i6 A YEAR IN A LANCASHIRE GARDEN. 



of throwing away his old bulbs Hyacinths and 

 Tulips which had served their turn and lived 

 their season. There was, of course, no good in 

 keeping them for garden purposes ; but this throw- 

 ing them away seemed sadly wasteful. We now, 

 therefore, plant them in the orchard grass, and 

 each year they come up half wild like the Snow- 

 drops, and each year they will be more numerous 

 and more effective. But the best way of' growing 

 Snowdrops is, I believe, on a lawn itself. I have 

 planted several hundreds of them in groups and 

 patches, in a corner, where I can see them from 

 the library window. The green spears are now 

 piercing the grass, and in a few days there will be 

 a broken sheet of snowy white, which will last for 

 at least a fortnight, and which, from a distance, 

 will seem like the lingering relic of some snowdrift 

 still unmelted by the sun. 1 By the way, was it 

 not Mrs. Barbauld who spoke of the Snowdrop as 

 " an icicle changed into a flower ? " The conceit 

 is not a particularly happy one, for the soft white 

 petals have nothing in common with the hard 

 sparkle of the icicle. 



1 As matter of fact, the Snowdrops were less abundant this year 

 than they usually are. Has it ever been noticed that the colour of 

 the winter flowers, as that of the Arctic animals, is almost always 

 white ? 



