OCTOBER 225 



colour so early, and in tints so nearly the same. 

 I had almost used a word commonly reserved 

 for homespun stuffs or for certain paints, and 

 had said that the zinnias were durable flowers. 

 Let the word stand ! In the garden they last 

 for weeks, and if they be placed in a jar big 

 enough to hold them loosely, and a drop or two 

 of camphor be added to the fresh water every 

 day, and the ends of the stems be clipped often 

 ands enough, to be sure ! a cluster of them 

 will keep for a fortnight. Zinnias are rather 

 coarse, it is true, and fastidious persons do not 

 like to touch their stems. They would not be 

 at all satisfactory as spring flowers, but now 

 they are all one could wish. 



In early October the African marigolds make 

 a fine show. Their rank scent has the same 

 tonic quality as the frost-presaging morning 

 air, and their colour is magnificent sulphur, 

 orange and copper. The first touch of frost 

 kills them, but it does not kill the cosmos which 

 is the hardiest of all the composites, except 

 the chrysanthemums. Trained to a wire net- 

 ting, and kept in place by lacings of raffia, the 

 cosmos makes an uncommonly pretty, feathery 

 green background for summer flower-beds, and 



