" Every day in garden and greenhouse brings a new surprise 



a new delight/' 



MORTIMER COLLINS. 



FEBRUARY 



AS yet the hawthorn hedges give but little signs of waking ; 

 "*- ^ not yet will the scales fall from their leaf-buds ; they 

 will not, however much the sun may shine, be wooed too soon 

 from slumber ; although a few of our deciduous shrubs and 

 trees are showing a faint tinge of green, it is not these that 

 are Spring's first and foremost harbinger. Surely it is the 

 snowdrop, the 



" First-born of the year's delight, 



Pride of the dewy glade, 

 In vernal green and virgin white, 

 Thy vestal robes arrayed ; 



They twinkle to the wintry moon, 



And cheer th' ungenial day, 

 And tell us all will glisten soon, 



As green and bright as they." 



Fair white blossom that now is with us, coming with no clarion 

 call, sweet harbinger of Spring ! Year by year, with unfailing 

 precision, they come with their message of hope, be the days 

 fraught with sunshine, or the world lying white under grey 

 skies. They come to us the very image of simplicity, the 

 very pattern of punctuality, in their garments of white and 

 green, ever sure of our welcome. In form and colour this 

 flower is an exquisite study, with its blossom wonderfully 

 poised on a stem by a thread-like connection, so delicate that 

 it nods in the faintest breeze, yet, on the other hand, so strong 

 that it has power to upbear and burst its bond of snow ! 



As I walk down the roads by the orchards I hear the sound 



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