es and Queries_.

I first saw the _Paradisi in sole Paradisus terrestris_ at Kew,
some years ago, and was much bewitched by its quaint charm. I
grieve to say that I do not possess it; but an old friend and
florist--the Rev. H. T. Ellacombe--was good enough to lend me his
copy for reference, and to him I wrote for the meaning of the
title. But his scholarship, and that of other learned friends,
was quite at fault. My old friend's youthful energies (he will
permit me to say that he is ninety-four) were not satisfied to
rust in ignorance, and he wrote to _Notes and Queries_ on the
subject, and has been twice answered. It is an absurd play upon
words, after the fashion of John Parkinson's day. Paradise, as
AUNT-JUDY'S readers may know, is originally an Eastern word,
meaning a park, or pleasure ground. I am ashamed to say that the
knowledge of this fact did not help me to the pun. _Paradisi in
sole Paradisus terrestris_ means Park--in--son's Earthly
Paradise!

J. H. E., _February_, 1884.

LETTERS FROM A LITTLE GARDEN.

LETTER I.

"All is fine that is fit."--_Old Proverb._

DEAR LITTLE FRIEND,

When, with the touching confidence of youth that your elders have
made-up as well as grown-up minds on all subjects, you asked my
opinion on _Ribbon-gardening_, the above proverb came into my head, to
the relief of its natural tendency to see an inconvenient number of
sides to every question. The more I reflect upon it, the more I am
convinced it is a comfortably compact confession of my faith on all
matters decorative, and thence on the decoration of gardens.

I take some credit to myself for having the courage of my moderation,
since you obviously expect a more sweeping reply. The bedding-out
system is in bad odor just now; and you ask, "Wasn't it hideous?" and
"Wasn't it hateful?" and "Will it ever come into fashion again, to the
re-extermination of the dear old-fashioned flowers which we are now
slowly, and with pains, recalling from banishment?"

To discover one's own deliberate opinion upon a subject is not always
easy--prophetic opinions one must refuse to offer. But I feel no doubt
whatever that the good lady who shall coddle this little garden at
some distant date after me will be quite as fond of her borders as I
am of mine; and I suspect that these will be about as like each other
as our respective best bonnets.

The annals