My Garden in Spring 



the head, but in the wonderful old map of the world 

 which is one of the treasures of Hereford Cathedral may 

 be seen a Mandrake whose body branches up above- 

 ground, the head resting on the surface like a Turnip and 

 the hairs of the head growing down as roots. 



The Lesser Celandine, Ranunculus Ficaria, often flowers 

 during the windy, leonine blustering of this month. The 

 common wild forms one constantly struggles with but 

 cannot entirely expel from the garden, but the major form 

 from Italy does not increase too quickly, and is a fine 

 thing when well grown, quite three times as large as the 

 undesirable native. I like the white form of our wild one, 

 though ; it has a charming, creamy tint and is as beauti- 

 fully varnished as any Buttercup. It begins to flower very 

 early in the year, but the later flowers are the larger. 

 The double form is worth growing, and in ordinary 

 seasons I notice it flowers when those of the hedgerow 

 and meadow are almost over. A variegated one I found 

 in a hedge has kept up its character for two seasons, 

 and its leaves are prettily blotched with creamy white. 



Blotched leaves suggest the Pulmonarias, and though 

 we need not believe, with those who upheld the Doctrine 

 of Signatures, that the white blotches proclaimed it a 

 sovereign remedy for ulcerated and spotted lungs, because 

 as Robert Turner states, " God hath imprinted upon the 

 Plants, Herbs, and Flowers, as it were in Hieroglyphicks, 

 the very signature of their vertues," yet we may admire the 

 "browne greene leaves sprinkled with divers white spots 

 like drops of milke," as Lyte has described them. I have 

 a great liking for them all, and have collected together all 

 I have met with that show any variation, and the working 

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