(Bartien 



finally that the season was too far advanced to 

 cherish any further illusions about it. So I had to 

 root out the poor weakly plants, decayed for want 

 of sun and from excess of moisture, and buried 

 my hopes in the earth with the wallflowers which 

 shortly afterward occupied the ground. 



The roses went a long way to assuage my grief 

 over the failure of the Salpiglossis; but even in re- 

 gard to those, I reflected in my bitterness with 

 Grant Allen that after all, for all the poets have 

 said and sung, the rose itself is strictly utilitarian 

 and does not exist purely for our delectation. 

 " You help me, and I will help you," it says to the 

 butterfly; "and it keeps the sternest possible 

 debtor and creditor account with all its benefac- 

 tors." The previous summer, which was hot and 

 dry, when I had not aspired to a whole bed of 

 Salpiglossis, those I had in various positions throve 

 well and bore magnificent blossoms of the most 

 gorgeous colors. 



The sweet-peas, which were sown in October 



and were cut down in July, are still flowering 



freely, and some of those sown in the spring and 



cut down in August promise to go on producing 



182 



