MAY. 115 



What feelings stir the soul as we behold the first sweet Daisy, the 

 little star of the earth ! 



Crocuses, well arranged as to colour, as edgings, and Snowdrops 

 in bunches, have a showy effect at that season, as have also our 

 early Scillas, and even the Dog's-tooth Violet. But unrivalled stands 

 the Wallflower, half-joyously, half-plaintively described by one of 

 Flora's warm admirers as follows : 



" The Wallflower, the Wallflower, how beautiful it blooms ! 

 It gleams above the ruin'd tower like sunlight over tombs ; 

 It sheds a halo of repose around the wrecks of time — 

 To beauty give the flaunting Rose — the Wallflower is sublime. 



In the season of the Tulip-cup, when blossoms clothe the trees, 

 How sweet to lift the lattice up and scent thee on the breeze ! 

 The butterfly is then abroad, the bee is on the wing, 

 And on the hawthorns all around the linnets sit and sing. 



Sweet Wallflower, sweet Wallflower, thou conjurest up to me 

 Full many a soft and sunny hour of boyhood's thoughtless glee; 

 When joy from out the Daisies grew in woodlands pastures green, 

 And summer skies were far more blue than since they e'er have been. 



Now autumn's pensive voice is heard amid the yellow bowers — 

 The robin is the regal bird, and thou the queen of flowers — 

 He sings on the laburnum -trees amid the twilight dim, 

 And Araby ne'er gave the breeze such scents as thou to him. 



Rich is the Pink, the Lily gay, the Rose is summer's guest — 

 Bland are thy charms when these decay, of flowers first, last, and best. 

 There may be gaudier on the bower, and statelier on the tree ; 

 But Wallflower — loved Wallflower, thou art the flower for me." 



This with Honesty should be sown now in the reserve-garden, the 

 first to be transplanted, about six inches apart ; but the second does 

 not do so well with this treatment, therefore it should be thin : thus 

 managed, they will form nice bushy plants by autumn, Early cut- 

 tings of yellow Alyssum and white Candytuft will be also indispen- 

 sable. For a blue bed nothing can surpass the lovely Scilla amcena, 

 a small bulb, which should be planted very early; autumn-sown Ne- 

 mophila insignis, pricked in between them, keeps up a similar dis- 

 play, and allows the foliage to ripen, a very essential point in con- 

 nexion with all bulbs. Collinsia bicolor, Pansy (Duke of Perth, 

 Adela, and Malvern), double light and yellow Primulas, and Hya- 

 cinths of last year's forcing, all form fine individual beds ; and when 

 well arranged are a source of pleasure little dreamt of, beginning 

 with March and ending with May. Another advantage is, that these 

 things give much time to get all the more hardy kinds of bedding 

 stuff, as Calceolarias and Scarlet Geraniums, planted out in narrow 

 trenches, similar to those used for Celery, to be protected in case of 

 frost with boards, and giving pots and room for the more tender 

 things to get fully established in due time. 



And now for a selection to fill our little garden. From the long 

 list of Verbenas, say forty, select ten, viz. Boule de Neige (white), 

 Robinson's Defiance (scarlet), Mrs. Mills (blue), Brilliant (cerise, 

 bright yellow eye), Chauviere (crimson scarlet, black eye), Duchess 



