A Backward Spring 



left it untouched the next is a puzzle. And I 

 mention the bed because it is a good instance 

 of a bed kept for many years in beauty, with 

 very little trouble. The crocuses must have 

 been there more than twenty years ; the heath 

 has to my certain knowledge grown there for 

 more than forty years, while the original cyclamen 

 plants from which the rest have spread were 

 planted in 1817. 



I will now go to some of the herbaceous and 

 bulbous plants in flower. These have fared much 

 better than the shrubs, having been for six weeks 

 completely covered by a thick blanket of snow. 

 During that time I think the ground was never 

 frozen. I did not try it with a thermometer, but 

 I often thrust a stick through the snow into the 

 ground, and I always found it soft and unfrozen. 

 I pass by the daffodils, except to say again how 

 thoroughly they have this year belied their tradi- 

 tional character, which all our poets have loved 

 to dwell on. Many may like to renew their ac- 

 quaintance with one only, Aubrey de Vere, whose 

 exquisite ode to the daffodil begins : — 

 " O love-star of the unbeloved March, 



Thou comest when first the spring 



On winter's verge encroaches : 

 When gifts that speed on wounded wing 



Meet httle save reproaches." 



and ends : — 



" To-day the spring is crowned a queen, but thou 

 Thy winter hast ah-eady ; 



51 



