Part 2

THE LIST OF PICTURES FOR AN ISLAND GARDEN

PAGE

IN THE GARDEN Frontispiece

Title--POPPY PETALS i

Headpiece to Preface--MARGARET PINKS v

Headpiece to List of Pictures--PANSIES AND ROSE CAMPIONS ix

Half-Title--NASTURTIUMS 1

Headpiece--POPPY TOPS 3

FROM THE DOORWAY 10

A SHADY SEAT 18

Headpiece--HUGELIA CŒRULEA 24

THE GARDEN IN ITS GLORY 38

Headpiece--SONG-SPARROWS 46

LARKSPURS AND LILIES 50

HOLLYHOCKS IN LATE SUMMER 60

Headpiece--SWEET PEAS 69

THE BRIDE 74

POPPY BANK IN THE EARLY MORNING 80

Headpiece--TEA ROSES 87

THE ALTAR AND SHRINE 94

A FAVORITE CORNER 100

Headpiece--POPPIES GOING TO SEED 105

HOME OF THE HUMMING-BIRD 112

SUNSET AND THE PINAFORE 124

AN ISLAND GARDEN BY CELIA THAXTER

WITH PAINTINGS BY CHILDE HASSAM

Of all the wonderful things in the wonderful universe of God, nothing seems to me more surprising than the planting of a seed in the blank earth and the result thereof. Take a Poppy seed, for instance: it lies in your palm, the merest atom of matter, hardly visible, a speck, a pin’s point in bulk, but within it is imprisoned a spirit of beauty ineffable, which will break its bonds and emerge from the dark ground and blossom in a splendor so dazzling as to baffle all powers of description.

The Genie in the Arabian tale is not half so astonishing. In this tiny casket lie folded roots, stalks, leaves, buds, flowers, seed-vessels,--surpassing color and beautiful form, all that goes to make up a plant which is as gigantic in proportion to the bounds that confine it as the Oak is to the acorn. You may watch this marvel from beginning to end in a few weeks’ time, and if you realize how great a marvel it is, you can but be lost in “wonder, love, and praise.” All seeds are most interesting, whether winged like the Dandelion and Thistle, to fly on every breeze afar; or barbed to catch in the wool of cattle or the garments of men, to be borne away and spread in all directions over the land; or feathered like the little polished silvery shuttlecocks of the Cornflower, to whirl in the wind abroad and settle presently, point downward, into the hospitable ground; or oared like the Maple, to row out upon the viewless tides of the air. But if I were to pause on the threshold of the year to consider the miracles of seeds alone, I should never, I fear, reach my garden plot at all!