4 A GARDEN OF PLEASURE 



must be now foregone ; for they perforce 

 have waned with the frosty nights, and 

 scarcely a regret goes with them, so happy 

 is the feeling of the warmer air, and the 

 smell of the grass set free at last from the 

 ice-king's iron grip. Instantly, upon his 

 departure, little sharp blades of crocus, 

 with the broader pale green shafts of 

 daffodil have arisen inches above ground, 

 and ( daisies, pearled Arcturi of the earth,' 

 will soon be born among the grass. Even 

 in the gentian border there appears one 

 poor bell of pinched and sickly blue, 

 gleaming faintly among its frost-tainted 

 leaves. 



The first anxious visit after such severity 

 of frost, is of course paid to the little 

 clump of Olearia, near the western end of 

 the rockery. A dozen or so of plants 

 were grown from tiny cuttings, sent from 

 the Isle of Wight, two years and a half ago. 

 After most tender nursing they grew into 

 fine young plants, as large as an ordinary 

 lavender bush of the same age, and were 

 duly planted out. Last summer they were 

 literally white all over with little daisy 



