A GARDEN NOTE-BOOK 



encourage us; the pictures of her spring garden 

 will serve only to show that beauty is not the 

 possession of England alone. For authorities tell 

 us that America is par excellence the climate for 

 the lilac. An experienced Dutchman once said 

 that Europe could show no such spring spectacle 

 as is to be seen in Mr. Havemeyer's Long Island 

 gardens of lilacs in May; and, so far as is known, 

 there are but two enemies of the lilac in this coun- 

 try — wet and the borer. Old trees have been 

 seen to droop and fail and even die in the Middle 

 West in an over- wet spring; but this type of sea- 

 son is the exception with us. Many a time in 

 winter, if the cold seems long, the snows too per- 

 sistent, I walk through my lilac rows, and the 

 sight of those stout green buds, hearty and cheer- 

 ful in the zero weather, is the best promise possi- 

 ble of winter's end and a spring to come. 



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