NIXKTEEXTH CEXTCRV. 303 



acres of narcissi in bloom, which are picked and sent off to 

 London. The illustration shows a field of Poets Narcissus, 

 and there are also quantities of the polyanthus varieties 

 grown. The daffodil is a flower which has come prominently 

 into notice of late years. Each type has been enormously 

 developed, some of the new Trumpet varities being of special 

 beauty.* 



The spring garden now is no longer only a few tulips and 

 hyacinths bedded out, but these narcissi and many other 

 bulbs such as Scilla siberica, Chionodoxa Luciliae or Tulipa 

 silvestris, can be naturalized, and if planted in masses on grass, 

 in glades, or on the edges of lawns, they will give a brilliant 

 effect before the summer flowers have made their appearance, 

 and can be mown over with the rest of the grass if necessary 

 when their flowers are over. Bulb culture is a favourite pursuit 

 in the manufacturing districts of north-west England. It is 

 thought that the taste was carried thither by the Flemish weavers, 

 who in earlier times had brought the love of these plants with 

 them from the Low Countries, when they first settled in East 

 Anglia, Essex and Kent. There is also the kind of spring 

 garden which has been most successfully carried out at 

 Belvoir. Not only are the beds filled with such things as 

 " Forget-me-nots," Iris reticulata and Iris siberica, Silenes, 

 Violas, Wall-flowers or Heuchera sanguinea, Aubretias, Cerastium 

 tormentosum, but many Primulas, Anemones, Gentians, Cycla- 

 mens, and various alpines, are naturalized on a vast rock 

 garden. 



The idea of naturalizing plants in shrubberies, grassy banks 

 and wild places, is also a new departure of the late nineteenth 

 century. Mr. W. Robinson, by his works, the Wild Garden, 

 and the English Flower Garden, has done more than any 

 one to bring in the taste. By grouping flowers naturally in 

 this way, fine picturesque effects can be obtained. It is the 

 reverse of the " Landscape Gardening," which brought green 

 undulations of park-like appearance up to the house, and 

 banished the flow^er-garden ; it extends the flower-garden into 



* Ye Narcissus, a Daffodil Flower. B}- Barre, 1884. 



