ON GETTING THERE 17 



mildew, is somehow suggestive of Jeremiah's valley 

 of dry bones. Here, too, will be Californian tulips 

 (Calochortus), and the rare great iris of Persia (Iris 

 Susiana), and other things in their season ; always 

 much more than can be seen before Mevrouw, 

 standing at the house door, claps her hands to tell 

 that dinner is ready. 



To go to the more distant gardens, it is well to 

 choose the morning, if it is spring, the time of the 

 bulbs which have made Holland famous. A windy 

 time, this, in Holland, one well understands then 

 the advantage of pollarding the trees. Also one 

 understands the necessity of the high hedges or 

 screens which separate the garden into squarish 

 patches. They are sometimes of beech, more often 

 hornbeam, they quite enclose the piece of land, 

 only at each corner there is a square-cut gateless 

 gap, which makes a large area, seen from a distance, 

 suggestive of a gigantic maze. In hyacinth time 

 they are, of course, quite bare of leaves, unless one 

 counts a few yellow ones of last year clinging here 

 and there, a beautiful sombre background to the 

 astonishing vivid delicacy of the flowers. It is a 

 wonderful sight, more especially when one stands 

 among them — rows of wax pink hyacinths, each 

 perfect and each set in its circle of bright green 



