64 THE LITTLE GARDEN 



gayly in and out of crocuses as the latter are in flower, one may 

 throw down on the earth such beauty as only the earth itself can 

 produce. With more than a tinge of regret, then, we must look to 

 daffodils to foUow our crocuses. These we may have in plenty, 

 and three good ones are the Tenby daffodil, earliest of all. King 

 Alfred, and Flora Wilson, or White Lady. Turn to your bulb- 

 list; you will find each year an ever-larger choice. Rock cress 

 {Arabis albida), may well nm among these dafifodils, and some of 

 the aubrietias, mauve, or purple bloom; also the low Phlox suh- 

 vlata, in very great moderation, for it soon becomes a weed, and 

 its bright tone of mauve is too vivid to contemplate without some 

 uneasiness, in the hands of the gardener whose color-sense is not 

 stire. 



Little intergroupings of these bulbs among the perennial plants 

 may easily be managed where saving space is an essential. Tu- 

 lips for instance, the last of our spring-flowering bulbs to bloom, 

 may be set between plants of delphinium or peony. Two objects 

 are then achieved. The tulips bloom in encircUng clusters of 

 fresh foliage, and this foliage, as it rises and grows strong, covers 

 the tulip leaves as they brown to ripeness in the border or bed. 

 For the sake of economy we shall not mention the single early 

 tulips, but win give the names of the excellent Darwins and three 

 Cottage tulips, all not of the commonest, but aU lovely, grouped 

 in these threes together. The Darwins are Dream, Margaret, 

 Ronald Gunn; the Cottage, Fairy Queen, John Ruskin, Miss 

 WiUmott. 



Below these grow Phlpx divaricata, Mertensia virginica, a 

 good straiu of forget-me-not, such as Perfection, or the hardy 

 alyssum in its palest yeUow form — argenteum, or sidphureum, 

 as it is caUed in different lists. Arabis alpina, the single rock- 

 cress and its double form, far finer, are beautiful on the grotmd 

 in such a place. And so the flowers carry one gently forward to 



