My Garden in Spring 



monocotyledons. It is marvellous what power lies in a 

 growing shoot of a Crocus. It makes light work of a 

 hard, well-rolled gravel path. A single Crocus leaf is a 

 flaccid, weak instrument, but the whole series of leaves, 

 varying from four to fifteen according to the species, when 

 tightly bound by the tough, sheathing leaves, and the 

 sharp and toughened points of the true leaves thus all 

 brought together, form almost as sharp and strong a 

 weapon as the underground shoot of one of the running 

 bamboos. Still more wonderful are those, mostly 

 autumnal bloomers, that flower without leaves, for in their 

 case it is only the tips of the sheathing leaves that pierce 

 the soil, and once through into daylight open a little way 

 to allow the fragile flower-bud to pass upwards. But this 

 seems to me as child's play compared with the task under- 

 taken by the Winter Aconite, the Wood Anemones, Bon- 

 gardia Rauwolfii, and the Epimediums, which bring their 

 flower-buds almost to maturity below ground, and then 

 lift them through backwards by means of an increased 

 rate of growth in the lower portion of the floral stem and 

 the consequent raising of the centre of the arch into 

 which they are bent. It is the same method by which so 

 many dicotyledons lift the cotyledons out of the seed husk, 

 and is a case of " Don't push, just shove," as boys say, the 

 top of the arched stem being forced straight ahead until 

 it is not only through the surface of the ground but has gone 

 up high enough to lift the flower-buds clear of the soil, 

 when they will straighten up, and further growth may be 

 uniform throughout the length of the flower-stalk. 



Certain of the autumnal-flowering Snowdrops blossom 

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