42 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



weak that a fly settling on any of them can weigh 

 it down ; yet they can force their way through a 

 substance as hard as concrete. From another habit 

 of many plants I get another object-lesson, from which 

 I learn that plant-life knows no rest. Many plants 

 come up in the spring at a considerable distance 

 from their position last summer. Eoses will send 

 up suckers many feet away from the parent plant ; 

 the pretty Chinese poppy, eomecon, will come up almost 

 anywhere in the bed except where it was first planted, 

 and this is more or less the case Avith almost all plants 

 which in our country dialect are called ' rastlers.' 



If we carefully study the revival of plants in the 

 spring, Ave are often reminded that ' great are the 

 uses of adversity,' even to a garden. An Italian pro- 

 fessor, Signor Goiran, has recently given his opinion 

 that earthquakes are beneficial to agriculture, 'pro- 

 moting a more rapid germination of seeds, a quicker 

 rate of growth in the young plants, and a distincter 

 greenness in all vegetation.' Few gardeners would 

 wish to have such a help in their gardens ; but I feel 

 sure that they are helj)ed by what at first seemed 

 almost as disastrous, for I am sure that for the abun- 

 dant flowers of one year we are often largely indebted 

 to previous very severe winters. We may have to 

 regret the entire loss of many good plants, and no 



