10 DUTCH BULBS AND GARDENS 



better, for one who has leisure, to go first in early 

 summer, when the great mass of flowers is over, 

 and only the later and fewer bulbs are in bloom ; 

 when there is opportunity to know them as 

 individuals, and appreciate the exquisite contrast 

 of iris colours and green hedges, and to see to 

 full advantage ranunculus, and the early blooming 

 gladioli, and the hundred varieties of the lily tribe. 

 To see them, as the unaccustomed eye cannot see 

 them when it first meets flowers in sheets, field 

 after field of colour. In June, then, come to 

 Haarlem ; there take a tram, and do not forget 

 that the chances are some one in the vehicle will 

 understand English very well indeed. And when 

 the tram has come as near as may be to the 

 destination, walk the rest of the way to the house 

 of the grower. To see the bulb flowers without 

 the grower is not to see them. On arrival at the 

 house there is usually a meal first. It is always 

 mid-day "coffee -drinking" in my memories, and 

 there is never much talk of the flowers at it ; 

 questions, rather, about people in England and 

 Holland, and perhaps about fashions and food, 

 and the length of the winter, and the health of 

 Mevrouw. After that there is a rest, during 

 which Mevrouw offers cordials and home-made 



