Midsummer to Michaelmas 
Lady’s Pincushions,” Lady of the Lake, as our American 
cousins call this pretty flower ; Michaelmas Daisies or Star- 
wort, whose old Scotch name is Good-bye Summer, Stocks, 
and lovely Golden Coreopsis, Pinks, and some glowing 
Red Geraniums, whose doom will soon be sealed by Jack 
Frost. I always thought the Geranium was one of the few 
flowers about which no legends seem to have gathered, till 
the other day, when I heard the following Mohammedan 
legend. Mohammed, it is said, once washed his shirt and 
hung it to dry on a Wild Mallow bush, which afterwards 
was found to have turned into the plant we now know as 
the Geranium. I wish I knew its Turkish name. There 
are also a few late Roses in the garden. 
September 25. — We have been very busy packing plants to 
furnish forth a flower-stall at a bazaar. It is to be held 
some distance from here, in a small seaport where flowers 
are at a premium, as the East Coast gales do not allow of 
much flower-growing in the exposed and wind-swept patches 
of garden on the cliffs on the outskirts. The Saxons used 
to call September Gerst monath , or the Barley month, 
from the old name of Barley, “ Gerst.” A kind of drink 
used to be brewed with it, called “ barlegh.” 
