A Thirsty June 
It is in Wiltshire, I think, the Chaffinch is sometimes 
called the Chink, a dear little name, which seems so suited 
to his here-and-there liveliness. Madam Thrush’s young 
ones are nearly fledged, and look prettier than they did at 
first discovery. In Sir Walter Scott’s “ Minstrelsy of the 
Border,” in the old garden where the Queen of Elfland 
takes True Thomas the Rhymer, they meet with the 
Throstly Cock. The name Throstle probably comes from 
the German Drossel. The Dog-rose in the “ plantin ” is 
beginning to show its purple flowers. It is thornless, and 
loves growing under trees — even under Beech-trees, where, 
as a rule, no plants seem to like living, a pleasing and rare 
peculiarity. 
I have only once seen a similar Rose, in a neighbouring 
garden, and such a big bush ! It must be very old. But it 
seemed to me that that bush partook more of the character 
of a Sweetbriar. My Rose has curiously long red narrow 
heps. The Columbines are out now (Columbos, as the old 
Scotch poets call them). I have abundance of old-fashioned 
kinds — black, dark purple, crimson and white, with small 
turbanlike flowers, besides a few long-spurred white and 
cream-coloured ones. In my old Queen Anne Herbal there 
is a quaint picture of a Double Columbine, just like what 
has grown in this garden for years. I must get some of 
the scarlet and yellow foreign kinds. William C. Bryant 
sings the praises of Columbines, but, as a rule, the poets 
seem to have neglected them. 
The big white scented Iris Florentine, I think it is called 
— La Flambe Blanche — is out too, and is so beautiful I do 
not wonder it was one of the many flowers dedicated long 
ago to the Virgin Mary. “ Italian Flower de Luce ” is the 
old Herbalist’s name for it, and “ Florentine Orrice.” 
Among other good qualities ascribed to it by old “ poti- 
caries,” it is a remedy administered in a potion against 
laziness, wherefore all good housewives should make a point, 
methinks, of growing it in their gardens for the benefit of 
their household. 
As it grows easily here, I rather wonder some enter- 
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