THE JOY OF A GARDEN. 27 



admiration. Never more happily tLan now (hence 

 this long divergence), as I come forth from my doleful 

 captivity and see, in place of the fair visitors 

 whom I have named, the Wistaria Sinesis, with its 

 long, graceful racemes of pale purple flowers, the pink 

 and scarlet Thorns, the Laburnum, with its golden 

 fountains, the Syringas, lilac and white, Marie 

 Lemoine and Charles X., the lovely Weigelas, 

 Darwin's bright yellow Barberis, tonjours gal, the 

 white Horse Chestnut, admirably contrasting with 

 its neighbour a copper beech, blonde and brunette, 

 Minnie and Brenda, and its sister, inviting a like 

 comparison between its roseate blossoms and the 

 silvery leafage of Acer negundo variegatum. 



So with the flowers and plants, as with the trees 

 and shrubs. The aconites, snowdrops, crocuses, and 

 hyacinths have disappeared ; a solitary scarlet tulip 

 glows in the border like a soldier in a crowd at a 

 cricket match ; the narcissus how gloriously they 

 have represented their noble names, Emperor and 

 Empress (queen of them all), Maxinms, and Grandis, 

 Incomparabilis, Poeticus (Shakespeare, Herrick, and 

 Keats have been their Laureates) the daffodils droop 

 to die ; the primulas and polyanthus gladden our 

 eyes no more with their infinite variety. But what 

 an abundance of beauty succeeds ! That group of 

 iris (germanica) and doronicum reminds us of the 

 cohorts of the Assyrians, " all gleaming with purple 

 and gold." How prettily the pansies and anemones 

 are clustering round the great clumps of delphinium, 

 and pyrethrum, and lupin, and pjeony ! But we have 

 lingered too long in limine for this general survey from 



