GARDEN FL O WERS. 165 



crocus-like flowers in March and April. Like all early- 

 flowering kinds, this bulb should be set out in the autumn. 

 Anemone Hepatica, or Hepatica 

 triloba (liver-leaf), is another early- 

 blooming plant, that bears beautiful 

 deep-blue flowers. It does particu- 

 larly well in shaded rock- work and 

 half -shaded spots in the border. It 

 is hardy and enduring, and well 

 deserves employment. 



The genus narcissus has been SPRING MEADOW SAFFRON. 



,, 1 , (BULBOCODIUM VERNUM.) 



for a long time well known and 



useful for spring blooming. The bulbs should be set 

 out in fall, from September to December. Usually they 

 will bloom satisfactorily for many years, in which case it 

 will not, of course, be necessary for a long time to lift, 

 divide, and re-set them. The cheaper sorts may be used 

 effectively for naturalizing among shrubs, or planting in the 

 grass, where they succeed better uncultivated than most 

 other bulbs, on account of their hardy, enduring nature. 

 There is something specially attractive in the use of bulbs 

 in this fashion, and particularly the early daffodils, " golden 

 daffodils," as Wordsworth says, "tossing their heads in 

 sprightly dance," but after all, flowers really satisfy us better, 

 and do better in the garden, where we can coax and tend 

 them a little. Even the hardy daffodil in the sunny garden 

 border, carefully tended, grows better, and certainly looks 

 well associated with congenial friends. It is, moreover, not 

 only the old and common kinds which we may establish, but a 

 great variety of other kinds no less beautiful, and distinct 



