COMMUTER'S WIFE 215 



" Castor beans : Too pretentious for your garden, 

 and not in character." 



"Tassel flower (cacalia): Feebly inefficient. Be- 

 longs to the days of little choice." 



" Annual chrysanthemums : Turn to mush in a 

 rainy season and require as much care as bedding 

 plants." 



" Gourds : Grotesque. Only fit for a child's gar- 

 den, and they harbour squash bugs." 



" Everlastings in variety : Belong to the days of 

 dried apples and herb tea. Not needed by those who 

 can buy fresh flowers in winter." 



" Love in a mist : Trivial." 



"Annual poppies : Either dry up or decay. Climate 

 too uncertain for the annual varieties, excepting fall- 

 sown Shirleys." 



Until finally my list, chastened and much reduced, 

 is copied for the last time. Of annuals it has 

 asters in separate colours, Truffants, Victoria and 

 pompon ; calendulas, coreopsis, centaurea or bluets, 

 cosmos, lobelia errecta, mignonette, climbing nastur- 

 tiums, Japan pinks, portulacca, salvia splendens, 

 white " cut-and-come-again " stocks, sunflowers in va- 

 riety, sweet peas, wall flowers of the annual dwarf 

 kind, verbenas of the mammoth tribe, evening prim- 

 rose, nicotiana affinis, the white night-blooming 



