68 HOME AND GARDEN 



come sound, and to know that the clogged leaves were 

 being washed clean, and that their pores were once 

 more drawing in the breath of life, and that the thirsty 

 roots were drinking their fill. And now, in the morn- 

 ing, how good it is to see the brilliant light of the 

 blessed summer day, always brightest just after rain, 

 and to see how every tree and plant is full of new life 

 and abounding gladness ; and to feel one's own thank- 

 fulness of heart, and that it is good to live, and all the 

 more good to Uve in a garden. 



The rain-drops still lodge in the grateful foliage. 

 I like to see how the different forms and surfaces hold 

 the little glistening globes. Of the plants close at 

 hand the way of the Tree-Lupin is the most noticeable. 

 Every one of the upright-standing leaves, like a little 

 hand of eight or ten fingers, holds in its palm a drop 

 more than a quarter of an inch in diameter. Each 

 leaflet is edged with a line of light ; the ball of water 

 holds together by the attraction of its own particles, 

 although there is a good space between the leaflets, 

 offering ten conduits by which one expects it to drain 

 away. Quite different is the way the wet hangs on 

 the woolly leaves of Verhascum phlomoides. Here it is 

 in long straggles of differently sized and shaped drops, 

 the woolly surface preventing free flow. In this plant 

 the water does not always seem to penetrate to the 

 actual leaf-surface ; occasionally it does and wets the 

 whole leaf, but more usually, when the drops remain after 

 lain at night, they are held up by the hairy coating. 



