Stray Leaves from a Border Garden 
still more so when they were told he carried his shell inside 
instead of out. In the garden now both Red and White 
Valerian is coming on, and a plant of the pale pink variety, 
which grows wild in the South of France, and also freely 
on railway cuttings and old walls near Dawlish, Dartmouth 
and Torquay. Catslove is a nice name for it. It is an old 
belief that cats love eating the root. The Red Valerian is 
called “ Red Lightning ” in some places. William Allen 
Richardson, Prince of Roses, is showing two or three lovely 
auburn buds, and there are some pink Monthly Roses out 
now. The Waterside Croft is full of Purple Meadow- 
orchis and delicious Pink Clover. The Humble-bees are 
about, full of noisy fuss. It is odd that the Scotch word 
Bumbee should be so like the Italian Bombare , a humble- 
bee. The nest is called a “ bumbeebyke ” ; and to “ bum ” 
means to “buzz.” Burns writes of a “ Bum-clock,” meaning a 
humming-beetle ; and a Ladybird is called in some places 
a “ Clock-leddy. There is also an old Scotch word, Bum- 
bard, meaning “ lazy.” A blundering fellow used to be called 
“ a Bummeler,” and certarnly, a Humble-bee does look a 
very blundering fellow as he goes bummeling about. 
At the far end of the croft, where I was to-day, the Labur- 
nums tapestried the cliff, and did look so pretty ! 
An old Scotch name for the Laburnum was the Pea-tree, 
and an English one, Gold Chains. They grow particularly 
well hereabouts ; there is one road which is quite an avenue 
of them. A flower I brought from Auvergne is now look- 
ing lovely — Achillea millefolium , I think, is its name ; its 
cloud of tiny dainty white flowerets reminds me of London 
Pride. The yellow Iceland Poppies and big red Oriental 
Poppies are beginning to come out. I think there is 
nothing lovelier than a bed of white and orange “ Ice- 
landers ” with the sun on them, or a bed of pink and 
white Shirley Poppies — Himalayan Poppies some people 
call them. They are splendid for table decoration, in spite 
of their frail and ethereal appearance. There ought to be 
a fairy tale attached to Poppies. Common Poppies were 
used as love-charms long ago, and a cataplasm of Poppy- 
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