March 21, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



119 



The warm sun has brought out the Crocuses in royal rai- 

 ment of purple and gold. Snowdrops in colonies almost 

 sparkle in their pure whiteness here and there amid the gray- 

 green grass, and yesterday one lonely butterfly was flitting 

 about searching for companions and for flowers. 



Jasminum nudiflorum has been blooming all winter, yet has 

 kept a store of sunny blossoms to welcome the first week of 

 spring. The earliest fragrant flowers to perfume the winds of 

 March in our garden are those of a Bush Honeysuckle, Loni- 

 cera Standishii, which has inconspicuous cream-colored in- 

 florescence coming before the leaves. A group of Japanese 

 Cherries, and another of Flowering Plums are now very inter- 

 esting, only waiting a few more hours of sunshine to expand 

 their blossoms. The first Periwinkle-flowers stud the lawn, 

 and double Daffodils are laughing in the warm light from their 

 shelter at the feet of a Snowball-bush. 



Some Willows show a golden mist, and the Weeping Wil- 

 lows are a faint yellowish green. The bees are released from 

 their winter quarters, and are getting their first taste of fresh 

 bee-bread from the bakeries provided by the Aspen, the 

 pussy Willows and the catkins of the Alders. 



Shepherdstown, w. Va. Danske Dandridge. 



Notes from a Northern Garden. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The subtle changes which reawaken vegetation in this 

 latitude are always interesting and mysterious. The winter 

 season here has been a mild one compared with that of last 

 year. On the 24th of February the thermometer dropped to 

 nine degrees below zero, the lowest point reached thus far 

 during this winter. The next day the wind veered to the south 

 and the weather became decidedly milder. On the 27th of 

 February the first Snowdrop hung out its tiny bell. This was 

 soon followed by others, so that in a few days there was quite 

 a patch of them. 



Thus far the weather is remarkably free from March blus- 

 ter, so that a good many shrubs, bulbs and perennials are be- 

 ginning to awaken. Jonquils, Hyacinths, Tulips and Daffodils 

 push bravely upward. Crocuses are already quite far ad- 

 vanced and will blossom in a few days. The leaf-buds of the 

 White Lilacs are almost ready to burst, and the rich yellow 

 flower-buds of Forsythia Viridissimaand those of S pi rasa Thun- 

 bergii are beginning to expand. Among the more prominent 

 perennials which have already made leaves are Dicentra spec- 

 tabilis, Oriental Poppy and Aquilegias. 



Last November I sent a few notes to Garden and Forest 

 (vol. vi., p. 498) describing plants blooming in our garden in 

 mid-November. Had hardy Chrysanthemums been growing 

 there the time might have been extended to Thanksgiving, for 

 a fine specimen of a yellow Chrysanthemum in a neighbor's 

 garden defied the storms of late November. From this year's 

 experience with Snowdrops, it is evident that these flowers, in 

 a favorable season, would be in bloom in the latter half of 

 February, and in sheltered situations, with a southern expos- 

 ure, probably as early as the middle of the month ; we can thus 

 have out-of-door flowers in all but two months of the year, 

 December and January. A little judicious management will 

 provide flowers for three hundred days of the year's cal- 

 endar. .. . _ , . 



Overisel, Mich. H. A. Fortuuie. 



Recent Publications. 



Richard Jeff eries : A Study. By H. S. Salt. Swan, Son- 

 nenschein & Co., London; Macmillan & Co., New York. 



1894. 



The publication of this little monograph in the Dilettante 

 library, and the issue at the same time of a " large-paper " 

 edition with illustrations of " Jefferies' Land," would seem 

 to indicate that the interest in Jefferies' unique personality 

 shows no signs of abating. Perhaps it is to be expected 

 that the mere thought of that return to nature which is the 

 key-note of his philosophy should appeal with peculiar 

 charm to a world weary of the burden of a civilization, the 

 advance of which knows neither rest nor pause ; for it is 

 with the world at large, as with Jefferies himself, the true 

 message of the country can be learned only through life in 

 the city. It was the banished Duke and his worldly cour- 

 tiers who felt the poetic aspect of life in the forest of Arden. 

