SCOTTISH GARDENS 



flowers as hepaticas, chionodoxa, early squills and 

 dog-tooth violets. As for the double varieties, out 

 upon them! To quote Perdita once more- 

 Ill not put 

 The dibble in earth to set one slip of them. 



The sculptured design of this flower is so admir- 

 able that it is sheer sin to let it be disfigured by 

 doubling. 



Talking of daffodils, one cannot but breathe a 

 thanksgiving to Nature for that she has furnished 

 them with an infallible protection against the well- 

 nigh omnivorous rabbit. One would suppose that 

 the succulent green blades, pushing up through 

 winter-slain herbage, were just the diet to whet the 

 unholy appetite of these brutes. But they know 

 better than to set a tooth to them. As the pro- 

 tective agent in certain plants is very obscure, 

 perhaps I may be allowed to quote here what I 

 have said elsewhere on this matter. 



" In regard to daffodils, they appear to be protected, not 

 by any chemical poison, but by a purely mechanical agency 

 which has been brought to light by the researches of the 

 Rev. W. Wilks, editor of the Royal Horticultural Society's 

 Journal. In February, 1905, he heard from a nurseryman, 

 who grows daffodils for the flower trade, that men and boys 

 employed to gather the flowers suffered from poisoned hands. 

 He explained that after the men had been at work a little 

 while, their hands became sore, gatherings forming under 

 the finger-nails and wherever the skin was broken or chapped. 

 This statement having been confirmed by another daffodil- 



42 



