108 
MAY TIME 
Wild flowers,” Mr. Percy continued, “are truly 
eager to grow’.” 
He then told us about two Jacks-in-the-pulpit 
which he himself had taken up from the woods in 
May, not very carefully, and which later he planted 
in a poor and clayey soil, quite different from that 
of the rich, loamy wood. He had transplanted 
them in defiance of all recognised conditions. 
“Yet they are still living,” he said, “and the lady 
Jack has borne fruit every year.” 
Naturally, Mr. Percy had transplanted a lord 
and a lady Jack, as the green-striped and the purple- 
striped Jacks are respectively called. If he had 
transplanted two lords, or two ladies, then there 
would have been no fruit, since fertilisation could 
not have taken place. 
After this conversation, Joseph thought that it 
would be a good idea for him to transplant a num- 
ber of lords and ladies to our wood-border, where 
the soil and the shade would suit them exactly. But 
he planned to do it late in the autumn, since for 
him they might not be willing to go against all their 
traditions as they had for Mr. Percy. I think the 
spirit of the w’oodlands is really in Jacks-in-the- 
pulpit. 
Before this spring, I had never realised how 
exquisitely lovely were daffodils and jonquils and 
also narcissi. They have all passed bloom now, but 
at our neighbours’ there has been, until lately, a 
wonderful showing of them. The especial names 
