My Garden in Spring 



can only be procured by love and not for money. It was 

 found in Greece by Professor Mahaffy on Mount Hymettus 

 in 1884, and found a home with that kindest of good 

 gardeners the late Mr. Burbidge, at Trinity College, Dublin. 

 From him it found its way into a few gardens whose 

 owners could love an autumnal Snowdrop. From Mr. 

 Arnott's generous hand it came to me, and I am glad to 

 say, when some years later he unfortunately lost his plants, 

 I was able to restore him of his own. For some years it 

 seemed to be very happy with me in the rock garden, and 

 I was able to make two clumps of it, then the larvae of the 

 Common Swift Moth (Hepialus lupulmus), one of my worst 

 enemies, found it toothsome and hollowed out its bulbs. 

 One clump disappeared altogether, and I am still strug- 

 gling anxiously with the remnant of the other, but hoping 

 some day to recover the lost ground, and be able to send 

 it still further afield. When robust it sends up two or 

 three blossoms from a strong bulb, and they are larger than 

 those of any other early autumnal form, but for all that 

 leafless. I have a bed I call the sand-moraine because 

 parts of it are surfaced with granite chips, and it is pro- 

 vided with an underground pipe for watering, and because 

 it must have some name, and further it is fashionable now 

 to call any bed of carefully-mixed, gritty soil a moraine. 

 Anyway, in a corner of this bed which is filled with yellow 

 builders' sand mixed with a little good leaf mould, G. 

 Rachelae has so far looked happy again, and has escaped 

 gnawed vitals. I have lately been converted to this parti- 

 cular sand, which I believe is called yellow builders' sand 

 by those who stock such things, meaning of course that 

 46 



