farther end and hides some outbuildings. The other sides of the garden 
have a double dry wall planted at the top; this has now grown into a 
thick mass of Rosa lucida, and the remaining short side has another 
Avail, barely five feet high but with shrubs outside, so that it also 
forms a sheltering boundary. Near the middle is a grassy space a 
few yards wide and roughly circular. Three oaks and two Hollies 
nearly surround the little grass plot, but the ring of shade is com- 
pleted by some nut trees, Filberts and Cobs, now grown to a good 
height. There are two wooden seats, one of them in an arched recess 
notching into the largest Holly. 
The main border is against the wall and the Yew hedge that forms 
its continuation. It is twelve feet wide, with a space of two feet next 
to the wall for access to the back plants, and sixty-five feet long. 
Near the back and partly coming forward towards the middle of the 
border, are in two places, groups of * Veratrum nigrum, that fine middle 
European plant of noble foliage; the deeply plaited leaves are over a 
foot long and about seven inches wide. The flower does not concern 
the spring garden; it does not come till June, and though the tall 
spike of blackish purple is then a handsome object, yet the chief 
beauty of the plant is in the foliage which is in perfection in April. 
This fine plant alone will give the border a certain impression of 
solidity and importance, but we have also early growth into large 
leafage in*Myirhis odorata, the old English Sweet Cicely, a handsome 
plant with wide-spread, fern-like foliage, crowned with broad cream- 
white bloom, which is not only good in itself but shows out well among 
the other spring flowers as the only representative of its large botanical 
familv^ There is also *Solomon's Seal {Polygonatum multiflorum) in 
good sized patches of its fine arching sprays; it is the large Irish kind, 
nearly four feet high. 
Before coming to the actual flower masses, I should like to empha- 
size something I have learned of late years and that I now practise 
with ever increasing confidence. This is the great value of what, for 
want of a better name, I know as the "between plants." Any mass 
of bloom may be a pleasant sight, but if the flowers have a proper 
setting their value is very greatly enhanced. Years ago I used to 
notice, in friends' conservatories, places where many tender plants 
grown under glass were brought together when in bloom for show, 
how poor the effect often was— just a quantity of flowering plants 
put together without any definite arrangement except that the taller 
ones were put at the back and the shorter in front. I shall hope, 
later, to have something to say about such places, but what I learned 
was equally applicable to outdoor gardening, and it set me making 
search for good "between plants" for use with the spring flowers. 
