158 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



from the sight of the return to life of all the beauties 

 of nature, with the promise that all things will again 

 go forward in their normal course. Then only, and 

 for a short time only, while the woods and hedgerows 

 are covered with the tender greens which tell that the 

 young leaves are bursting through their buds and are 

 covering the trees with a beauty which as yet can 

 scarcely be called full foliage, each tree stands out 

 distinctly marked by its own peculiar shade of green, 

 so that it is possible for a practised eye to distinguish 

 between elms, oaks, and beeches, or between larches 

 and Scotch firs. In June they will all be of an almost 

 uniform green, dark, and even monotonous, and so they 

 will remain till in autumn each tree will again assume 

 its own peculiar brilliant hue, so that each can be 

 readily distinguished from its fellow. 



But in the flower-garden there is at that time no 

 such variety. There are flowers to be found, and of 

 much beauty, but they are not in abundance, and it is 

 then that the gardener finds the great advantage of a 

 good collection of shrubs. I wish, therefore, to recom- 

 mend the growth of shrubs to a far larger extent than 

 is usually seen, and I Avill give a short list of such as 

 are useful in spring, and a few reasons Avhy I strongly 

 recommend them. But it is worth while to stop a 

 little, and see what shrubs are as we have them now. 



