IIl 
HE first of March has come, and the 
+ garden is awake. For two weeks the 
stirrings of life have been distinctly per- 
ceptible. The roses have alternately budded 
and been nipped by the frost, very much to 
their disadvantage. The tulips and daffodils 
are well through their dressing of manure. 
Sweet-williams, which remain green all win- 
ter, have thrown off their limpness and become 
animated, and have the air of dressing them- 
selves for parade. A breath has passed over 
the face of the garden, and nothing can send 
it back to the deadness of a few weeks past. 
The iris and the orange and lemon lilies 
are sending up tiny green shoots. Even 
my new Longiflorum lilies (Longiflorum gi- 
ganteum) pushed their way through a very 
heavy covering of leaves, and showed them- 
selves so pallid and wan that I was forced to 
uncover them, early as it was, and give them 
43 
