SPRING GARDENING. 13 



sake of a very uncertain experiment) a Walnut 

 and a Medlar. 



My spring gardening is on no great scale. A 

 bed of mixed Hyacinths, another of single Van 

 Thol Tulips, and another of Golden Prince Tulips, 

 two beds of Wallflowers, one of red Daisies edged 

 with white, and one of Polyanthus, are all I have 

 at present planted. There will be more by and by. 

 Meanwhile the spring flowers I really care about 

 are those that come up every year on the mixed 

 borders, the outside borders of the flower garden. 

 They are old friends that never fail us ; they ask 

 only to be left alone, and are the most welcome 

 " harbingers of spring," bringing with them the 

 pleasant memories of former years, and the fresh 

 promise of the year that is to come. 



I never saw such Christmas Roses as I have just 

 now. Clustering beneath their dark serrated leaves 

 rise masses of bloom, bud and blossom, the bud 

 often tinged with a faint pink colour, the blossom 

 a snowy white guarding a centre of yellow stamens. 

 I have counted from thirty to forty blooms upon 

 a single root, and I sometimes think the Eucharis 

 itself is not a finer flower. The Christmas Rose, 

 the Helleborus niger, has been celebrated by Pliny, 

 by Spenser, and by Cowley ; but I confess my own 



