PLANTS SUITABLE AND UNSUITABLE 33 



perseverance and forethought besides, for the winter campaign 

 must be prepared for in two ways (i) by retarding such 

 summer flowers as can be kept back to bloom in the latest 

 autumn, and (2) by bringing spring plants into flower before 

 their due season. Midway between these two comes another 

 class, of which early Rhododendrons and Azaleas are a type, 

 which flower naturally almost at midwinter, but seldom escape 

 unhurt if they remain unsheltered. A limit, indeed, can 

 scarcely be put upon the hardy spring flowers Anemones, 

 alpine Primulas, Orobus, Saxifrages, Cyclamen vernum, and 

 Doronicums to name but a few out of a host which lend 

 themselves with gratitude, and enjoy such gentle forcing 

 as the shelter of glass can give them. They come from 

 many lands, and often from climates much more rigorous 

 than our own, but where they are neither puzzled by the 

 wiles nor entrapped by the cruel ogre of the weather, who 

 entices them with smiles one day to gobble them up on the 

 next. 



There is but one hardy plant which for this purpose, 

 perhaps for its very hardiness, I, for my own part, would not 

 choose the low-growing herbaceous Heath (Erica carnea). 

 Be the winter what it may it never loses heart of grace, but 

 bides its time. It may blush into perfect beauty a little 

 sooner or a little later, as the season lets it, but no storm 

 seems to harm, no stress to change it ; all hurtful creatures 

 pass it by, only the bees murmur over it their first happy 

 thanksgiving as they sip the nectar from its tiny flasks. Most 

 flowers we love to gather and bring indoors, but not this one. 

 True child of the mountains and the moor, it asks no shelter ; 

 let us leave it to its liberty, for, as it seems to me, it is 

 happier so. 



