THE HERB GARDEN 33 



seldom grown in private gardens, are purslane, 

 wormwood, tansy, sorrel, burnet, fennel, anise, 

 caraway, sweet basil, bugloss, coriander, dill and 

 hyssop. Horse-radish was formerly counted as a 

 herb, and so were wood-sorrel, dandelion, and 

 cresses. 



Some of these plants are less attractive in 

 appearance than others, but all become interesting 

 when once we know all about them. There is 

 hardly a herb in the garden that, besides being of 

 use, is not mixed up with poetry, romance, and 

 magic. But the little plants themselves are dumb, 

 though the scents or "souls" of them, as Maeterlinck 

 calls their perfume, reveal glimpses of their inward 

 characters. In most herbs it is the leaf we value 

 for its virtue, and in some the seed : very rarely it 

 is the flower. 



Naturally, we like our herb garden to be 

 beautiful as well as curious, so, of the more homely 

 herbs we need only have a specimen or two, and of 

 the handsome and deliciously scented ones, as many 

 as we Uke and can find room for. 



Some of the wormwoods are pretty enough to 

 be an ornament to any garden. A few of mine are 

 sometimes put among their cousins in the flower- 

 beds, where they puzzle everybody, often not being 



