272 



HOME AND GARDEN 



to become troublesome weeds, and others again be- 

 cause, though beautiful and desirable, they were very 

 unhappy and home-sick in my diy soil, and it was 

 quite evident that they were no plants for me. 

 Several of these were natives of the Alps, that 

 missed the cool shade of the towering rocks, and 

 the constant trickle of moisture to the root, and 

 the overhead bath of mountain mist. It is only in 

 the case of a thing so indispensable as the White 

 Lily that I go on trying against nearly certain 

 failure, and hoping almost against hope, and am re- 

 warded perhaps only one year in seven by a clump 

 doing fairly well, in spite of having carefully tried 

 all the recipes and nostrums kindly given me by 

 my many friends of highest horticultural ability. 

 Still the White Lily is one of the good things 

 worth doing, and after all, as a last resource, one 

 can pot it in loam and lime and so compel it to 

 live and flower. 



But the stores of the rubbish-heap were much 

 enriched by the many plants that seemed to me 

 unworthy, or of which better garden kinds could 

 be had ; so all my older clumps of Michaelmas 

 Daisies found their way there — it was twenty years 

 ago, before the grand modern ones had been much 

 cultivated — and a whole set of the oldest of the 

 garden forms of the albiflora Pseonies, as well as 

 many other unworthy individuals. 



And I found that one thing well worth doing was 



