When does Spring Commence ? 



chubby hot hand ; or a well-sucked Gooseberry skin and a 

 spray of Shepherd's Purse or Arabis. 



Many people admit that the sense of smell brings 

 things more vividly to the memory than that of sight. I 

 know that it is so with me, and a whiff of Ins unguicularis 

 or Crocus longiflorus, though several other Crocuses are 

 almost equally endowed (C. laevigatus and vitellinus among 

 the autumnal species and C. Imperati in early Spring cer- 

 tainly are), recalls a feeling of Spring in autumn far more 

 vividly than the sight of the flowers of a Snowdrop such 

 as Galanthus Olgae, which is in bloom at the same time. 

 We greatly want a chart of scents with descriptive names 

 for the distinct groups, and when it comes I should like to 

 patent the name of " Pure Spring " for the odour of these 

 flowers. It is fuller than the scent of Primroses, with 

 a promise of honey in it strong enough to wake any bee, 

 yet you feel it is not such brown-heather honey as Alyssum 

 maritimum and Buddkia globosa advertise, for there is a 

 correcting sharpness in it, like that of lemon with the 

 sugar of a Shrove Tuesday pancake, and such as we find 

 in the scent of Cylisus racemosus and stronger still in 

 Narcissus Tazetta. 



Again, in the soft lilac colouring and crystalline texture 

 and frail substance of their blooms these two Irids are 

 markedly springlike. Except in orchids from seasonless 

 glasshouses and Iris Kaempferi, summer and autumn 

 flowers, so far as I can remember, lack the crystalline 

 texture of Spring flowers such as Daffodils, Hyacinths, 

 Crocuses, and all early Irises. 



Begonias have it, but I do not like their fat, meaty 

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