424 
SNOWDROPS, VIOLETS, ETC. 
plant a singular and pleasing character, thus 
affording a most effective contrast among 
other ornamental shrubs. The plant was 
found growing on the Nepal mountains, eight 
thousand feet above the level of the sea, and 
proves perfectly hardy in our trying winters. 
It should have a shady situation, and requires 
moisture, and those conditions should be se- 
cured by its situation when planted out; and 
it is perhaps the more valuable, from the fact 
of its flourishing on the shady side of high 
plantations, where many of our best favourites 
will hardly grow. Dr. Royle introduced the 
seeds from India, but it is capable of being 
increased by cuttings or layers; and it is, per- 
haps, the more acceptable for enduring almost 
any common soil. The plant was named by 
Dr. Wallick, in honour of William Leycester, 
Esq., one of the Judges at Bengal, and a great 
patron of gardening. 
SNOWDROPS, VIOLETS, BLUE BELLS, 
NARCISSUS, AND DAFFODILS. 
How grateful the appearance of the early 
spring flowers ! And of those, how much more 
simple and natural are the Snowdrop, the 
Violet, and the Daffodil, than the more gaudy 
Crocus and Tulip ! The former remind us of 
the fields and green lanes ; the latter, of the 
garden — the one, all innocence and nature; the 
other, culture and art. But Snowdrops and 
Violets, Blue Bells and Daffodils, should 
never be in mechanically formed beds ; they 
seem, like birds in a cage, out of their natural 
places. They should be on some wild bank, 
in some sequestered spot, some little wilder- 
ness-looking place, formed by art, if you please, 
in exactly the proper situation, but in the clo- 
sest imitation of nature, without the appearance 
of art. These flowers all do well under trees. 
They require no great depth of soil ; they will 
grow up through turf ; they flourish at the 
foot of a wall. In shade and sunshine, damp 
or dry, they will all grow and bloom somehow; 
but they especially flourish in the shade, and 
shady nooks should always be chosen. They 
should be planted without order, in patches, 
and separate; though it is not uncommon to see 
all of them springing up through a bank of 
Violets. They should not be disturbed for 
years, unless increase is wanted ; in which 
case there might be hundreds of Violets 
formed out of a very small patch. But Violets 
can be increased wonderfully without dis- 
turbing them at all, by only taking off their 
runners, which, though not so long, are as 
plentiful as those on strawberries. It is often 
attempted to remove large patches of Violets, 
to produce an effect at once. We do not say 
this cannot be done, because in some conge- 
nial soils it would be as difficult to kill a patch 
of Violets, as it would in others to keep them. 
But the safest way is to plant single, young, 
healthy runners, that have just struck, about 
three inches apart, having first dressed the 
ground pretty well, and they will soon fill up 
all the intermediate spaces. To be still more 
safe, and not particular as to the time, place 
potted plants about six inches apart, without 
disturbing the balls ; and they will, the first 
season, join close, and fill up all the spaces 
between each other. All these things look 
better in masses. The sides of a shady walk 
may be planted in patches, or large masses of 
Primroses, and the before -mentioned subjects; 
they rarely fail to make a beautiful appear- 
ance, and form a rich contrast to the more 
mechanical part of the garden. We do not 
object to the use of these flowers in geometrical 
or Dutch gardens, where the colour is really 
Wanted : but they are out of place everywhere 
but in shady, wilderness-like places, or nooks 
and places where the more gaudy flowers 
would not look well. The increase of the 
Snowdrop is spontaneous ; they have only to 
be dug up occasionally and thinned, that is, 
all the small ones ; and some of the full grown, 
if they are too thick, taken away ; the others 
replanted in their places again as thick as 
they need be, for they will be as thick as ever 
again. The Blue Bell is much of the same 
nature ; the less they are disturbed, the better 
they bloom, and the more they spread out ; 
and the time of year for removing these or 
Snowdrops, is when the leaf has turned com- 
pletely yellow and begun to dry; for they are 
but a short time freed from the fibres. They 
very soon shoot again ; and when they have 
begun to shoot forth there, it is morally im- 
possible to move them without a check, which 
they do not get over the first year, and some- 
times not for two. The Daffodil, and all the 
varieties of Narcissus, look well in masses ; 
indeed, all these flowers are of that descrip- 
tion. What is a single Snowdrop ? an isolated 
