BY BANK AND COPSE. 13 



pointed yellow-tinged buds, already swollen beyond the 

 restraint of the shrivelling membranous sheath that 

 enclosed them. Their plumpness suggests, or perhaps one 

 or two just-opened flowers may reveal, that these are the 

 double garden variety. Its blossoms exhibit an endless 

 succession of closely-packed strips of alternating yellow 

 and orange, the one with cut edge, the other simply 

 pointed, representing respectively the leaves of the 

 perianth and the tubular coronet, indefinitely repeated 

 by that splitting process which French botanists well 

 term dedoublement. 



The garden in front of the house, though with ridged 

 rows of celery, many lanky Brussels sprouts, and much else 

 of a strictly utilitarian character, yet is bright with many a 

 homely flower, recalling Perdita's catalogue in the Winter's 

 Tale 



" Daffodils, 



That come before the swallow dares, and take 



The winds of March with beauty ; violets dim, 



But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes, 



Or Cytherea's breath ; pale primroses, 



That die unmarried, ere they can behold 



Bright Phoebus in his strength ; bold oxlips, and 



The crown imperial ; lilies of all kinds." 



The straight gravel walk has perhaps an edging of double 

 crimson daisies, and the border, narrowed by the demand 

 for vegetables, may yet be gay with scarlet or purple 

 anemones with their black centres, or with clumps of 

 crocuses, golden, purple, and white. Even an early Van 

 Thol tulip may blaze among its sober grey-green foliage, 

 and the rosy clusters may hang from amid the young green 

 fans of the Ribes leaves. Though this so-called " flowering 

 currant," introduced from North America within the present 



