402 THE ROLL OF THE SEASONS 



them as a pretty foil for their broad, clean blossoms. 

 From farther south still comes Erica lusitanica, a 

 taller plant, now decked even more generously than 

 carnea with creamy, almost rosy white, flowers. Be- 

 neath them is blossoming an early purple crocus that 

 is labelled imperati. The shelter is evidently not 

 necessary, for the same gem blossoms, this year at 

 all events, on a higher and more exposed corner. 



Flowers are not always the brightest things in the 

 garden. Gardeners who deem it necessary to choose 

 between winter and summer blossoms must at least 

 have their winter berries. The brightest of them all 

 are those with which Skimmia japonica plentifully 

 decks itself. They are almost as clean and bright 

 as the fruit of the wild guelder-rose in hottest autumn, 

 and, thanks to their nauseous quality, now known to 

 the birds, their number is intact. And the tips of all 

 the branches above them are full of little flower-buds 

 eager to present us with a further crop. Better still 

 do we like the cottager's favourite, cotoneaster or 

 rockspray, of which there are over twenty varieties, 

 and the pyracanthus, but as Kipling would say, 

 berries are another story. A beauty more nearly 

 floral because it is vernal is that of the cornel, whose 

 twigs are now blushing with sap till at a distance 

 they look like bushes of bloom. They are coral. A 

 rich yellow of the same origin is supplied by Forsythia 

 suspensa, which is, moreover, almost prepared to deck 

 itself in those trails of yellow bloom that make the 

 whole shrubbery seem in flower. It is beaten in 

 time if not in intensity of tone by Hamamelis mollis, 

 which is, this week, easily the pride of the garden. 

 Every little bush of it has the bare branches crusted 



