The Culmination of Spring 



one has stood here about fifteen years, and was when I 

 first planted it quite a small plant, and I used to water 

 it overhead its first summer from an ordinary waterpot; 

 now its stem is about seven feet high. It has a very good 

 position, sheltered from the north-east by the end of the 

 house and from the north-west by the conservatory, so that 

 our worst winds never touch it, though it has to stand the 

 rough and tumble of a sou'-wester now and then which 

 tears its leaves. Wind is the worst enemy of this hardy 

 palm. It smiles at snow, for as the leaves get weighted 

 with it, they slope gently down until an avalanche slides 

 off and up they go again to collect another load. I cut 

 off, the lowest ring of leaves twice in each season, as I like 

 to see the clean outline of the stem. The photograph 

 was taken before I had operated on it this Spring, and it 

 looks rather clumsy on account of the hanging lower 

 leaves. I have several other specimens of the same palm 

 in the garden, but this is the largest and oldest. We call 

 one border the Eremurus bed, because it contains groups 

 of those stately plants from its commencement under the 

 old Cedar down to the portion that is shaded by a vener- 

 able Portugal Laurel shaped like a large umbrella, under 

 which they would refuse to grow. E. Elwesianus, a group 

 of which is shown facing page 200, is the handsomest of the 

 family, and that means a great deal, and its white form 

 grows quite as tall as the pink one. They have not been 

 very happy this season, as the unusually mild January 

 tempted them through, and they were soon as forward as 

 they should have been in mid-March, only to learn that 

 the air was not ready for them, so that the spikes got 

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