204 MY GARDEN 



with great pleasure." That paltry rascal never de- 

 served to see respectable fruit or walk in an honest 

 dean's garden. Concerning figs, if you want a 

 botanical fairy story, endeavour to secure " The 

 Phenomena of Fertilization in Ficus Roxburghii," 

 by Dr. D. D. Cunningham, F.R.S. It is a wonderful 

 piece, and I have felt inclined to take off my hat to a 

 fig tree ever since reading it. 



From fig to phytolacca is a jump, but this Virginian 

 poke-weed must be dragged in, because I have a 

 charming picture of him. The red ink plant for 

 that is another alias has mean, greenish inflorescence 

 and a big, coarse habit of growth ; but his charm lies 

 in the elongated clumps of shining, blackberry-like 

 fruit that ripen with September. It is a strange, 

 interesting, and hardy herb, but poisonous. It will 

 grow anywhere, in anything, and its fruit, mixed with 

 a few of the dazzling scarlet corals of Italian arum, 

 makes a very remarkable decoration. Veratrum 

 nigrum is another fine thing far superior in dis- 

 tinction to V. album of the same family. Its spikes of 

 deep chocolate, touched with golden anthers, and the 

 magnificent, crimped, pleated leaves, produce a very 

 worthy specimen plant if due attention is paid to it. 

 Bees and other insects seek the flowers with great 

 assiduity, and are always flocking about it and gather- 

 ing honey or pollen. 



Speaking of decorative things, I designed a note 

 upon that ocular indigestion so often produced in 

 a conservatory by scattering instead of massing the 

 contents. The ingredients are mixed like a plum- 



