DECEMBER 137 



long before our ancestors began to make English words 

 out of Greek. And I must also make good another 

 omission in my last chapter. When noticing the curious 

 fact of the growth of young and apparently tender 

 foliage at a time of year when we should suppose 

 the young foliage would be too weak to resist the 

 frost, I omitted to mention what is, I think, the most 

 remarkable as well as the most common example. The 

 beautiful Lilium candiduni is, perhaps, a native of Europe, 

 but this is very doubtful, and its real native country 

 is an open question, though Mr. Elwes, in his fine 

 monograph on the lilies, rather inclines to Georgia. 

 But it stands alone in this respect (and this may 

 have some bearing on its native country) — that 

 before the end of the autumn all its radical leaves 

 are fully formed ; and, as far as I know, no other lily 

 ventures to show a leaf before the spring; and this 

 is true, not only of the typical plant, but also of its 

 varieties. 



December is not the month for the full enjoyment of 

 the garden ; it is the month of pleasant memories, and 

 it may be also of pleasant anticipations. By this I 

 mean that a good gardener, as he looks round his trees 

 and shrubs, and even his herbaceous plants, can form 

 a fairly true estimate of his prospects for the coming 

 year. In some cases he can do so almost to a certainty : 



