' BORAGE FOR COURAGE ' 41 



golds used to disappoint us dreadfully by closing 

 at night-time, and so spoiling the effect of nose- 

 gays we had made of them, but poets have always 

 seen the picturesqueness of this childish habit : 



' The Marigold that goes to bed wi' the sun, 

 And with him rises weeping.' 



' Open afresh your round of starry folds, 



Ye ardent Marigolds ! 

 Dry up the moisture from your golden lids. 



For great Apollo bids 

 That in these days your praises should be sung.' 



' Borage for courage !' So runs the old proverb. 

 Once sown, you need never sow Borage again ; like 

 the Marigolds, it takes care of itself. The starry 

 blue flowers with a cunning dot of black in them 

 are delightful. Blue flowers often have a beauty- 

 patch of black like this. The rough green leaves 

 give an etherealized flavour of cucumber to claret 

 and other cups, and the flowers offer honey to the 

 bees. Our great-great-grandmothers loved to 

 preserve the flowers and candy them for sweet- 

 meats. 



Skirrets, a perennial best grown as an annual, 

 can be raised from seed, or, once established, from 

 offsets of the roots, but it is so old-fashioned that 



6 



