CHAPTER IX 



WHILE THE GARDEN IS UNDER SNOW 



For nearly a month the garden has been com- 

 pletely closed ; in such a December as we have 

 just been passing through all out-of-door work is 

 necessarily stopped.^ Yet the gardener is not, 

 therefore, entirely without work, or without even 

 pleasant work, and if he is fortunate enough 

 either to have a good botanical library himself, 

 or to have ready access to one, his time may 

 indeed be pleasantly occupied, and in a way 

 which will bring good results when he can again 

 take up his usual work. 



I suppose no one who loves his garden is 

 entirely without books on his favourite subject ; 

 and, indeed, I have always found that a lover 

 of gardens and flowers is also more or less a lover 

 and reader of books. In our country villages the 

 chief applicants for books from the lending library 

 are the gardeners, and the more they love their 

 gardens and their flowers the more they wish to 

 read about them ; and the more they get to know 

 from books the more they desire to know ; and 

 when cut off from their gardens by snow and 



' Written in January 1 89 1, but altered in some places. 

 72 



