THE FEAST OF VEGETABLES 121 



like plants of ready growth. My hollyhocks 

 are all descended from one strain of seed sown 

 five years ago, and not yet deteriorating. Some 

 years the old plants seem intending to be per- 

 ennial, but I am safe in sowing seed every year 

 upon the basis of a biennial treatment of the 

 hollyhock. 



The "Shasta" daisy — a Burbanked form of the 

 field daisy — ^is a fine July flower, which if often 

 transplanted and divided, and given much manure 

 and much water, will in reward produce a sheet 

 of glorified blooms worth having. It holds the 

 center of the garden stage in July, and it is sup- 

 ported by salpiglossis and other good annuals. 

 About the same time Miss Petunia makes her 

 bow, and a pleasant courtesy it is, repeated daily 

 until Jack Frost stiffens her bloom muscles. 



"My Lady Nicotine" refers to a smelly pipe, I 

 believe, in literary truth; but I prefer to attach 

 that name to the delightful sweet nicotiana, 

 which also in July begins its daily evening per- 

 formance, to last until the same Mr. J. Frost 

 assumes entire charge. In the half-hom* follow- 

 ing the summer sunset, if the evening is still, 

 there pervades in the garden the fragrance of this 

 better tobacco, and its white flowers that open 

 only when the sun has declined are as the garments 



