34 A YEAR IN A LANCASHIRE GARDEN. 



V. 



7Tie Herbaceous Beds Pulmonaria Wallflowers Polyanthus 

 Starch Hyacinths Sweet Brier Primula Japoniea Early An- 

 nuals and Bulbs The Old Yellow China Rose. 



April 4. Is any moment of the year more 

 delightful than the present ? What there is want- 

 ing in glow of colour is more than made up for in 

 fulness of interest. Each day some well-known, 

 long-remembered plant bursts into blossom on 

 the herbaceous borders, and brings with it pleasant 

 associations of days that are no more, or of books 

 that cannot die. It is, I think, Alphonse Karr 

 who says we should watch closely and rejoice 

 greatly over the slow procession of the flowers, as 

 one by one they appear, bloom, and fade ; if we 

 are past middle life, it is a sight which, at best, we 

 can only see some twenty or thirty times again. 



The common double Daffodils are already past, 

 but we have still the variety which, from its blended 

 hues of dark orange and pale citron, the children 

 call as they call the wild Linaria " the butter- 



