WINTER MEETING. 167 



enclosare, where the morning sun could smile full in their faces, there 

 was a graceful border of giant snow drops that had been there years 

 and years, multiplying and giving beauty to an otherwise bare and neg- 

 lected spot. Along the grass borders, between which ran the smooth 

 walks, there were hundreds of crocus blooms in all the delicate and 

 wonderful butterfly colorings of their richest species. 



Some were snow white with faint veinings of royal purple, others 

 deep, rich and dark, shading up to the tenderest tints of lavender, 

 while still others were yellow as gold and silken as floss, each vieing 

 with the other in its effort to beautify the days when flowers are shy 

 and rare. My imagination led me to that garden a few weeks later, 

 when I found the spiraxias, grape hyacinths, ixia8,tritolias, and lilies of 

 the valley in bloom. How my soul reveled in the intoxicating perfume 

 of all these fragrant blossoms. A little later there came a veritable 

 color melody of narcissus, tulips, hyacinths, and the wonderfulJapan 

 iris, with blooms more delicately beautiful than almost any others of 

 the hardy bulbs, except only the lilies. And when the lilies came! Ah, 

 what grandeur filled the garden ; one felt that to walk there one should 

 wear robes of white, and golden bells should be tinkling from every 

 tuck and hem of the shining garment, to harmonize with the heaven- 

 sent beauty of all the royal family of lilies. 



See them in their perfect tintings — scarlet, crimson, white, yellow, 

 striped, mottled, flecked with soft falls of color that barely seem to 



touch the petals as they cling, ready to fly away at a touch. Ah ! it is 



« 



too lovely to write about ! To really enjoy this banquet of beauty, one 

 must invest generously in lily bulbs. Get all of them if you can, then 

 mass the colors to suit your own taste. 



The iris family, known as '''flags," is graceful and beautiful ; they 

 bloom early, last for years, require no care after once planted, and are 

 something no garden should be without. What ails my Burmnda lily 

 bulb ? Has it grown weary of my poor attempts to paint the lily, and 

 gone to sleep ? I fear me so, and shall have to descend to plainest 

 prose, now that its inspiration has deserted me. 



To have the snowdrops, the ixias, sparixias, the tulips, the hya- 

 cinths and others above named of this interesting collection of bulbs, 

 requires fall planting. In this climate, October is the best time to put 

 in bulbs. The beds must be made of rich, loamy soil, and no manure 

 must come in contact with the bulbs, or they will decay; but when the 

 ground begins to freeze a heavy coat of compost from the stables may 

 be put over them, to be raked away as soon as the frost leaves the 

 soil in the spring. A German gardener once told me to plant all hardy 

 bulbs twice their own depth (in autumn planting), saying that this was 