 To the natives of the soil, who feeling the full penalty of 



Adam were forced to earn their bread by the sweat of 

 their brows, life in the forest probably seemed prosaic 

 enough. 



Though Mr. Salt's study of Jefferies is evidently a labor of 

 love, it will appeal chiefly to those admirers of Jefferies who 

 regard as prentice-work the picturesque descriptions of 

 country-life, or the poetic interpretation of the familiar 

 beauty of the fields and hedge-rows, which constitute the 

 chief charm for the ordinary reader. Mr. Salt finds the 

 highest manifestations of Jefferies' genius in the impas- 

 sioned utterances of The Story of My Heart, which seems 

 to him the mystic prelude to a fuller revelation of the 

 Divine than has ever yet been given to a mortal. It is a 

 pity that a genuine appreciation of the work of one who, 

 in his nobler moods, wrote as if under the direct inspiration 

 of Nature herself, should so soon degenerate into a cult, 

 for, when this calamity falls upon an author, the weaknesses 

 of character and flaws of workmanship which the kindly 

 critic would wish to ignore, are brought prominently for- 

 ward and dwelt upon as the qualities most worthy of study 

 and admiration. Such has been Jefferies' fate. 



In the first essay, "Jefferies as Man," Mr. Salt touches 

 lightly upon the incidents of his outward life, and dwells at 

 length upon his long struggle with " the three grim giants, 

 disease, despair and poverty," which was borne so heroically 

 until death came to his relief. In proportion as we feel the 

 pathos of this brave struggle with an untoward fate, we resent 

 the insinuation that Jefferies' genius was due to his myste- 

 rious disease ; that he was, in fact, a marked victim of hys- 

 teria, " which," in the language of his American physician, 

 " if it has its debasements, has also its exaltations," and 

 " as there was one apocalypse on the island of Patmos, 

 so there was another on the silent hill-top at Wiltshire, and 

 both are alike incomprehensible." But though the inner 

 meaning of the apocalypse at Patmos may be incomprehen- 

 sible, its glory lies in the vision of the tree of life, the fruit of 

 which is for the healing of the nations, while the one recur- 

 ring note of Jefferies' revelation is deep and passionate regret 

 that he cannot absorb into his own soul all the life and 

 beauty and joy which he feels throbbing everywhere 

 throughout the universe. It is but Faust in a new form, a 

 passionate protest against the limits of the finite. No sane 

 man wastes his strength in beating against the bars of the 

 prison-house. He finds both the power to rest and the 

 power to work through wise submission to the laws which 

 govern nature and human life. It is only the weak man 

 who glories in revolt. We agree with Mr. Salt in thinking 

 that the feverish unrest and morbid craving for sensation, 

 which are the key-note of the story, were due to the weak- 

 ness engendered by illness. The strength and sanity of 

 his genius are manifest in the series of essays which he 

 contributed from time to time to the English magazines. 

 In these word-paintings of country-life we find a richness 

 and depth of coloring, combined with a warmth and deli- 

 cacy of expression, possible only to one who holds his gift 

 in subjection to the rules of art. 



As a man he never acquired that calmness which was his 

 ideal of nature. Here it is interesting to contrast him with 

 Thoreau, with whom he had much in common. Thoreau's 

 constant delight in nature owed its strength and intensity 

 to self-discipline, Jefferies' to self-abandonment ; hence the 

 one found peace and happiness in the contemplation other 

 beauty, the other that turmoil and unrest which too surely 

 follow the intoxication of passion. 



In Mr. Salt's estimate of Jefferies' gifts as naturalist and 

 as poet-naturalist we heartily coincide. In his chosen 

 field Jefferies has no rivals and few equals, and we can well 

 believe that his descriptions of the fauna and flora of his 

 native country will have a permanent historical interest, 

 such as attaches to White's Selborne. 



. Mr. Salt's manual is furnished with a complete biblio- 

 graphical appendix, in which the reader will find, not 

 only a list of Jefferies' publications, but a catalogue of 

 all the books and critical reviews of which he is the sub- 

 ject. 



