My Garden in Spring 



than the other in the poorer soil of an old portion of the 

 rock garden, and it looks as though the right treatment 

 for it is the same that one would give to the choicer 

 double Primroses. 



They, poor dears, are not very happy here, except in 

 wet seasons, and a Spring visit to Ireland always fills me 

 with envy, and longings for a climate that can produce 

 such double whites, French greys, and lilacs, and also 

 clumps of Polyanthus of such size, and flowers of such 

 texture and colouring. Short of digging a ditch for them 

 I fear I must not expect to see them thrive here. 



In this neighbourhood Cowslips are wild in some of 

 the meadows, but Primroses are very scarce, only occur- 

 ring along a ditch or two, and possibly not truly wild 

 there. Among the wild Cowslips in one of our meadows 

 there occurs an interesting form in which the orange 

 spots, so characteristic of the plant, are wanting. I have 

 brought it into the garden, and it remains perfectly true, 

 and is seeding about freely, and I hope to soon observe 

 how large a percentage will resemble the parents. I 

 always look at Cowslips in other places to see if they too 

 show this variation, but have never seen it elsewhere. 

 Knuth in his Handbook of Flower Pollination mentions 

 that " Flowers devoid of this (orange-red) patch have 

 been observed by Kirchner in Wurtemberg and Appel 

 (as he tells me in a letter) at Wiirzburg." I have a 

 great affection for Cowslips, and so grow all the forms 

 I can get now, and long for the curious green and 

 double ones figured in the old herbals. A beautiful orange- 

 coloured form was given to me by Mrs. Robb, who told me 

 she remembered it from her early childhood, but had 

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