250 HOME AND GARDEN 



a place in the flower garden ; the bold, branching 

 flower-stems are thrown up in such graceful groups 

 among the finely-cut foliage, that when well grown it 

 is really a better thing than the Giant Fennels of 

 North Afi'ica. It is not, of course, so tall or so large 

 all over ; but, though I have become intolerant of 

 anything at all rubbishy among garden plants, I think 

 the common Feimel is not so well treated as it deserves. 

 It was only quite lately that I learned how good a 

 thing it is in a cut state, when I saw in a neigh- 

 bour's house a simple and excellent arrangement of 

 the strong yellow Fennel-flower and foliage of Spanish 

 Chestnut. 



Among garden plants we have not many of the 

 Umlelliferoe. There is the great Cow -Parsnip {Herac- 

 lium), a fine thing for a cool or marshy place ; and 

 there are the gTand Sea - Hollies {Eryngium), with 

 floAvers arranged in a way quite diflerent to that of 

 the larger number of the class ; and but few others. 

 But the Umhelliferce give us one most pestilent weed, 

 namely, Goutweed {JSgopodium), looking and smelHng 

 like a small Angelica; its quick-running roots, once 

 allowed to invade any piece of ground, are almost 

 impossible to get out. 



A good crop of Onions is a joy to the culinary 

 corner of the gardener's heart, and I always think 

 there is something highly pictorial about the great 

 silvery seed-heads of the few we keep for seed, borne 



