shade and shelter, may also be used as woodland plants, and such April. 



sorts as Primula Altaica, a very early mauve-pink one which Blossoming 



begins to flower quite in the Winter. It is best to leave them un- Trees and 



disturbed except for the purposes of increase, when they must be Shrubs 



taken up and divided like the others. The double white is 



lovely, and the pale yellow and the mauve. There is a magenta 



one which is almost too startling in colour. 



Spring seems to reach its highest point of beauty by the 

 middle of April. The trees are all bursting into leaf, and on 

 the warm still days a feeling of life and growth pervades the 

 whole garden. It is the moment for the blossoming trees and 

 shrubs, and each year one feels that nothing can be more lovely. 

 This year the late cold weather has brought everything out 

 together, wild Cherry, Almond, Prunus, Pyrus japonica, 

 Forsytbia^ etc. 



The Pyrus japonica has been out some weeks and is still 

 in beauty. The sketch was made at Harrow and shows how 

 very much one plant can help another in making an effect. 

 The delicate colouring of the Japonica, its cream flowers 

 splashed with salmon and rose-pink, is well thrown up by the 

 deep plum-red shoots of the Rose growing beside it and trained 

 to the corner of the house. It is often not realised how beautiful 

 the shoots of a free-growing Rose are at this time of year if left 

 unpruned, as many of the Teas should be. The old red Japonica 

 is also very effective. We have a cascade of it over the roof 

 of a tool-house. On a grey morning it is delightful to look 

 up and catch the rose-red branches against the spreading boughs 

 of the Elms still bare, and silhouetted against the sky. 



To-day : April I yth the wild Cherry has looked white for 

 the first time. We have two old trees happily placed near a 



37 



