The Seasons Round 
Nestling against the outer edge of the heather is a 
mass of Crocus biflorus, in their half-opened state look- 
ing like big pearly eggs in a nest of feathery green. A 
little sea of lavender and sapphire ripples all around, 
the result of letting Crocus tommasimanus have its 
own way and wander where it will. To complete the 
picture, a rugged bit of grey limestone, creviced and 
crannied by a thousand years of weathering, rises from 
a cushion of low-growing, summer-flowering heather, 
Evicas hypnoides and cinerva. That is February. In 
April and May the Berberis are still equally beautiful, 
but in another way. New leaves for old ; but an ever- 
present sense of soft and exquisite colour harmony is 
there, for the Grape Hyacinth has taken the place of 
the Crocus, and the Crimean Irises now shed their blue, 
cream, grey, and white loveliness around, whilst the 
Mediterranean Heaths, pink and white, still retain much 
of their spring beauty. The orange and yellow flowers 
of the Berberis are over by this time, but have made a 
brilliant interlude between these two periods. By July 
the garden all around is so full of colour that these 
minor effects become less obvious, but they now form a 
quiet and reposeful part of the whole, and with the 
opening of the first autumn Crocus or Colchicum in 
August a new interest begins, and goes on through the 
autumn glow of foliage and berry in the Berberis ; the 
autumn-flowering Dorset Heath, Erica ciliaris, and the 
Irish Heath, Menztesia polifolia, add their rich purple 
tothe scheme. These effects linger on until the winter 
Heather again opens its flowers in December, and the 
year begins once more for this miniature Heath garden, 
for that is what it really is, and one without an ounce 
III 
