182 MY GARDEN 



splendour. Give me plenty of mud in the eye of 

 the sun, and I will grow a jungle of herbaceous 

 monsters that shall amaze you. 



The greatest treasure beside my pond is a hardy 

 tree-fern from Australia. It prospers, and asks 

 only for a little protection for stem and crown 

 at times of actual frost. Another fern almost 

 hardy in a snug corner is asplenium nidus avus, 

 the bird's nest. This also came from Australia ; 

 and a third grand plant, that rare amaryllid, dory- 

 anthes excelsa of the scarlet plume, was of their 

 party. This winters within doors, and to lose any 

 of these things would be a sorrow. 



From my dear brother they came one who knew 

 plants better than I. His great spirit could not abide 

 the limits of a garden. The world was his garden, 

 and he roamed to the uttermost parts of it, and 

 beheld the beauty of nature and the wonder of 

 many growing things. He lived his life against 

 Nature's own wild heart, did man's appointed work, 

 and passed in peace beside the broad Zambesi. Of 

 the race of the pioneers, of the tribe of Thoreau 

 was he, yet of a larger soul and more human than 

 Thoreau. All men that knew him found their spirits 

 leap to him ; and many lonely hearts in lonely places 

 mourned when they heard that he had gone. May 

 the savage earth he loved lie light upon him and lift 

 eternal flowers above his tomb ; may the fierce sun- 

 shine that was his life, pierce the equator's bosom 

 and for ever warm his precious dust. 



