Some sweet wild Woodruff, with its whorled leaves and its miniature 

 Spring white flowers. I have failed utterly to grow any of the wild 

 Flowers O rcn ids : the dryness in summer kills them. Solomon's Seal does 

 well. It seems a pity that on rockeries or in small beds in sunny 

 places the type Crocus' are so seldom grown. The yellow Crocus 

 Vernus is a perfect flower, the shape far more beautiful than that 

 of any garden kind. The back of the graceful cup is striped 

 with a series of dark-brown lines, which must not be mistaken for 

 veins : they seem to be only for ornament. At Kew one year 

 I saw several of these type Crocuses C. Etruscus, C. Biflorus, 

 C. Chrysanthus, C. White Tuscany, C. Susianus, Both the 

 orange and bronzed Susianus flower very early, are importations 

 from the Crimea, and look very well grown in pots or pans. 

 In the paper called The Garden, of the 28th of January 1882, 

 there is an interesting account of the Crocus family. 



Somewhat neglected in gardens, but one of the loveliest of 

 Nature's spring decorations, are the catkin growing plants, begin- 

 ning with the handsome male plant of the Garry a elliptica, which 

 in favourable winters is most lovely. In dry, light soils it wants 

 a good deal of pruning and feeding to make it do well. I have 

 not succeeded in growing it as a shrub, though it does well so 

 grown in moist soils. 



Hazels, which are so useful as food, are too little grown 

 and cultivated now in small gardens. Every one knows the 

 pretty catkins which hang all through the winter, and wave like 

 fairy flags in the wintry blast, but few notice how the real 

 flower of the Hazel appears also in an expanded state in Autumn. 

 The hardy male catkin passes the Winter without external pro- 

 tection, but the female flowers are tenderly wrapped up within 

 an enveloping scale. In March the styles lengthen, and though 



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