APRIL 



April HTHIS is "Cuckoo Day," as it is locally 

 T 4- J. called, and the first taste of spring 

 is in the air. Hitherto we have been much 

 plagued by cold winds, but to-day the sunshine is 

 unspoilt by a north-easterly blast, and the bees 

 have come out in myriads to sip honey from the 

 arabis albida mountain-snow, as the rustics call 

 it --on the sloping rockery. Notwithstanding 

 climatic discouragement there is already a brave 

 show of flowering bulbs. Two long beds of tea 

 roses, which have just been pruned, are a mass 

 of narcissus cynosure, bordered and under-planted 

 with blue squills from Siberia, and the contrast is 

 very beautiful. In March these squills Were asso- 

 ciated with white crocuses, but the crocuses are 

 over first, as their blossoming time is shorter, and 

 the squills have thrown up a succession of bloom 

 spikes, which extend their season into that of the 



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