COMMUTER'S WIFE 213 



the specialist or dealer who wishes to make a numer- 

 ous showing, if they should entirely disappear from 

 the market. With the vegetables we discovered this 

 years ago, and acquired great caution in trying new 

 varieties. Evan also says that it is much the same 

 with the plants, trees, and shrubs used in producing 

 effects in everyday landscape architecture. 



Of course all plants are suitable where they are 

 native born, many are adaptable to new conditions, 

 and many others are lovely, but of such a fleeting 

 quality of bloom that they are quite out of place in 

 a garden where space is in any way limited, so that 

 in spite of the trivial cost of the seed, they are an 

 extravagance because of the small yield of satisfac- 

 tion in proportion to the soil they cover. 



Most of these evanescent flowers flock under the 

 title of annuals ; and though many may yield masses 

 of gorgeous colour in July and August, they have 

 little or no part in the bloom of the earlier and later 

 season. 



Last night, after I had revised my list for the third 

 time, the first lists would have stocked a ware- 

 house, and recopied it, I showed it to Evan. 



He looked rather cynical, made a rapid calculation 

 in which the quantities I had ordered and the square 

 feet seemed inextricably mixed, and then said, 



