62 VARIETY IN THE LITTLE GARDEN 



that on which the robin and the hyla are heard, is to me the 

 moment of the spring. 



At the edge of a bit of well-kept greensward, this year, and 

 seen against it, there are two or three hmidred bright pink 

 early tulips. Prosperity by name. These are new to me. They 

 are on the order of Cottage Maid, but a deeper rose and running 

 in and out of daffodils and tulips yet to be (that is, of later 

 varieties), their rose pink is as yet the only color against the 

 green. These new tulips are seen through a mist of that wonder- 

 ful blackish mauve of heavy lilac buds, and of tiny leaf buds of 

 the lilacs too. Beyond them is a mass of evergreen foliage 

 separated from that by a strip of smooth and sunlit grass. 

 There is a sort of exquisite precision about this picture. Nothing 

 in nature is, I believe, stiffer than a single early tulip. It can- 

 not move much; it stays as it is put. Winds do not affect it, 

 sun only pulls it up the straighter. Such flowers cannot be said 

 to wander among others; they stalk among them. 



Flanked on either side by syringas with pink and lavender 

 lilacs beyond these, the ground below them all gay with yellow 

 tulips Bouton d'Or and Inglescombe Yellow, the walk in the 

 upper garden presents a pretty sight. The shadow of the small 

 tea-house in which I sit falls along this walk to the east; at the 

 intersection of the walk four of Stark's Delicious apple trees 

 (dwarfs), cast also a dappled shade over the flowers; and aU 

 along on the other side are walls from six to ten feet high of 

 those most luscious blooms of Lemoine's hybrids in lilacs. The 

 dark yellow of tulip Bouton d'Or, the lighter color of Inglescombe 

 Yellow, the thick clusters of pansies nestling below the tulips, 

 the fragrance of the lilacs on the air — what a sensation of 

 delight comes through all this pageant of spring ! Through the 

 young apple trees too, I see on the right the great cascades of 

 bloom of a specially fine Rouen lilac, a rich pinkish purple. 



