COMMUTER'S WIFE 247 



The larkspurs ranging from white through sky and 

 mazarine blue to a metallic purple ; Canterbury bells 

 of a fine porcelain opaqueness, white, lilac, rose, and 

 purple ; columbines of every solid colour and the 

 white-lined varieties, too, that suggest the fairylike 

 blossoms wrought by skilful glass blowers ; lemon- 

 yellow day lilies that make a brave showing against 

 a background of copper beech branches ; peonies 

 like great roses, beginning in May with the crimson 

 Jacqueminot colour; spires of old-world foxglove, 

 four feet tall, swaying above the golden glow of 

 hardy coreopsis ; and mats of sweet William, white, 

 pink, crimson, pheasant's eye, and harlequin, that 

 crowd the fringed clove pinks almost out of the bor- 

 der. Then, too, there is a day edition of the yellow 

 evening primrose, and honesty (lunaria), the herb of 

 magic, in three tints, white, lavender, and purple. 



All these flowers are of course improved by fre- 

 quent resowing and resetting, and by having ample 

 elbow room, and yet nowhere do they seem so 

 typical, so gracefully lovable, and so wholly what 

 hardy folk should be, as in the bit of the old bor- 

 der that we have not yet disciplined, where the 

 soil is completely hidden by a tangle of poppies, 

 sweet William, and foxgloves. 



A book of praise might be written to hardy 



