RUBIACEAE 121 



Japanese vegetable (they eat the young shoots, boiled like 

 Asparagus), one of the most superbient of hardy herbaceous 

 foliage plants, growing eight feet high or more in the 

 season, with rich, Ailantus-like foliage, and quite splendid 

 for any bold commanding point. Aralia japonica and 

 Aralia Sieboldii ought to be used in the same way. For 

 certainly, if you get them from anywhere near Tokio, 

 they must necessarily be as hardy as daisies. 



Asperula Athoa rejoices in many aliases : some call it 

 suberosa, some athoa, some arcadiensis. At least I have 

 received one species, always, under these three names. I 

 like best to think of it as fellow-countryman to Arcadian 

 Atalanta, snowy-souled, though often, in my garden, must 

 the plant have repeated its compatriot's plaint : 



' I would that with feetj 

 Uosandalled, unshod^ 

 Overbold, overfleet^ 

 I had swam not noi- trod. 

 From Arcadia to Calydon northward, a blast 

 of the envy of God.' 



For no matter in how warm, light, and well-drained a nook 

 you may place this frail southerner, it is always liable to 

 suflPer from winter damps. Not for many summers in suc- 

 cession will you see those brittle little greyish branches, 

 crowned with their profusion of long rosy trumpets. How- 

 ever, my plants are now breaking more robustly than ever, 

 and, if the slugs can be warned off, will soon be stronger 

 clumps than before. So that care and cosseting have 

 this time availed. And who need grudge them to Asper- 

 ula Athoa ? Other pretty Woodruffs are our two natives, 

 cynanchica and odorata, the first for high and dry 

 places, the other most admissible to a low, unprofitable 

 comer out of harm's way. And close to these comes the 

 dainty American Bluets, ffoustonia coerulea, only a few 

 inches high, with pale blue stars all the summer through. 



