SPRING GARDENS. 171 



and in Ireland. There is no more effective way of growing these 

 than in simple 4-foot beds in the kitchen or reserve garden. The 

 Wood Anemone is so often seen in the woods that there is rarely 

 need to grow it ; but some of its varieties are essential, most beautiful 

 being A. Robinsoniana, a flower of lovely blue colour, and a distinct 

 gain in the spring garden grown in almost any way. The Hepatica 

 is a lovely little Anemone where the soil is free, though slow in some 

 soils, and where it grows well all its varieties should be encouraged, 

 in borders and margins of beds of American bushes as well as in the 

 rock garden. The Snowdrop Windflower (A. sylvestris) is most 

 graceful in bud and bloom, but a little capricious, and not blooming 

 well on all soils, unlike in this way our Wood Windflowers, which are 

 as constant as the Kingcups. The Pasque-flower is lovely on the 

 chalk downs and fields of Normandy and parts of England in spring, 

 but never quite so pretty in a garden. It would be worth naturalising 

 in chalky fields and woods or banks. 



COLUMBINE, MARSH MARIGOLD, CLEMATIS, LENTEN ROSE, AND 

 GLOBE-FLOWER. Columbines are very beautiful in the early part of 

 the year, and if we had nothing but the common kind (Aquilegia 

 vulgaris) and its forms, they would be precious ; but there are many 

 others which thrive in free soils, some of which are very graceful in form 

 and charming in colour. The Kingcup or Marsh Marigold, so fine in 

 wet meadows and by the riverside, should be brought into gardens 

 wherever there is water, as it is a most effective plant when well 

 grown, and there are several forms, double and single. The Clematis, 

 the larger kinds, are mostly for the summer, but some (C. montana, 

 C. alpina, C. cirrhosa) are at their best in the spring ; they should be 

 made abundant use of on house walls and over banks, trees and 

 shrubs. The Winter Aconite (earliest of spring flowers) naturalises 

 itself in some soils, but on others dwindles and dies out, and it should 

 not be grown in the garden, but in shrubberies, copses, or woods 

 where the soil suits it. Some kinds of hardy Ranunculus, the 

 herbaceous double kinds, are good in colour, and in bold groups 

 pretty ; but taller and bolder and finer in effect are the Globe- 

 flowers, easily naturalised in moist, grassy places or by water, 

 and also free and telling among stout herbaceous plants. The 

 most distinct addition to the spring garden of recent years 

 is the Oriental Hellebore in its many beautiful varieties, of 

 which some have been raised in gardens. They are handsome and 

 stately plants, with large flowers, often delicately marked. With the 

 usual amount of garden shelter and fairly good soil they grow bold 

 and free, and have a stately habit and fine foliage, as well as beautiful 

 flowers excellent for cutting. They are most effective, sturdy, impres- 

 sive plants for opening the flower year with, often blooming abun- 



