SPRING GARDENS. i?7 



more than one name, and a red form of the Japanese flowering 

 Crab before mentioned. All these trees are as hardy as our native 

 Crab, and differ much in colour and sometimes also in form. It is 

 difficult to describe how much beauty they give where well grown and 

 well placed ; they are not the kind of things we lose owing to change 

 of fashion, and in planting them it is well to put them in groups where 

 they will tell. Apart from these more or less wild species there are 

 numbers of hybrid Crabs raised between the Siberian and some com- 

 mon Apples in America and in our country that are beautiful also 

 in flower, and remarkable too for beauty of fruit, so that a beautiful 

 grove of flowering trees might be formed of Crabs alone. With these 

 many fine things, and the various Honeysuckles, we are carried bravely 

 down to the time of Rose and Lily summer flowers, though Roses 

 often come on warm walls in spring. 



SPRING FLOWERS IN SUN AND SHADE AND NORTH AND SOUTH 

 ASPECTS. It is worth while thinking of the difference in the bloom- 

 ing of spring flowers in various aspects, as differences in that way 

 will often give us a longer season of bloom of some of our most 

 precious things. Daffodils do better in half shade than in full 

 sunshine, and Scillas and other bulbs are like the Daffodils in liking 

 half shady spots ; so also Crown Imperials, which, like the Scillas, 

 bleach badly if fully exposed to the sun. We may see the Wood 

 Hyacinth pass out of bloom on the southern slopes of a hill, and in 

 fresh and fair bloom on its northern slopes. Flowering shrubs, 

 creepers on walls, and all early plants are influenced in the same way. 

 Such facts may be taken advantage of in many ways, especially with 

 the nobler flowers that we make much use of. If different aspects are 

 worth securing for hardy flowers generally, they are doubly so for 

 those of the spring, when we often have storms of snow and sleet 

 that may destroy an early bloom. If fortunate enough to have the 

 same plant on the north side of the hill or wall, we have still a 

 chance of a second bloom, and a difference of two or three weeks in 

 the blooming of a plant. 



Let all who love the early flowers look at this list, not of the 

 kinds of spring flowers (which are innumerable), but of the families ; 

 some of these, such as Narcissus and Rockfoil, comprise many 

 species of lovely flowers, and the story of these, too, is the story of 

 the spring : 



