WANT OF VARIETY A BLEMISH 3 



white bloom and its summer and autumn dignity of 

 handsome though not large foliage, would endure to 

 be without it ? or who would not desire to have the 

 fragrant chalices of M. soulangeana, with their outside 

 staining of purple, and M. conspicua, of purest white 

 in the early months of March and April ? And why 

 does not every garden hold one, at least, of the sweet 

 Chimonanthus, offering, as it does in February, an 

 abundance of its little blooms of a fragrance so rich 

 and powerful that it can be scarcely matched through- 

 out the year. 



Cassinea fulvida, still known in nurseries by its 

 older name of Diplopappus, in winter wears its 

 fiiUest dress of tiny gold-backed leafage in long 

 graceful sprays, that are borne in such profusion 

 that they only beg to be cut to accompany the rare 

 flowers of winter that we bring indoors to sweeten 

 and enliven our rooms. 



Of small - flowering trees none is lovelier than 

 the snowy Mespilus (^Amelanchier), and for a tree of 

 somewhat larger size the good garden form of the 

 native Bird Cherry is beautiful in the early year. 

 The North American Halesia (the Snowdrop Tree) 

 should be in every garden, either as a bush or tree, 

 every branch hung in May with its full array of 

 pendent bloom of the size and general shape of 

 Snowdrops, only of a warm and almost creamy 

 instead of a cold snow-white colour. 



Few spring-flowering shrubs are more free and 

 graceful than Forsythia suspensa, and if it can be 

 planted on a slight eminence and encouraged to 



