My Garden in Spring 



leaved garden Auricula whose large heads of flowers are of 

 every shade of rose and crimson, so that looking up the 

 hill you get the full stare of their friendly eyes and every 

 one you look at seems to possess some varietal charm of 

 its own a clearer white eye, a warmer rose tint, or fuller 

 and rounder flower. Can you wonder that I was on my 

 knees every other minute plunging my trowel into the 

 tufts to extract half a dozen of the rosettes ? Just two or 

 three of the best indeed ! that tin was a heavy load to 

 carry down, and there was much work sorting and packing 

 my chosen few. Just the same when I found myself face 

 to face with it in another district, and where, meeting with 

 P. minima, there were interesting hybrids, exciting to look 

 for and so entrancingly beautiful when found that I dis- 

 covered I could not bear to live without P. Facchinii and 

 P. Dumoulinii. P. oenensis had to follow, and longiflora with 

 its charming, mealy stem filled my gardening soul with 

 greed and every spare corner of my tin with its neat 

 rosettes, and eventually the boot-bag I carry in a pocket 

 in case of overcrowding had to come out and hang round 

 my neck to hold that mealy-leaved golden glory P. Auri- 

 cula Bauhinii. 



A few days later Mr. Farrer took me to another ridge 

 just to look at other interesting Primulas, but I think he 

 had long ceased to believe in my intention of just gazing 

 and then picking out a trinity of mementoes of the vision, 

 so he was not surprised that, when I had at last got over 

 staring at the unbelievable, fantastic beauty of the great 

 Dolomite peak that hung over our heads, I fell to eagerly 

 on the crevices which harboured P. tyrolensis and hunted 

 the open turf for its very local minima-bred hybrid P.Juri- 

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