176 
Old Time Gardens 
and she planted plentifully Plume Poppy and 
Meadow Rue; this was in 1895. In 1 896 the effect 
was exquisite; in 1897 the garden feathered out 
with far too much fulness; in 1901 all the com- 
bined forces of all the weeds of the garden could 
not equal these two flowers in utter usurpment and 
close occupation of every inch of that garden. 
The Plume Poppy has a strong tap-root which 
would be a good symbol of the root of the tree 
Ygdrassyl — the Tree of Life, that never dies. 
You can go over the borders with scythe and spade 
and hoe, and even with manicure-scissors, but roots 
of the Plume Poppy will still hide and send up 
vigorous growth the succeeding year. 
We have grown so familiar with some old doubled 
blossoms that we think little of their being double. 
One such, symmetrical of growth, beautiful of foliage, 
and gratifying of bloom, is the Double Buttercup. 
It is to me distinctly one of our most old-fashioned 
flowers in aspect. A hardy great clump of many 
years’ growth is one of the ancient treasures of our 
garden ; its golden globes are known in England as 
Bachelor’s Buttons, and are believed by many to be 
the Bachelor’s Buttons of Shakespeare’s day. 
Dahlias afford a striking example of the beauty of 
single flowers when compared to their doubled de- 
scendants. Single Dahlias are fine flowers, the yellow 
and scarlet ones especially so. I never thought 
double Dahlias really worth the trouble spent on 
them in our Northern gardens ; so much staking 
and tying, and fussing, and usually an autumn storm 
wrenches them round and breaks the stem or a frost 
