Stray Leaves from a Border Garden 
seem to know. It was anciently called Solidago Sarra- 
cenica , because it was said to have been brought home by 
the Christians from the Saracen wars. Verge (Tor the 
French call it ; it is common in Auvergne gardens, and I 
have been told grows freely in islands of the Rhone, where 
it must look very pretty with its feathery golden tufts of 
flowers. Gerarde praises it as a cure for wounds. 
I am very busy bringing in from the border pet Geraniums 
which I cannot bear to abandon to the tender mercies of 
Jack Frost, and collecting my winter bouquets of everlasting 
flowers, Moonwort and Cape Gooseberry sprays. There is 
a Giant Physalis Alkenzi I really must get — Franchetti , I 
think it is called. My “ Redbreast-flower ” is not the kind 
of Cape Gooseberry out of which the delicious preserve is 
made, though many people wrongly think it is ; that kind 
will only grow in Greenhouses in this country. I hang my 
sprays up to dry under the portico at the back. Now is 
the time, too, for drying sweet pot-herbs — nose-herbs as 
some old Herbalist quaintly calls them ; Kuchengewachs , as 
the Germans say. I have decorated the kitchen with 
bunches of Marjoram, Basil, Burnet, &c., in white muslin 
bags, and even surreptitiously introduced a bundle or two 
into the parlour, the way into which is not up a winding 
stair, but, luckily for me, on the ground-floor, though the 
windows are, so to speak, first-floor, owing to the different 
levels of house and front garden. It already smells strongly 
of the Lavender I have been tying in bunches to put in the 
napery press. I wish a washerwoman were still called a 
Lavender, as in old Scotch days. In some old royal account 
book there was mention of King James’ Lavender, meaning 
the woman who washed his clothes. There is rather a nice 
plant, called Santoline, or Woolly-leaved Lavender, Cotton 
Lavender, I must get. Here is a nice recipe for Lavender- 
water : “ Rub the Lavender from its stalks and pour 
over it boiling water, then stand it in a hot place to infuse. 
Next day strain off the water through a muslin. Remove any 
oil with a bit of clean blotting-paper. Bottle and cork 
tightly.” Of course the colour will not be as good as 
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