Stray Leaves from a Border Garden 
old Hindoo legend that after the death of Brahma the 
world becomes covered with water, Vishnu, as a baby on a 
fig-leaf floating on a milky sea, sucking his toe ! 
January 30. — We have been under snow for some days 
now, and it is quite curious to see the hardy snowdrops 
looking like a green-tipped cloud on the snowy bank. I 
gathered a big basketful to-day, and have all the beau-pots 
filled with them. It seems strange to me that among 
sweet-scented flowers so few people ever cite snowdrops, 
and yet, when one is gathering them, a soft sweet faint 
fragrance literally fills the air. I have heard of a snowdrop 
in which the green was replaced by yellow, being found in a 
Yorkshire park ; it was called the Golden Snowdrop, but 
said not to be as pretty as the common one. In some 
parts of Switzerland the peasants call snowdrops Amsel- 
B lumen, or Blackbird’s-flower, because when they appear the 
blackbird begins to sing. I asked Gardener whether he 
had ever known the blackbird sing at that time here. But 
he replied, evidently very much amused, “ Gin the snaw- 
drops waited on the blackbird they wud wait a lang 
while.” There was a curious old custom on the Festival 
of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, February 2, 
of removing her image from the altar and strewing the 
place over with snowdrops. Tradition asserts they bloom 
now in commemoration of the Virgin taking the Child 
Jesus to the Temple. A few early primroses are to be 
seen, “ the patient primrose ” sitting, as Wordsworth so 
delightfully says, ££ like a beggar in the cold.” I was given a 
small posy of pink and yellow ££ Primets ” on New Year’s 
Day by an old woman in the neighbourhood. She had 
lived many years in the shadow of the castle. I wonder how 
many times she had been able to pluck such a posy at New 
Year. Primroses make the most delicious sweet smelling 
nosegay. We can well apply to them old Parkinson’s quaint 
remark, “ There be some flowers make a delicious Tussie- 
mussie or nosegay both for sight and smell ” — the Little 
Ladyes of the Spring, as somebody called primroses long 
ago. A few days ago I saw some blossoms of Winter 
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