FIELD, FOREST, AND WAYSIDE 

 FLOWERS 



CHAPTER I 

 CROCUSES 



"As sweet desire of day before the day, 

 As dreams of love before the true love born, 

 From the outer edge of winter over-worn, 

 The ghost arisen of May before the May 

 Takes through dim air her unawakened way." 



Swinburne. 



IT seems, at first, an inconsistency that so many 

 of the monastic communities of old should have 

 owned and tended gardens. A garden : the word 

 suggests roses and honeysuckles, early peas and lus- 

 cious strawberries, summer days passed amid fair 

 surroundings, whatsoever is most opposite to the 

 unbeautified life, meagre fare, and narrow cell of 

 the ascetic. 



Even if the gardens grew only bitter herbs for 

 fast-day pottages the south wind wafted perfumes 

 over them, the butterflies danced in them, and the 



birds sang in them joyous strains, likely to lead 



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