196 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



sary. While a plant of great beauty at night, it 

 is somewhat less charming by day, as the flowers 

 of the previous evening gradually wither as the 

 sun gains strength, but it is a plant that we should 

 be very sorry to lose from our garden, so the neces- 

 sary eradication is as gently done as the interests of 

 our other plants will allow. 



An old writer declares the plant "the emblem of 

 inconstancy and therefore seldom worn by the fair, 

 excepting by those gay belles who love to coquet 

 and teaze their smitten swains." How any one in 

 presence of so beautiful a flower could devise an 

 idea so vapid, a suggestion so nauseating, passes 

 understanding. It is on a par with those more 

 modern Languages of Flowers, where the victim of 

 the tender passion is supposed to send to the fair 

 object of his desire a flower that represents the state 

 of his feelings, ardour, hope, jealousy, or what not, 

 and she responds in like manner. As we are 

 informed that there are several such compilations, 

 and that they by no means agree in the significance 

 assigned to various flowers, those who employ them 

 would appear to run considerable risk of being 

 entirely misunderstood. 



One may occasionally find on rubbish-heaps and 

 waste ground the thorn-apple, with its graceful 

 white flowers and curious prickly fruits. It springs 

 very readily from seed, and earns a welcome place 

 in our garden. Like many other poisonous plants 



