292 MY GARDEN 



satisfied hum of winged insects, and the charm of asso- 

 ciation and tradition broods over all. 



All sorts of people enjoy this small enclosure and 

 linger over its softly coloured inhabitants as if tempo- 

 rarily under the spell which many of them are said to 

 cast. Old people especially enjoy it; here they find old 

 friends nearly forgotten, plants associated with their 

 childhood or bound up with some tender memory. 

 Keen housekeepers and epicures find much here to their 

 minds and palates; physicians are interested in meeting 

 their henchmen, Aconite, Poppy , Valerian, Digitalis, and 

 others in so pleasant a guise, and once the English coach- 

 man of a friend came into the herb garden and standing 

 in front of my precious Lavender border exclaimed with 

 great feeling: "Oh, Mrs. Wilder, them bushes takes me 

 'ome!" I am always pleased when my country neigh- 

 bours come to me for Wormwood to cure the "swellin" 

 on the horse's leg, for Tansy or for any other of the 

 green things in which their faith is large and my garden 

 well supplied; and equally am I pleased when I can 

 accommodate my city friends with Tarragon for the 

 vinegar cruet, or with Borage, Basil, and others to 

 flavour their salads. More roots and seeds, besides the 

 dried products, go to friends from this part of the garden 

 than from all the rest put together, and I love to send 

 these little plant evangelists out into the world to make 

 friends for themselves and to teach others the pleasure 

 and the good to be found in that "excellent art of 



