226 A WHITE-PAPER GARDEN 



comes surprisingly into full blossom after the 

 swallows have left, and when the blackbirds 

 are making ready for flight. 



Dahlias are for October, although they have 

 been making themselves felt ever since Sep- 

 tember came in. They used to be found only 

 in the out-of-the-way and rather humble places 

 whither so many old time-ities (to use Frank 

 Stockton's word), have fled during the reign 

 of the red geranium, 1 but now it has come to 

 its own in popular favour, and is in danger of 

 becoming that unbearable thing, a fashionable 

 flower. If the soil be not too rich ; if the 

 season be not too damp ; if a little judicious 

 staking and a great deal of judicious pruning 

 be done, the dahlia will make a fine show 

 of velvet heads. They try to make it look 

 like a cactus nowadays but why ? Why 

 try to make anything or anybody resemble 

 anything but itself or himself? The world 

 has outgrown grained woodwork, and imi- 

 tation marble walls and chimney-pieces ; 



1 The story of the Red Geranium is thus told to Joseph 

 Vance. " What's a Wilier ? It's a 'ouse with stables for a one- 

 'orse shay, and a green'us, and a gardener, and some scarlet 

 geeraniums. And what's geeraniums? Well geeraniums' 

 what they sells on the barrers." 



