CHAPTER XIX 



THE SCENTS OF THE GARDEN 



The sweet scents of a garden are by no means the 

 least of its many delights. Even January brings 

 Ghimonanthus fragrans, one of the sweetest and strongest 

 scented of the year's blooms — httle half-transparent 

 yellowish bells on an otherwise naked-looking wall 

 shrub. They have no stalks, but if they are floated 

 in a shallow dish of water, they last well for several 

 days, and give off a powerful fragrance in a room. 



During some of the warm days that nearly always 

 come towards the end of February, if one knows where 

 to look in some sunny, sheltered corner of a hazel 

 copse, there will be sure to be some Primroses, and 

 the first scent of the year's first Primrose is no small 

 pleasure. The garden Primroses soon follow, and, 

 meanwhile, in all open winter weather there have been 

 Czar Violets and Iris stylosa, with its delicate scent, 

 faintly violet-like, but with a dash of tulip. Iris reti- 

 culata is also sweet, with a still stronger perfume of the 

 violet character. But of all Irises I laiow, the sweetest 

 to smell is a later blooming one, /. graminea. Its 

 small purple flowers are almost hidden among the 



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