258 The American Flower Garden 



or any bulb however choice. "La Tulipe Noire" is not much 

 called for in our public libraries. But we grow tulips by 

 the million, even if we don't mortgage our property to secure 

 the rarest. 



Not having to forage for food early in the spring before they 

 can bloom their larders having been filled after blossoming the 

 previous year many bulbs are prepared to rush into flower at 

 the break-up of winter. Like friends in need, they come when 

 most wanted. A flower may be insignificant in itself, but if it 

 appear when trees are bare and winds are raw, when the earth is 

 slushy and the muddy roads are fluid and bottomless, how much 

 we prize it! The fragile little white snowdrop "with heart-shaped 

 seal of green," nodding from its slender stem in the meadow, is 

 not impressive, it is true; but because it is the very earliest flower 

 cultivated only the hepatica in Nature's garden being con- 

 temporary it is dear to the hearts of the people. There is a 

 so-called giant snowdrop (with petals nearly an inch long) which 

 is more effective than its little sister of the snows, but it blooms 

 no earlier than the crocus, and never will be so beloved as the 

 first flower. Planted in colonies and left to care for themselves, 

 snowdrops succeed best in partially shady places, being one of 

 the few bulbs that will bloom under trees. 



After the snowdrop comes the reign of blue and purple. In 

 the new grass, Siberian squills, small flowers of an intense blue, 

 like Meissen china, give one a thrill of pleasure the first day 

 that there is a feeling of spring in the air. Glory-of-the-snow 

 (Chinodoxa) makes spots of beauty on the earth where snow- 

 drifts lately lay, when the first bluebird shows a glint of the heavenly 

 colour, too, as he flies about the orchard looking for a nesting hole. 

 Other early bulbs may be foregone, but purple, lavender, white 



