My Garden Summer-Seat. 



Coleridge, Hartley Coleridge, Edgar Allan Poe, De 

 Quincey, and probably Byron and Shelley, and how 

 many more ? Always comes the question of use and 

 abuse of God's good things. 



And among them without any regularity are set 

 some sun-flowers, on which certain bees so love to 

 pasture at certain seasons, that I have 

 found them in the evening quite tipsy, 

 as is the case also with the passion- 

 flower, from some element in the 

 nectar, and unable to take care of 

 themselves and go home like respect- 

 able hive citizens. This proves that 

 there is virtue in the sun-flower, which 

 is said to be good as an eatable in 

 many ways. " The fresh flowers, just 

 before full bloom," says Mr. James 



SUN-FLOWER. T , .- , ., •. 



Long, a good practical authority, 

 "furnish a dish scarcely inferior to the artichoke. The 

 seeds ground into flour make very good cakes, and, if 

 roasted, furnish a drink not much inferior to cocoa. 

 The leaf is often used as tobacco, the seed pods are 

 made into blotting-paper, and the plants, if grown in 

 damp places, for they will grow anywhere, are a pro- 

 tection against intermittent fever." 



But I am afraid I only thus provide a preserve for 

 certain birds who find tid-bits among my wildings, and 

 am, in fact, only placing temptation in their way. I 

 can see them eye me sideways, with that remarkable 

 air of rightful superiority which birds, even small birds, 

 can sometimes show, commingled with an indescribable 

 element of disappointment and chagrin, when they are 

 making for my corner of the garden, and catch sight of 

 me there before them. 



