MAY 



The ' French Sugar Pea' — The ' Westminster Gazette' on Tulips— 

 The legend of the Crown Imperial — Article on ' Sacred Trees 

 and Flowers' — Peeling of Poppies — Cooking receipts — Books 

 on Florence — Mr. Gladstone on traveling — Journey to Italy — 

 Arrival at Aroetri. 



May 1st. — Gorse thoroughly peeled and wedged (see 

 first volume) lasts for weeks in water, and the warmth 

 of the room makes the flower come out so well it is 

 almost a different -looking plant. 



In these light soils all the fruit trees over -flower 

 themselves so much, like pot-bound plants, that no one 

 need scruple to pick branches of blossom to put in water 

 in the house. The trees can never carry even the fruit 

 that sets. 



The evergreens are beginning their spring shoots. I 

 think it must have been at about this time of year, when 

 the young leaves on the Holly have no spines, that 

 Southey wrote : 



All vain asperities, day by day, would wear away. 

 Till the smooth temper of my age should be 

 Like the high leaves upon the Holly Tree. 



A book published in 1857, called 'Curiosities of 

 Natural History,' by Francis T. Buckland, is very in- 

 terestingly written, and wUl be found full of information 

 on all sorts of subjects — from the anatomy of the water- 

 rat to Virgil's description of the death of Laocoon. 



At this time of year, when the frame double Violets 

 are over, which do so well for finger-bowl bouquets in 



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