110 OLD ENGLISH FLOWER NAMES 



XLV 



Not many years ago, May was the most flowerless 

 of all the months of spring or summer in English 

 old En lish countr y-h use gardens, until a happy caprice 



Flower once more brought into favour the plants 

 with which our forefathers were content to 

 deck their parterres. The borders which, under the 

 ' bedding-out ' system, lay bare all winter and spring, 

 waiting till the temperature permitted the tender 

 plants to be put in the ground, are now allowed to bear 

 the full procession of the sweetest flowers of the season, 

 and great is the gain in variety and interest. There 

 is good cause for throwing up of hats, or any other 

 decorous act of jubilation, on account of the disfavour 

 which has fallen upon scarlet geraniums, yellow 

 calceolarias, and blue lobelias. People tired of these, 

 not because they lacked brilliancy or beauty, but 

 because everybody had them, and because they only 

 flowered for a few weeks in late summer and autumn, 

 and left naked, brown beds for all our solace during 

 the rest of the year. ' La vertu est une triste chose, 

 car elle ne laisse point de souvenirs,' and so it was with 

 bedding out, It may be that generations yet unborn 

 may revert to it, and prize it for its associations with 

 the Victorian age, hallowed by memories of the intro- 

 duction of battues, crinolines, croquet, diners a la 

 Russe, and other cherished institutions. Meanwhile, 

 we part from it without a sigh ; our only wish is that 

 it would disappear a little faster. 



It was only a few weeks ago that I stood, for the 



