THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE YEAR 201 



spot just to their liking, are all bristling with 

 buds, and March will see them unfold their dainty 

 little rosettes of lilac and white and sulphur. Great 

 cushions of aubrietia, broidered in purple and crim- 

 son, overflow upon the gravel pathways. The 

 earliest daffodils, the big old-fashioned double ones, 

 shine out like burnished metal against the greenery, 

 but they are soon outflanked by a phalanx of the 

 single trumpets and stars and coronets of their 

 less plebeian kindred. In March and April the 

 deep violet and orange of the netted iris (/. reticu- 

 lata) comes to rejoice our hearts; and if we are 

 iris-lovers, probably many another of the fair sister- 

 hood will find a choice place in the spring garden ; 

 but these are not for everyone, capricious beauties 

 that they are. If we must needs be content, how- 

 ever, to do without great rarities and let me 

 assure the enthusiastic tyro that the deprivation 

 is not unmitigated woe there are yet a hundred 

 flowers, easier to grow, which may be had almost 

 for the asking, that are no less enjoyable. Violets 

 surely will find a home ; some of the stray Czars 

 and Princesses of Wales, and even Marie Louise 

 and Neapolitans, which were not pounced upon 

 for the early frames ; and in some corner there 

 must be a small carpet of the meek little Russians, 

 which come so early, year after year, and fill the 

 air with sweetness. But there is rivalry as to 

 scents, for the orange and velvet-brown of wall- 

 flowers greet us at every turn, and their fragrance, 

 in Bacon's immortal phrase, " comes and goes, like 

 the warbling of music." Corners may be well 

 rounded off by a planting of the thick-leaved saxi- 



