CHAPTER XVI 

 AUGUST COMPOSITIONS 



The one that could repeat the summer's day 

 Were greater than itself, though he 

 Minutest of mankind might be. 



— Emily Dickinson. 



AUGUST is a month of coarse foliage and robust 

 /% colour. There is less poetry and suggestion in its 

 _Z. JL expression than at any other period and we must be 

 at some pains to prevent an appearance of vulgar obtrusive- 

 ness. Comely order is the first precaution. The mature 

 garden must be well groomed and strictly kept. The pretty 

 disorder, so easily tolerated in the spring, is no longer 

 attractive. The paths must be raked and swept to a nice 

 tidiness, the beds and borders relieved of all faded blooms 

 and spent flower stalks, and all remaining plants made to 

 toe the mark by being firmly and carefully staked. Vines 

 must be rigidly trained, shrubs cut back where their branches 

 encroach too boldly upon the paths, and the whole place 

 made free of weeds. Even those determined interlopers 

 have some charm in their svelte springtime, but in ma- 

 turity none at all. 



The next precaution is to choose one's August-flowering 

 plants with discernment. It is a composite-ridden month, 



