48 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



dark bare earth, the kind little flower, however it may gladden us, 

 seems itself to wear an aspect almost of sorrow. Yet wait another 

 day or two till the clouds have broken and its brave hope is accom- 

 plished, and the solitary one has become a troop, and all down the 

 garden amongst the shrubs the little white bunches are dancing 

 gaily in the breeze. Few flowers undergo such striking change of 

 aspect, so mournful in its early drooping, so gladsome when full 

 blown and dancing in the sunshine." 



The crocus comes next, the same crocus that 

 once "brake like fire" at the feet of the three 

 goddesses, whom poor QEnone saw on Ida. This 

 should always be planted, not in thin lines, but 

 in thick clusters, for only then can be seen the 

 wonderful rich depths of colour, which open out 

 to the sun. Tufts of crocus, too, should spring 

 up beneath the branches of deciduous or weeping 

 trees, where the grass is bare in early spring, and 

 when once planted the crocus seems to go on for 

 ever. A writer in the Gardeners Chronicle says 

 that it is known that a particular patch of white 

 crocus has been in the same spot for above 120 

 years. It is sometimes said that in course of time 

 the yellow crocus will turn into the coarser 

 and commoner purple crocus. This must be a 

 mere fallacy, but it sometimes appears as if it 



