246 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



the Lenten Roses, or forms of the Oriental Hellebores. In the southern 

 counties, five seasons out of six, no weather stops them from being 

 fine in flower before the winter is past ; they often bloom in January 

 and make a handsome show in February, and they are the finest of 

 all flowers to end the winter. The Winter Heliotrope (Tussilago 

 fragrans) is not to be despised, although it is a bad weed, and hard 

 to get rid of. The way to deal with it is to put it on some rubbish 

 heap, or gravel bank, right away from the garden, where a handful 

 of it may be gathered when wanted. 



The Algerian Iris flowers in warm sandy borders in the country 

 around London, and in mild winters is a great treasure, not merely 

 for its beauty in warm sheltered corners, but also its precious qualities 

 for the house, in which the flowers, if cut in the bud state, open grace- 

 fully if placed in basins in moss. In warm and sheltered gardens, 

 on warm soils, others of the winter blooming Iris of the East may 

 be grown, while in such gardens, in the south at least, the good 

 culture of the sweet Violet will often be rewarded with many flowers 

 in winter. 



A beautiful Italian Crocus (Imperati) often flowers in winter in 

 the southern counties at least, as, where people take the trouble to 

 get them, do C. Sieberi, Dalmaticus Etruscus, Suaveoleus and others. 

 This habit of some of the winter flowers of the south of Italy and 

 Mediterranean region to open in our green and open winters should 

 be taken advantage of. The fate of these Crocuses is interfered with 

 by the common field vole, and the common rat is also a great destroyer 

 of the Crocus. Where these enemies do not prevail, and the soil 

 favours these charming winter and early flowers, we can grow them, 

 not only in the garden, but on the turf of sunny meadows and lawns 

 in which these beautiful Crocuses will come up year after year in 

 winter and early dawn of spring. 



SHRUBS AND TREES IN THE WINTER GARDEN. The Winter- 

 sweet (Chimonanthus fragrans) is in bloom often before Christmas in 

 the country around London, and every shoot full of fragrant buds 

 opening on the trees against south and west walls. It is invaluble 

 both for the open garden and the house. The many bright berries 

 which adorn our country, both in the wild land and in well-stored 

 gardens, are rather things of the autumn ; and by mid-winter the birds 

 are apt to clear them off Wild Roses, Briers, Barberry, and Thorns, 

 American as well as British. The Pyracantha, however, stays with us 

 late ; and Hollies, Aucuba, Cotoneaster, Snowberry, and the pretty little 

 hardy Pernettya, from the Straits of Magellan, which has broken into 

 such variety of colour in our country, are among those that stay late. 

 But, however the cheery berries may fail us in hard winters, the colour 

 of the trees and bushes that bear them never does ; and the red and 



