1 62 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



are the Lenten Roses, or forms of the Oriental Hellebores. In the 

 southern counties, five seasons out of six, no weather stops them 

 from being fine in flower before the winter is past ; they often 

 bloom in January and make a handsome show in February, and 

 they are the finest of all flowers to end the winter. The Winter 

 Heliotrope (Tussilago fragrans) is not to be despised, although it is 

 a bad weed, and hard to get rid of. The way to deal with it is to 

 put it on some rubbish heap, or gravel bank, right away from the 

 garden, where a handful of it may be gathered when wanted. 



The Algerian Iris flowers in warm sandy borders in the country 



around London, and in mild winters is a great treasure, not merely 



for its beauty in warm sheltered corners, but also 



Algerian Iris. its precious qualities for the house, in which the 

 flowers, if cut in the bud state, open gracefully 

 if placed in basins in moss. In warm and sheltered gardens, 

 on warm soils, others of the winter blooming Iris of the East 

 may be grown, while in such gardens, in the south at least, the 

 good culture of the sweet Violet will often be rewarded with many 

 flowers in winter. 



A beautiful Italian Crocus (Impemti) often flowers in winter in 

 the southern counties at least, as, where people take the trouble to 

 get them, do C. Sieberi, Dalmaticus, Etruscus, Suaveolens and others. 

 This habit of some of the winter flowers of the south of Italy and 

 Mediterranean region to open in our green and open winters should 

 be taken advantage of. The fate of these Crocuses is interfered 

 with by the common field vole, and the common rat is also a great 

 destroyer of the Crocus. Where these enemies do not prevail, and 

 the soil favours these charming winter and early flowers, we can grow 

 them, not only in the garden, but on the turf of sunny meadows and 

 lawns in which these beautiful Crocuses will come up year after 

 year in winter and early dawn of spring. 



The Winter Sweet (Chimonanthus fragrans) is in bloom .often 



before Christmas in the country around London, and every shoot 



full of fragrant buds opening on the trees against 



Shrubs and trees south and west walls. The many bright berries 



in the which adorn our country, both in the wild land 



winter garden. an d i n well-stored gardens, are rather things of 

 the autumn. By mid-winter the birds are apt 

 to clear them off Wild Roses, Briers, Barberry, and Thorns, 

 American as well as British. The' Fyracantha, however, stays with us 

 late; and Hollies, Aucuba, Cotoneaster, Snowberry, and the pretty little 

 hardy Pernettya, from the Straits of Magellan, which has broken into 

 such variety of colour in our country, are among those that stay 

 late. The bright berries may fail us in hard winters, but the colour 



