MAY 309 



might be done by planting in England the type Tulips, 

 and leaving them to their fate, especially on chalky soils, 

 which they seem to like. 



The Crown Imperials, are nearly over. They have 

 not been as good as usual this year ; the hard frosts in 

 March blackened their poor crowns. A kind corre- 

 spondent was shocked at my non- botanical language in 

 speaking of the beads of liquid in the hanging flowers 

 as water, not honey. I merely meant that they looked 

 like pure water. He writes : ' I think on examination 

 you will find them honey. As you do not mention it, 

 you may not know of the legend in connection with this 

 flower, which is as follows. Please forgive me if a 

 twice-told tale : When our Lord in His agony was walk- 

 ing in the Garden of Gethsemane, all the flowers save 

 this one alone bowed their heads in sympathetic sorrow. 

 It held its head aloft in supreme disdain ; whereupon 

 our Lord gently rebuked it. Smitten with shame at last, 

 it hung its head, and since then has never been able to 

 raise it, and those who care to turn its face upwards 

 always find tears in its eyes.' He closed his letter with 

 the following practical hint : ' For protective purposes — 

 shelters — you may find the bamboo baskets in which 

 moist sugar is sent from South America, about three feet 

 high and nearly six feet round, when split open on one 

 side and flattened out, make good, light shelters.' 



I am very fond of reading old 'Bdinburghs' and 

 'Quarterlies,' and one is apt to find in them a helpful 

 contribution to anything that one may have been think- 

 ing about. This happened to me the other day when, 

 taking up the 'Quarterly Review' for July, 1863, I came 

 upon a most fascinating article, full of folk-lore and 

 tradition, called 'Sacred Trees and Flowers.' I should 

 delight in quoting several of the stories, but room fails 

 me. Working through all the older traditions of Europe, 



