io 4 APRIL 



or rainbow flowers. Maybe it is the cause of that curious 

 phenomenon of bud variation whereby one single shoot 

 of a plant may discover a permanent quality, unknown 

 before to the rest of the tree. So was the red Cox born. 

 But these are mysteries. All we can hope from last 

 summer s sun is that the kindly fruits and lovely flowers, 

 one after another, will acknowledge the influence already 

 expressed by our sheafs of iris stylosa. 



2. 



The oldest and much the best garden in the parish is 

 a paradise for unusual birds. The long path that leads 

 to the pond cuts a lawn gloriously ribbed and paled in 

 by evergreen trees and bushes, except for one corner, 

 where you look under the beeches ; and may descend to 

 the strip of woodland, whose high trees show over the 

 garden shrubs. It is one of those gardens that subdues 

 everything to its own quietude. Even araucarias and 

 laurels become lovely things. To listen, to watch, indeed 

 to talk in such a place, is a liberal education, is to be 

 &quot; Itbremnt occupe, that delightful phrase for pleasant idle 

 ness. One day, as a group of us were so engaged, our 

 idle talk was interrupted by a loud and hollow rattle, 

 slightly ventriloquial, but by common agreement coming 

 from a high tree, and we knew its origin before someone 

 saw the bird. A greater spotted woodpecker was per 

 forming his spring piece. 



The tree had one dead bough, hard and white as a 

 bleached bone ; and this was the bird s instrument. Was 

 ever so strange a method of lyrical production ? There 

 is, of course, a theory held by some few of our best 

 naturalists, including the editor of The Field, that this 

 black and white woodpecker has the same method of song 



