THE JOY OF A GARDEN. 23 



apples, perfect in form, about the dimensions of a pill, 

 and making the most delectable dish for a Lord 

 Mayor's banquet in Liliput, or a doll's dessert at 

 home. Another pyrus, from the same country, japonica, 

 but of a very different order, is also engaged in trans- 

 forming its large, glowing flowers into fruit, into 

 pears, which I had never seen upon it until I left the 

 shires. The snow has disappeared from the mespilus 

 (practercnnt nives), and the medlars, which follow, few 

 and feeble, do not console us, as with its neighbour, 

 prunus pisardi, which, when its bloom is gone, still 

 fascinates, when the sun shines, with the deep red glow 

 of its leaves. Some others of the flowering trees and 

 shrubs, wild cherries, and crabs, the daphne mezereon, 

 have faded and gone ; but as when fair maids of honour 

 have fulfilled their court-service and left the castle, 

 other winsome ladies-in-waiting maintain their dignity 

 and grace, so now in our English gardens, from the 

 primrose to the Christmas-rose, from the first daffodil 

 to the last dahlia, we have a continuous succession of 

 beauty. There are some of us who can recall with 

 bitterness and shame a time when this was not so ; 

 when it could no longer be said 



" The daughters of the year, 

 One after one, through that still garden past, 

 Each garlanded with her peculiar flower, 

 Danced into light and died into the shade ; 

 And each in passing touched with some new grace." 



There was a Keign of Terror, though we, who 

 reigned, were triumphant rather than terrified in our 

 fools' paradise. We went about like very like 



