34 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



A month ago daffodils, hyacinths, windflowers, 

 were to the fore, and the brown soil was lavishly 

 starred with the golden blossoms of the pile wort, while 

 even before this the snowdrops decked the ground, 

 attended by the yellow disks of the colt's-foot, and 

 the rarer fragrant butterbur. A month hence the 

 flowers of to-day will many of them have passed away, 

 though by no means all, but such gaps as the efflux 

 of time may make in this will be speedily filled by 

 their successors, and so, well-nigh the whole year 

 round, our rock-garden yields beauty and interest. 



Elsewhere in our garden we can grow the roses, 

 the gladioli, and other floral treasures that one 

 would naturally expect to find under cultivation 

 in one's borders ; but while we welcome these, 

 we revel yet the more in the wild corner of our 

 garden, since, apart from the simple charm of these 

 wildlings, almost every plant there has, as we have 

 said, its history and associations. Some were sent 

 to us by brother enthusiasts, friends of long stand- 

 ing ; some, with words of much kindly greeting 

 from those who have only known us from the 

 printed page, whom we have never seen in the 

 flesh, and shall probably never meet in fraternal 

 hand-grip, but who are our friends nevertheless 

 in the freemasonry that links together fellow- 

 students in nature-lore. 1 Others, again, recall to 



1 One of those kindly friends, who had previously sent us 

 some white heather, presently wrote again, sending us a plant 



