My Garden in Spring 



letter came here asking for my black Pansy, and most of 

 those to whom I sent it labelled it Bowies' Black, and 

 soon after sent it on to other gardens under that hideous 

 name. Not so bad, though, as one I saw at the last 

 Chelsea Show, for there it was labelled Viola Black 

 Bowles ! I am not so black as I was painted on that 

 label, so I altered it. It is a very charming little weed, 

 sowing itself freely, and when in full bloom it has a 

 wonderfully friendly and cheerful look in the yellow 

 Cyclopian eye in the middle of its almost black face. 

 Where we rejoin the main path just opposite the Er odium 

 chrysanthum and amanum corner we stopped at on our 

 downward way, the path is overspread by Acaena Bucha- 

 nanii, a light, glaucous-green species that behaved so badly 

 and greedily in the border that I turned it out, as I have 

 also done with inermis and argentea, to spread as much as 

 they like on the path, where they are quite a success, and 

 do not mind being walked on. The only trouble is that 

 all stray seeds anchor in them and germinate and pro- 

 vide perpetual labour for the garden-boy. A forest that 

 looks as if it were primaeval spreads over the left-hand 

 corner, and it is entirely composed of Prunus Amygdalus 

 nanus, and when one rosy glow of blossom and bud is 

 really lovely. 



Mr. Farrer always lingers lovingly over this corner, and 

 declares it to be his idea of good gardening, and I suppose 

 it really is good, and I may say so, for it is not mine but 

 Nature's work, the Almond having walked all over the 

 ground in its own wild way, and the Crocuses and Muscaris, 

 Camassias and Narcissi, Snowdrops and Campanulas that 

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