IN THE MAKING 9 



the heart to withhold from us the sunshine of its 

 smiles. 



The edging of the beds and borders is rather a vexing 

 problem, for upon it depends, a good deal, the appear- 

 ance of the garden. All sorts of things have been tried 

 from glass bottles and shells to the trim and seemly 

 Box. For the garden laying not too great a claim to 

 magnificence, I think no edging is prettier than large ir- 

 regular stones sunk part way in the earth. Over these 

 stones many a charming alpine will creep and tumble so 

 grateful for the moist, cool root-run between the stones 

 and for the warm surface over which they may spread 

 themselves to sun and air that they burst forth with 

 such a praise of blossoming that one thinks anxiously of 

 the endurance of their little material bodies under the 

 strain of so lavish a manifestation of the spirit. Arabis, 

 Aubrietia, Alyssum, Arenaria, Saponaria ocymoides, 

 Cerastium, Iberis, creeping Veronicas, and Gypsoph- 

 ilas, Pinks in delicious variety, Thrift, Stonecrops, 

 Silenes, Campanulas, alpine Phloxes, and many an- 

 other small and lovely thing will create a jewelled set- 

 ting for the taller plants and may be brought, by a little 

 care in then* arrangement, into delightful harmony 

 with the rest of the border. 



Box edgings are charming and create always an at- 

 mosphere of sweet and comely reserve, while the "far, 

 strict scent," rising from its dark, shining surfaces, 

 carries one dreaming into the past. Flowers seem to 



