SUMMER 101 



larly toadstools have increased in number. 

 There are at least two varieties, and on 

 some days the ground is dotted with them. 

 The beds that contain the heavier plants, 

 which cast deep shadows, are rife with cru- 

 cibulum vulgare, the oddest fungus that 

 grows. At first it was mistaken for the 

 seed-cup of the portulaca, left from last 

 year, for it is dry and rusty-looking; but 

 the appearance of new ones, and their 

 change from balls to bowls, did away with 

 that notion. The cup is one third to one 

 half an inch in diameter, and holds what 

 appear to be black seeds. They are not 

 seeds, however, but spore-cases, lightly 

 held to the cup by white threads, and 

 quite like eggs in a nest. 



These fungi and oddities always make 

 us look into them. Flax-blooms and their 

 like are monotonously perfect classic. 

 The classic is the perfection of the regular. 

 The picturesque, on the contrary, is de- 

 light in the irregular. Ragged vegetation 

 is picturesque; so are the woods; so are 

 orchids and cacti. Gardens are introduc- 

 tions of the classic into nature the hu- 



