256 A WHITE-PAPER GARDEN 



that freeze and thaw ; arches may be cut in 

 these, to give views across the orchard, and 

 to admit more clearly the singing of the 

 orchard brook. Another opening, carefully led 

 up to by a path, parts the thorns to show 

 the rounded purple woodland beyond the fields. 



Now is the solitary reign of the chrysan- 

 themum, the golden flower which art has 

 coaxed into wearing many colours beside the 

 name one. It is the glory of the mighty race 

 of the composites, and it seems as if man and 

 nature had conspired to make the year's last 

 flower the crown of all flowerings. I do not 

 care for the great overgrown, florist's chrysan- 

 themum, those fringed and curled darlings of 

 the urban heart. In my garden I would not 

 even plant those half-tender varieties which 

 in some long-deferred Indian summer perfect 

 themselves in the open brook. Plants, as 

 well as men, are noble only in proportion to 

 their trustworthiness, and good intentions not 

 rounded into fulfilment are as fatal in the 

 vegetable kingdom as elsewhere. 



The praises of the chrysanthemums that 

 I love are not sounded in floral catalogues, 

 nor have the flowers themselves ever thought 



