128 A GARDEN DIARY 
ro 
Marcu 8, 1900 
te pace at which some plants, no matter 
how discouraging the weather, manage to 
swell out their tissues, and to spring aloft 
under one’s very eyes, is an unfailing marvel, 
and in this unpropitious soil the marvel seems 
all the greater. So many quite common plants 
decline to live in it in its natural state, that 
one’s gratitude goes out all the more to the 
few that are willing to put up with us as we 
are. Foremost amongst such obliging vege- 
tables stand the mulleins, and foremost amongst 
the mulleins stands that really noble person, 
Verbascum olympicum. If it has a fault it is 
that it is 400 good-natured, and zoo vigorous. Not 
only does it attain to its robust proportions at 
a rate that takes one’s breath away, but further 
it increases so rapidly, and with such a reckless 
prodigality, as threatens to people the whole 
neighbourhood with its descendants. Seeing 
that each of such descendants requires as much 
space for its development as does its parent, 
