MARCH 37 



Chionodoxa ; Arabis, sheets of pure white ; mandrakes ; 

 Alyssum-, ' poly an thus of unnumbered dies'; Aubrietia; 

 periwinkles ; starch hyacinths, blue, white, and yellow ; 

 Sanguinaria, very curious, with its blood-like juice ; 

 Milla or Triteleia ; saxifrages, especially the large- 

 leaved megaseas ; Primula auricula, the typical yellow 

 from the Alps, and P. marginata ; Pulmonaria ; wall- 

 flowers ; Dondia or Hacquelia, and others. All of these 

 are pretty, and some of them very interesting, but I 

 pass them all by to say something of the shrubs of 

 March. 



March is rich in flowering shrubs, some of them 

 ranking among the most beautiful of the year. The 

 old favourite, Pyrus, or Cijdonia japonica, is really a 

 grand plant in every way, and for more than eighty 

 years has been the chief spring ornament of English 

 gardens ; and, being quite hardy and easily grown, it 

 is often seen covering the walls of cottages. Though 

 its flowers are more abundant, and perhaps finer, and 

 come earlier when trained against a wall, it will grow 

 and flower anywhere; and there are many varieties, 

 differing chiefly in the colour of the flowers ; and it is 

 curious that here I seldom get fruit on the typical 

 red form, but I every year get abundance of fruit on 

 the white one. As a shrub, the most desirable is 

 Max Leichtlin's form of the Pyrus Maulei, which is a 



