My Garden in Spring 



spotted petticoat to hide the golden anthers they show 

 out more, and set off the purity of the six equal seg- 

 ments. It is a lowly gem, but it is worth bending 

 one's back and knees to enjoy it from its own level, 

 rather than playing King Cophetua. In fact, no Snow- 

 drop looks so well plucked as growing, unless one cuts 

 it off at ground level, so preserving it between its twin 

 leaves and bound by the sheathing leaf, and Heaven 

 forbid I should so treat and sacrifice poculiformis. Mr. 

 Allen raised an interesting seedling from it, which he 

 called Virgin. The inner segments are about two-thirds 

 the length of the outer, and curiously shaped, their 

 sides being rolled and forming two semi-cylindrical tubes 

 with the tips bent inwards, and the usual green horse- 

 shoe mark is reduced to two round green specks ; it is 

 curious and interesting, but not so beautiful as its mother. 

 One Snowdrop time, when Mr. Farrer was here, he 

 astounded me by scorning the charms of poculiformis, 

 even of a perfectly-formed blossom, because he said 

 he possessed a much larger, taller, and finer form, 

 also earlier in flowering, and therefore over for that 

 season, so I bottled up my curiosity for eleven months 

 until, in the following year, he bade me make pil- 

 grimage to Ingleborough and see the marvel. It was 

 a long, cold journey, and how I hated it ! but at last, 

 on my knees before the object, I felt well rewarded, 

 for it was a fine form of G. Elwesii that had poculiformed 

 itself with great success. Moreover, it had increased to 

 an extent that permitted of division, and my kind host 

 and I dug it up, replanting the bulbs with great care, 

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