xviii Forezvords to New Edition 



The Blue Anemones, Crocus, Snowdrops, Narcisses, 

 Snow/lakes, Grape-Hyacinths, Dog's-tooth Viotets, Stars 

 of Bethlehem, Fritillaries, St. Bruno's Lily, Snow-glories, 

 Wild Hyacinths, Scilla, and Wild Tulips best fitted for 

 this early-gardening in the meadow turf wither before 

 the hay is ready for the scythe, and we do not find 

 a trace of the leaves of many of them at hay time. Many 

 of the plants of the mountains of central Europe and 

 also of those of what we call the south and east, such as 

 those of Greece and Asia Minor, bloom with me earlier 

 than our own field or woodland flowers. Our feebler 

 sun awakes them in the snowless fields, and so we 

 enjoy many spring flowers while our grass is brown. 

 And if they come so early in the. cool and high 'forest 

 range ' in Sussex they will be no less early in the warm 

 soils as in Surrey, or in the many valley soils— sheltered 

 as they often are by groves and banks of evergreens. As 

 nearly every country house is set in tneadows it is easy 

 to see what a gain this is, not only for its beauty but 

 because it lets us make an end of the repeated digging 

 up of the flower garden for the sake of a few annual 

 and other spring flowers— themselves to be removed just 

 in the loveliest summer days. 



This spring I saw some evidence of what bold wild- 

 gardening may give us in its effects on the beauty of 

 landscape views. The picturesque view from Narrow- 

 water House near Newry, across the park to the bay 

 and the mountains that guard it, was much enhanced 

 during March and the early part of the present spring 



