Y1LXA. GAKDEXS. 



19 



mums, and common pink and crimson China roses, in 

 beds, and isolated plants of the Double-blossomed Furze 

 and the Dwarf Almond. To fringe the belts or clumps 

 of laurel and laurestinus, you may have Colt's-foot, the 

 scentless-white and the heliotrope-scented, and the pink 

 buds of that little bright-blue flower, which is often mis- 

 called Forget-me-not. Ilexes, and, near the sea, even 

 hoary cork-trees may be grown in England. The good 

 old varieties of Holly ought to be held in reverential 

 esteem. On the arbutus, fruit, flowers, and foliage, all 

 court approval at once ; rosemary and southernwood will 

 glitter with the dew of a wintry forenoon, at the back 

 of a mass of the white Christmas rose and the green- 

 flowered hellebore, fringed irregularly with the dwarf 

 golden blossoms of the "Winter Aconite. As the season 

 advances, a bed of Erica carnea will be thickly covered 

 with rosy blossoms ; and then will follow Snowdrops, 

 Hepaticas, Yan Thol Tulips, Hyacinths, Vernal Squills, 

 and a host of other pretty things. Primroses make a 

 lively bed in spring ; in many woods, on a moory black 

 soil, the self-sown primroses will sport into a great 

 variety of colour ; hardly two are to be found alike. They 

 pass from bright sulphur, through sad-coloured neutral 

 tints, to orange, lilac, and vivid crimson. It is easy to 

 have a bed filled with the proper soil, to search for or 

 procure specimens, and transfer them to their final site. 

 The mixture of a few choice plants from cottage gardens, 

 adds brilliancy by their more decided hues ; but the best 

 effect is obtained when the primroses are taken quite at 

 random. Patches of Pulmonaria, or Lungwort, with 

 leaves of mottled green, and flowers changing from pink 

 to blue, are not to be despised in a spring garden : nor 

 are the single blue Eussian and double pink Neapolitan 

 Violets, the Wood-laurel, the Pyrus Japonica, and "Wall- 

 flowers, double and single, yellow and brown. Something 

 actual may be thus accomplished to elicit a smile from the 

 grimmest of the seasons. 



Country-houses have sometimes damp, shady courts 

 and nooks, intermediate out-door dens between the back- 



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