i2 4 FROM A MIDDLESEX GARDEN 



rosy star of apple bloom above is given its five petals ! why to 

 the birds nesting in the fork of the tree's blossoming bough 

 is given so sweet a song ! You and I know it only as 

 Spring ! 



Among the pink bloom, with its sweetly diffused odour, 

 one of the wild birds comes to the garden to nest, that of 

 the missel-thrush. In the earliest time of Spring this bird's 

 notes fall sweetly on the ear with a song of hopeful praise. 

 And I repeat again, what a tender chapter from Nature's 

 book, the nest of the missel-thrush in the fork of the 

 blossoming bough, its greenish-white eggs littered with the 

 petals of apple-blossom ! 



The wood-spurge should not be overlooked. It is the 

 earliest of spring flowers ; to-day its emerald cluster of new 

 flowers crowning its purple foliage, a noticeable ornament 

 of the hedge-side all winter through, is the striking chord of 

 colour. 



