AUGUST 187 



And theirs a divine commission of cheerfulness. 

 But for an hour, truly, yet into that hour how 

 much good will and sweet friendliness, how 

 much brave beauty and helpful service ! 

 There are convolvulus and ipomeas by the 

 score lovely almost all of them, but the best 

 of all are the old, cool friends who won their 

 pretty name long years ago. 



Snapdragons are true Augustians, and are 

 of a most lavish and gorgeous flowering. Blue 

 is the only colour absent from a bed of these 

 plants, whose season of flowering is longer than 

 that of any other plant of importance. The 

 gardeners have so improved the varieties that 

 there are more and more shades and combina- 

 tions of shades in the spikes, that lengthen 

 and ever lengthen. 



Better than the snapdragons are the phlox, 

 now in their splendid prime, and better than 

 the phlox are the hollyhocks, towering impos- 

 ingly at the end of the paths, and along the 

 edges of the shrubberies. Here, again, we may 

 look for every colour but blue white, blush- 

 rose, red, crimson, prune, yellow, copper, and 

 a dozen shades for which we have no really 

 descriptive names. Set on tall spires of pale 



