COMMUTER'S WIFE 279 



Without such a bed no garden is completely 

 gracious, and yet few there are, pretentious or 

 humble, that have one. When Evan designed the 

 beds of the sun garden, he said that the tire of the 

 fiery wheel should be of subdued colours, shaded 

 greens or at most half tones. For a moment it 

 seemed that the dreaded coleus would be inevitable ; 

 then my Familiar Spirit whispered, " Let this circle 

 be your bed of sweet odours." 



There are comparatively few wholly scentless 

 flowers, while there are many like hyacinths and 

 the ranker lilies whose heavy perfume closes the 

 house door upon them. These last, however, have a 

 very limited period of bloom, while the plants chosen 

 for my bed of sweet odours breathe fragrance from 

 frost going until its return and even after. 



There are only three colours but many tints in this 

 bed of mine, green, silvery, velvety, and glossy ; 

 violet, purple, and ruddy-gold. The plants are, 

 reckoned from tallest downwards, lemon verbena, 

 rose, nutmeg, and apple geraniums, heliotrope of 

 violet to mauve, annual wall-flowers of warm yellow, 

 and mignonette; this last being of three kinds, 

 Mammoth, Parson's white, and Machette. 



Though the plants were set in rows each of a kind, 

 with the shrubby lemon verbenas as a ridge-pole, 



