My Garden in Spring 



but E. Characias has always grown on the older range, and 

 so is not represented again here. I like its curious dull 

 green heads of flowers with their conspicuous black spots, 

 and like to call it by a name I learnt from Mr. Burbidge. He 

 overheard a garden-boy at Trinity College, Dublin, showing 

 some people round and answering their questions, and 

 when asked the name of this Spurge he said, " Sure an' I 

 do not rightly know what it is designated, but we boys call 

 it the Frog Spawn bush." E. melifera crowns the next 

 mound, but is often severely punished in winter here, so 

 has never reached to eight feet in height as I have seen it 

 at Fota, where I gathered the seed that produced my 

 plant. 



Now we turn up a little path of steps to the left and 

 cross a flat stone that serves as a bridge over the overflow 

 channel from the pools. The photograph facing page 164 

 will show you better than my pen can describe the view 

 from the bridge in the last week of May when Columbines 

 and Thalictrums and pink Geranium sylvaticum run riot 

 on the left-hand bank. Only an edge is shown, though, 

 of the Trollius and Sedges that fringe the pools on the 

 opposite side of the path. The big Golden-fruited Ivy 

 stands out well at the end, and the outermost boughs of 

 the large Magnolia stellata can be seen at the extreme right, 

 but the flowers of the orange-coloured Welsh Poppies that 

 cover all the bank between them are almost invisible even 

 with a lens, though their seed heads are discernible just 

 under the Ivy, and Rosa altaica and R. hispida show up well 

 behind. If we go up the path shown we can turn to the 

 right at the head of the largest pool, and after passing the 

 270 



