WILD GARDENING IN MEADOW GRASS. 



313 



Last autumn I made a trial of the Grape Hyacinth (Muscari), 

 and was delighted with the result this spring, with the pretty 

 clouds of blue, quite distinct and new in the grass. 



Snowdrops in various forms are indispensable, and do fairly 

 well, though they vary very much on different soils. They look 

 much better in the grass than in bare earth. 



Among the flowers in the meadow grass there is nothing 

 more beautiful than the varieties of Snakeshead (Fritillar ia). It is 

 the very type of plant for this work, and the white and pretty- 

 purple flowers are admired by all who see them in the early 

 grass. 



The Crocus, from its early brilliancy, is indispensable, and 

 the hardier forms are able to take care of themselves. In all 

 this kind of work if we could get the wild types of plant it would 

 be all the better, because such beauty as they possess is certainly 

 never the result of cultivation. When we buy bulbs highly cul- 

 tivated we may expect some reduction in the size of the flower 

 when it assumes a semi-wild state ; but nobody who cares for 

 the form and beauty of the flowers will mind this reduction. 

 Flowers from bulbs planted several years are somewhat smaller 

 than the newly planted kinds, but certainly no less beautiful. 

 While we have proof enough that Crocuses grow well in 

 meadow grass on a large scale, they seem particularly suitable 

 for growing under groves of trees, their growth coming before 

 the trees spread forth their leaves. In many country places 

 without the garden proper there are many spaces under trees 

 often possessed by Goutweed and other weeds which should be 

 given to the Crocus and like early flowers. 



Tulips. — I have only tried one wild Tulip, the Wood Tulip 

 (T. sylvestris), sent me from Touraineto the extent of a thousand 

 roots, and I do not think we have lost any ; they bloom grace- 

 fully every year. The shortness of bloom which Tulips show 

 should lead one to try the wild kinds in grass. Their broad, 

 fragile leaves are apt to be injured by the harrow. They are-, 

 better tried in copses or drives through woods, where they are- 

 free from this injury. 



Stars of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum). — The starry trusses of 

 the common old border kind are quite different in effect from 

 our other early flowers, and very pretty. In this genus there is 

 much difference in habit, the greenish, drooping-flowered kinds „ 



