130 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



plate for December the vase holds thirty-six different 

 flowers. Of these, a few are greenhouse flowers, and 

 some are clearly out of season, though in some seasons 

 they may be gathered in December ; but the list of the 

 hardy flowers is sufficiently interesting to be worth 

 copying. They are auricula, pansies, white corn 

 marigold, strawberry daisy (a very double sort), 

 laurustinus, red spring cyclamen (C. coum\ Christmas 

 flower (Relleborus niger), winter white primrose, genti- 

 anella, yellow corn marigold, valerian, winter double 

 crowfoot, St. Peter's shrub (a white-flowered shrub 

 which I cannot identify), mountain avens, single 

 anemone, sage and rosemary, winter flowering pear (I 

 suppose the Gloucester pear, which, like the Glaston- 

 bury thorn, often flowers in December), Spanish 

 Virgin's bower (evidently from the leaf Clematis cir- 

 rhosa, but the artist had not seen the flower, and 

 imagined it incorrectly), Glastonbury thorn, and buds 

 of monthly rose. This is really a goodly list, and no 

 doubt they might all be gathered in December, but not 

 all at the same time, and most of them I could gather 

 here, but not all. We had our first snow on December 

 4th, and the day before I got my first true Christmas 

 rose, by which I mean to exclude the fine Helleborus 

 altifolius, which can more often be gathered in 

 October than December. I never saw the white corn 



