CHAPTER XIII 



The earliest blossoms — Christmas Roses — Snowdrops — 

 Crocus — Scilla — Polyanthus — Anemone. 



To the true gardener — the man who loves his flowers 

 — spring is perhaps the most enjoyable season of the 

 year ; to him, in very truth — 



' Then comes in the sweet of the year, 

 For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale.' 



To him the reign of the red blood in the winter's pale 

 is the season of happy hopes, the season in which he 

 begins to look forward to triumphs which -svill now, he 

 thinks, most certainly be his, the season in which he 

 gladly allows hope to triumph over experience. And 

 by ' spring ' I mean not any fixed month, and certainly 

 not any fixed day, on which, according to the almanack, 

 'spring commences,' but I mean that time, month or 

 day, in which he sees the resurrection of his much- 

 loved plants, when every day shows some new growth, 



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