60 A GARDEN OF PLEASURE 



rose, I shall feel just the same, and shall 

 say again, * This is the most beautiful time 

 of all ! ' So was it when crocuses, yellow, 

 white, and purple, burst into splendour 

 in those wintry days of March ; so was it 

 when long lines of Scylla, made the whole 

 garden bluely beautiful. But the intense 

 purity of these daffodils takes the fancy 

 and holds it with a spell more powerful 

 than the magic of all other colours. Dur- 

 ing sixteen years have the daffodils 

 silently multiplied as they grew in the 

 garden. In all these years the different 

 strains have never mixed. The fine old 

 double-flowering Telamon, still crowds 

 broad reaches of the lawn, with inter- 

 mingling groups of single long-cupped 

 flowers; the double are still richly double, 

 the single yet remain austerely single 

 unchanged, and as I believe firmly un- 

 changeable. My favourite star-shaped 

 short-cupped daffodils, however, go on 

 doubling for ever. In sheltered corners 

 there are choice collections of the rarer 

 kinds. There is the coy Princess : 

 Obvalaria and Leedsii, and pallid down- 



