16 THE WILD GARDEN. 



alive to the real charms of a garden too, scarcely notice Spriii . 

 Bulbs at all, regarding them as things which require endless 

 trouble, as interfering with the " bedding-out ;" and in fact, as 

 not worth tlie pains they occasion. This is likely to be the 

 case so long as the most effective and satisfactory of all 

 modes of arranging them is unused ; that way is the placing 

 of them in wild and semi-wild parts of country seats, and in 

 the rougher parts of a garden, no matter where it may be 

 situated or how it may be arranged. This way will yield 

 more real interest and beauty than any other. 



Look, for instance, at the wide and bare belts of grass 

 that wind in and around the shrubberies in nearly every 

 country place ; frequently, they never display a particle of 

 ]ilant-l)eauty, and are merely places to be roughly mown now 

 and then. But if planted here and there with the Snowdrop, 

 the blue Anemone, the Crocus, Scillas, and Winter Aconite, 

 they would in spring surpass in attractiveness the gayest of 

 spring gardens. Cushioned among the grass, these would 

 have a more congenial medium in which to unfold than is 

 offered by the beaten sticky earth of a border; in the grass of 

 spring, their natural bed, they would look far better than ever 

 they do when arranged on the bare earth of a garden. Once 

 carefully planted, they — while an annual source of the 

 greatest interest — occasion no trouble whatever. 



Their leaves die down so early in spring that they would 

 scarcely interfere with tlie mowing of the grass, if that were 

 desired, but I should not attempt to mow the grass in such 

 places till the season of vernal beauty had quite passed liy. 

 Surely it is enough to have a portion of lawn as smooth as a 

 carpet at all times, without sending the mower to shave the 



