^ The Scented Qarden {$£ 



soft cloud of most delicate yet all-pervading perfume. 

 A great deal has been written about night-scented flowers, 

 but lovely as they are, the early morning scents are, I 

 think, the lovelier. The scent of apple blossom is sweetest 

 and most pervading in the early morning. Indeed, it is so 

 strong that it overpowers all other scents, for the whole 

 air is filled with it. And how delightful it is to watch 

 the pollen-bearing bees loaded with the pale yellow pollen 

 of the blossoms. This year the apple blossom, according 

 to the country-folk, is more wonderful than within living 

 memory. Indeed, it is difficult to find on the young trees 

 one wood-making shoot, and the flowers are so closely set 

 that seven to ten flowers in a cluster are quite common. 

 The apple orchards, especially of the West Country, have 

 been surely one of the most glorious floral spectacles in 

 Europe. Their beauty is unsung, and mercifully un- 

 advertised, but to those who love them there are few 

 sights of more endearing beauty than an English orchard 

 in full bloom. How much has been written of the plum 

 and cherry blossom of Japan, but what can compare with 

 the opalescent loveliness and the ethereal scent of apple 

 blossom ? When the trees are almost hidden by the wealth 

 of white foam and given by the rosy-fingered dawn her 

 first caress, a magic casement into fairyland is opened. 

 An apple orchard in bloom is indeed one of the loveliest 

 sights on earth. The beauty of cherry and plum blossoms 

 appeals to the imagination, but the child-like loveliness of 

 apple blossom appeals to the heart. Moreover, in spite 

 of the ethereal beauty and fragrance of the flowers, there 

 is a quality of homeliness about apple trees which endears 

 them to us all. 



The apple tree may indeed be described as the tree 



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