AUGUST 179 



flowers the heliotrope and the mignonette ; 

 perfect because neither of them takes anything 

 from the repose of the place on which one 

 would gladly be 



" Annihilating all that's made, 

 To a green thought in a green shade." 



On the contrary, both bring with them 

 supreme gifts. Cowper tells us that it was in 

 the year of his majority that England first saw 

 the Frenchman's darling, which surprises us, 

 because we had seemed to have associations 

 which reach into a much more remote past. 

 Living or dead, it is eminently a flower of 

 sentiment and of refinement, qualities recog- 

 nised in that verse of Bret Harte's " Newport 

 Romance " which appeals more perfectly to 

 the ear than to the eye. 



" The delicate odour of mignonette 

 The remains of a dead and gone bouquet 

 Is all that tells of a story : yet 

 Could we think of it in a sweeter way ?" 



It is impossible for a garden to be over- 

 crowded with mignonette, and as for the helio- 

 trope, the turnsole, no planting could be 

 lavish enough to satisfy its lovers. Nor could 

 there be too much of another most scentful 



