APRIL 



u Whan that Aprille with his shoures sote 

 The drogte of Marche hath perced to the rote, 

 And bathed every veyne in swich licour, 

 Of which vertu engendred is the flour ; 

 Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth 

 Inspired hath in every holt and heeth 

 The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne 

 Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne, 

 And smale fowles waken melodye, 

 That slepen all the night with open ye 

 (So priketh hem nature in hir corages) : 

 Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages 

 (And palmers for to seken straunge strondes) 

 To ferae halwes, couthe in sondry londes ; 

 And specially, from every shires ende 

 Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende." 



Chaucer. 



FOREMOST in beauty among April flowers are the Narcissi 

 Daffodils, or rather the Narcissi Daffodils being only a and 

 group of the genus. So rich in colour and so lush in Daffodil 

 growth, they seem, coming at its height, to be the very essence 

 of Spring. If careful in our choice of varieties their bloom can 

 be enjoyed from March to the middle of May. 



As yet we have few of the rarer sorts, and from our own 

 experiences can only offer suggestions for some simple arrange- 

 ments of the old kinds ; but these will fill the garden with a 

 beauty which no summer flowers can excel. They lend them- 

 selves above all others to naturalisation : by which I mean they 

 can be planted and left alone year after year, and be made to look 

 as though they were really wild in field or wood. Our own 



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