62 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 



marigolds, and I stole and munched a flower, and was 

 lost in the admiration of contempt for the people who 

 could put such trash into soup, whether for flavouring, 

 beautifying, or any other purpose. My father, being 

 a florist to the backbone, would not tolerate a common 

 marigold, and so I had to play the thief to gain the 

 knowledge of the comparative worthlessness of marigolds 

 in clear ox-tail. Within a few weeks of writing this I 

 have had to judge at a flower show where the study of 

 French marigolds occupied me nearly an hour to award 

 the prizes to my satisfaction. What a stride ! But Provi- 

 dence gave me years to accomplish it, with enjoyment at 

 the beginning and the end and at all the intermediate 

 stages. To stride over marigolds, beginning with soup 

 and ending with the fine arts, is not a particularly noble 

 business, but one might do worse; one might be M.P. 

 for Battle Bridge, for example, or confessor to the pirates 

 of the Flowery Land. When the churchyard marigolds 

 enraptured me I had not read Shakespeare, but I call to 

 mind now his association of them with the grave in the 

 fourth act of " Pericles " 



Enter MARINA, with a basket of flowers. 

 " No, I will rob Tellus of her weed, 

 To strew thy green with flowers : the yellows, blues, 

 The purple violets, and marigolds, 

 Shall as a carpet hang upon thy grave, 

 While summer-days do last. Ay me ! poor maid, 

 Born in a tempest, when my mother died, 

 This world to me is like a lasting storm, 

 Whirring me from my friends." 



The marigold is a very important flower to the senti- 

 mental. " As the marigold to the sun's eye," so is any- 

 thing you like to speak of for its constancy. The marigold 



