200 GARDENS PAST AND PRESENT 



readily, and it may be found in flower from Decem- 

 ber to May in different parts of the garden, accord- 

 ing to aspect. Here, too, it would be worth while 

 to plant the Kaffir flag (Schizostylis coccinea) in 

 some quantity, for its cheerful crimson spikes will 

 often last beyond the turn of the days in favourable 

 seasons. At any rate, Christmas roses would clus- 

 ter thick through frost-proof leaves, and the winter 

 heaths grow rosy as January wanes. 



By that time a group of the low-growing Mag- 

 nolia stellata would be getting ready with promise 

 of white starry flowers to come in April, and here 

 too the Algerian iris (/. stylosa), forgetting its 

 native sunshine, would deign to deck a warm cor- 

 ner of an English garden with its delicate pencil- 

 ling of pure soft lilac. 



And here, one day, w r hen we have hardly begun 

 to look forward to milder weather, we may come 

 quite suddenly upon colonies of winter aconites 

 lifting up their little frilled collars, and notice that 

 the bees are waking up, for a few are blundering 

 in and out, in a weak, dreamy way, amongst the 

 first white flowers of Harbinger primroses, until, 

 tired of finding so little spoil, they go off in despair 

 to the fragrant winter honeysuckle, which beckons 

 them afar to the snug haven in which it is anchored. 



After that spring comes in apace. For lo ! the 

 winter is past, the flowers appear on the earth ; 

 the time of the singing of birds is come. 



All down the pathways on sunny days there is 

 a sheen of purple and gold and silver-white of 

 wide-open crocuses. The double primroses which 

 crowd under the shade of the rosemary bushes, a 



