this old 

 maritime town as possibly a local folk-name, yet I 

 was puzzled by a haunting memory of having heard 

 some similar title. A later search in a botany re- 

 vealed the original, Venus'-navelwort. 



I deem it right to state in this connection that any 

 such corruption of the old name of a flower is very 

 unusual in Massachusetts, where the English tongue 

 is spoken by all of Massachusetts descent in much 

 purity of pronunciation. 



There is no doubt that all the flowers of the old 

 garden were far more suggestive, more full of mean- 

 ing, than those given to us by modern florists. This 

 does not come wholly from association, as many 

 fancy, but from an inherent quality of the flower 

 itself. I never saw Honeywort (Cerinthe) till five 

 years ago, and then it was not in an old-fashioned 

 garden ; but the moment I beheld the graceful, 

 drooping flowers in the flower bed, the yellow and 

 purple-toothed corolla caught my eye, as it caught 

 my fancy ; it seemed to mean something. I was 

 not surprised to learn that it was an ancient favorite 

 of colonial days. The leaves of Honeywort are 

 often lightly spotted, which may be one of its ele- 

 ments of mystery. Honeywort is seldom seen even 

 in our oldest gardens ; but it is a beautiful flower and 

 a most hardy annual, and deserves to be reintroduced. 



