MARCH 39 



is very pretty, and full of pleasant associations ; but 

 I do not grow it, because the flowers are short-lived, 

 and then the tree has little beauty to recommend it ; 

 but I do grow and like the little dwarf almond from 

 Russia, which, at the end of March, is a mass of 

 pretty pink flowers. Last year my plant was covered 

 with fruit ; they were about the size of peas, and did 

 not come to perfection, but they looked like little 

 buttons of grey velvet, and were very suggestive of 

 the ' pussies ' of the willow. And this reminds me 

 that among the flowering shrubs of March the willows, 

 both wild and cultivated, are very conspicuous; the 

 4 pussies,' or ' palms,' are beautiful objects, and I grow 

 several of the dwarf species. I consider one, the 

 Salix lanata, from the Scottish Highlands, one of the 

 most beautiful silvery shrubs that I know. I must 

 only name the peach, whose blossoms are now very 

 lovely, for I want to mention two shrubs that are not 

 so common. The Rlwdodendron dauricum, from West 

 Asia, is perhaps only a geographical variety of the 

 rhododendron of the Alps, but it is almost the earliest 

 to flower, and the flowers, though small, are very 

 bright, and the shrub will grow in soils in which other 

 rhododendrons would perish. The Azara microphylla, 

 from South America, is a shrub that is always ad- 

 mired, but seldom grown. It is a hardy evergreen, 



