CHAPTER EIGHT 



AUTUMN BEAUTY 



Gather ye roses while you may, 



Old time is still a-flying, 

 And this same flower that smiles to-day 



To-morrow will be dying. 



Herrick. 



THE first two weeks of September are very 

 like August, both in bloom and in weather. 

 Save for Michaelmas Daisies there are few 

 flowers peculiar to this period, but if the season has not 

 been too dry Phloxes will still be hi fine colour, the 

 second flowering of Delphiniums at its height, and all 

 the host of Boltonias, Pyre thrums, Heleniums, Helian- 

 thuses, and Rudbeckias making a rich display, while the 

 annuals indulge in the maddest gayety as their season 

 draws to its close. Groups of garnet-jewelled speciosum 

 Lilies here and there in the borders lend a touch of 

 elegance and distinction to the garden, and the cool 

 nights and heavy dews have incited the Mallows to 

 larger and finer results in their great silken blossoms. 

 Nepeta, the invaluable, blooms again with delicate en- 

 thusiasm. Indeed, it has never ceased to bloom en- 

 tirely, but the cooler weather has started it off afresh, 



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