WHEN " THE FLOWERS APPEAR ON THE EARTH" 



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Simmondsia californica. 

 Stauntonia hexaphylla. 

 Stranvcesia glaucescens. 

 Tricuspidaria hexapetala. 

 Umbellularia californica. 

 Ungnadia speciosa. 

 Visnea mocanera. 

 Westringia rosmariniformis. 



THE MONTEREY CYPRESS AT CASTLEWELLAN 



Rhododendron Gauntletti. — We have 

 received from Messrs. t Gauntlett of Redruth a 

 large and handsome, delicately coloured Rho- 

 dodendron, a hybrid between Rs. Aucklandi 

 and pontic um, with much of the colour and size 

 of truss found in Aucklandi. 



WHEN"THE FLOWERS APPEAR 

 ON THE EARTH."— Those who 

 would learn by Nature's handiwork are 

 soon struck by the fact that many of her 

 most beautiful object-lessons are due to 

 the lavish use of simple means. What is 

 more entrancing in spring time than to 

 wander through a wood set with mil- 

 lions of Blue-bells, so crowded that a 

 score of flower stems lie crushed at every 

 step, and yet are not missed amid that 

 vast profusion ? There is just enough of 

 variety to please ; a scattering of rosy 

 Lychnis, a colony of snowy Wood Ane- 

 mone, a trailing mass of White Starwort 

 clinging to the undergrowth as though 

 in terror of those waves of blue, and a 

 tuft or two of yellow Dead Nettle that 

 will not be displaced; these, and the 

 j sprouting Fern-fronds, break that sun- 

 ! flecked sheet of azure which stretches 

 into distance in light or darker ripples, 

 with every flicker of the sunbeams, dart- 

 ingly evasive of the clustered branches 

 thatwould impede their passage to dance 

 among the flowers. Such a sight goes 

 home to that inner chamber of one's 

 nature where slumber memories half- 

 ■ forgotten of many another thrill struck 

 upon chords responsive to this mystic 

 spell of Mother Earth. Sometimes it is 

 a blend of many harmonising hues, but 

 oftener some lavish spread of but a few. 

 Blue Hepaticas and Scillas of every shade 

 thrown down upon a carpet of Prim- 

 roses and wild Orchis upon the southern 

 Alps; or, in the higher fastnesses, some 

 widespread tracery of blue Forget-me- 

 nots, of mountain Cornflower, of Gen- 

 tian or Narcissus, or purple Cyclamen; 

 a memory of hillsides clad in white, and 



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