CHAPTER XV 



Number of species— Difficulty of cultivation — White Lilies — 

 Lilium auratum. 



If spring is to the gardener the season of pleasant 

 hopes and expectations, June is above all other months 

 the month of hopes and expectations more or less 

 realised. By the general observer the chief thing noticed 

 is the full leafage of the month. So Spenser saw it : — 



' After her came Jolly June, arrayed, 

 All in greene leaves, as he a player were.' 



And so in Coleridge's eyes it was ' the leafy month of 



June,' and so it seems to be with nearly all the poets. 



But to the gardener it is the month of flowers ; and if 



he were asked to distinguish the days of June from the 



days of other months, he would answer almost in the 



words of Aubrey de Vere, that they are the days in 



which 



' The glorious sun's light . . . showers 

 A thousand colours on a thousand flowers. ' 

 166 



