46 JANUARY 



Jenny wrens in an old nest. Will someone please attract 

 this little creature and settle the important matter once 

 for all ? 



It is a rare experience in England to discover that, 

 after all, the year begins on the first of January, and the 

 lengthening daylight is exerting its influence. The 

 almanac is not so wrong as the world supposes. Beyond 

 question the most highly favoured bush in the cottage 

 garden is the daphne mezereon which usually flowers and 

 disperses its spring-like scents in January. It is the only 

 plant I ever lost by theft. I had left it in a garden I was 

 deserting, and that I might not lose it by transplanting at 

 the wrong date, set a great label beside it. Some cottage 

 dweller could not resist the temptation. Doubtless it now 

 flourishes (as certain plants such as this and the madonna 

 lily seem chiefly to flourish) in a cottage garden. The 

 Christmas roses (or hellebores) are by nature winter 

 flowerers, though they need a covering of glass for their 

 perfection. The yellow jessamine is rightly called the 

 winter jessamine. Very rarely does it happen that you 

 cannot find a primrose in blossom on the first day of the 

 year ; and the gardener who has no bush of laurustinus 

 misses a regular Christmas greeting that he ought to 

 enjoy. Those who live in the South- West are disap 

 pointed if it is not always spring. In the warm nooks 

 of Cornwall, Somerset, and Devon you may expect to 

 find a dozen sorts of plant in blossom, and may even 

 mark a migrant warbler that has refused to believe in an 

 English winter. The little spears of the bulbs will be 

 pricking the surface above the tall cliffs of Pembroke 

 shire. We expect some winter flowers in such places, 

 and, indeed, in our sheltered gardens, anywhere in this 

 blessed island ; but now and again comes a year when 

 the commonplace is enlarged into a miracle, when North 



