OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



others of interest to us from their rarity, we have 

 welcomed no less the edelweiss and the wolf's-bane, 

 as reminiscent of glorious days amongst the Alps, 

 and North American bog and other plants brought 

 to us by kindly friends. 



One of the great charms of contact with living 

 things is that matters are continually changing. If 

 we visit a museum the stuffed monkey that we saw 

 there last year looks much the same to-day ; the 

 brick from Nineveh has undergone no change ; but 

 if we visit Kew Gardens we shall, no matter how 

 numerous our visits, always find something that we 

 had never seen before. This is no less true of half 

 a mile of country lane. Flowers appear and dis- 

 appear ; the ferns that a fortnight ago were tightly 

 curled up have to-day their full development : the 

 bud of a fortnight since has not only fully expanded 

 in the meanwhile into blossom, but this blossom 

 itself is even now passing onward to the next stage, 

 and showing promise of its fruiting. And so, in 

 like manner, in our gardens, unless they be but 

 mere rows of pelargoniums, calceolarias, and the 

 like, it would not be possible to take a floral 

 census that would hold good for more than a few 

 days. 



To-day, May the i7th, we have found plenty of 

 primroses still throwing up their pale sulphur stars 

 amidst the crannies of our rock-work, while in more 

 exposed positions the wallflowers are in full bloom, 



