A Backward Spring 



and as for the daffodils, they did not justify their 

 name of Lent lilies, and are still very scarce. 

 Their proud boast that they — 



" Come before the swallow dares, and take 

 The winds of March with beauty," ' 



will scarcely hold true this year. Probably the 

 swallows will be late, but they are often seen in 

 the first week of April, and some will even dare a 

 few days sooner ; but with the exception of a few 

 of the wild daffodil (iV. pseudo-narcissus) and its 

 varieties, the narcissi are not yet even showing 

 their buds, and in some sorts the leaves are only 

 just above ground. I suppose, however, that 

 Shakespeare was thinking of the wild daffodil, 

 and so he still is right. 



Yet the garden is not all barren. The kitchen- 

 garden is sadly bare, and I hear on all sides that 

 the market-gardeners have grievous losses ; but 

 the flower-garden even now has many beauties, 

 and a walk round the garden can give much 

 pleasure. Let us look at the shrubs first ; there 

 are not many in flower, but what there are are 

 very welcome and interesting. 



Banksia roses are barely showing their buds. 

 I have often had good bunches even at an early 

 Easter ; but the Forsythia suspensa is fairly in 

 flower, and I know of no shrub more to be 

 recommended as a spring-flowering shrub than 

 this Japanese climber. It is perfectly hardy, so 



' The swallows came on April 5, and the daffodils had then made 

 no progress. 



47 



