50 A WHITE-PAPER GARDEN 



Not everyone knows that the odour of blos- 

 soming willows is one of the sweetest and most 

 refreshing of odours. Willows are Nature's 

 thermometers, which one soon learns to trust. 

 Perhaps they will not open their buds just 

 when we think they ought, but they know 

 infallibly when winter is past and gone, and 

 the time of singing birds appear ; and it is a 

 wise gardener who looks at his sallows, not at 

 his almanac, or even at his last year's note- 

 book. 



In a proper March garden there is also a 

 sassafras, a spice-bush, and a "pussy" willow : 

 three true-hearted Americans, accustomed to 

 our late springs, and careless of our inhospit- 

 able winds. There is small sense shown in 

 sending all over the face of the earth for 

 doubtfully adaptable shrubs when our own 

 waste places give us such treasures as these 

 and many another perfectly in harmony with 

 our environment. More and more every year 

 we are losing our idle desire for novelty and 

 our slavish wish to imitate the gardens of other 

 countries, and are coming to understand that 

 our greatest opportunity for having successful 

 plantings lies in our hearty acceptation of the 



