THREE PROMPT HERALDS OF SPRING 
Before Snowdrops or Crocus comes the Snowflake (Leucojum), shown above at left and sometimes confused with the Snowdrop (Galanthus), of which a double 
sort is here pictured (at right.) The Scilla or Squill follows closely after with its delicate bells of white, blue, or lavender (variety nutans caerulea above) 
A MISCELLANY OL DELIGHTS 
ETHEL ANSON S. PECKHAM 
Minor Bulbs That May Play a Major Part—Laying Up Treasure for Seasons Ahead 
Editors’ Note : Happy the gardener with a sufficient store of bulbs to laugh at the rigidities of the present quarantine! Mrs. Peckham's personal pleasure in all 
the little flowers that lift their bells of white and blue and lavender and pink so gaily on the heels of winter makes the less fortunate gardener feel his deprivations 
keenly and sets him impatiently atingle now at bulb-planting time to ferret out some of these treasures for himself of which, luckily, a number may still be had. 
Readers of Anne Douglas Sedgwick’s gem-like story, “Autumn Crocuses,” cannot fail to realize how much a part of human lives such flowers can become with their 
gift of healing and of hope. 
H AD I seen Mr. Howard’s letters earlier (G. M., May, 
1922, page 204; June, 1923, page 274) asking for help 
and information in relation to “miscellaneous bulbs’’, 
perhaps the temptation to have my say would have 
triumphed ere this. This subject has greatly interested me 
for a number of years, in fact ever since I had a garden of my 
own to play with—I was about to say “work,’’ but it really is 
play. In those glorious old days when we could write to 
some famous Dutch or English grower and ask him for his 
private list and then gaily make out an order—the only worry 
whether one’s bank-account would stand the strain and still 
clothe one warmly enough to pull through the winter months 
while awaiting the blooming of the new treasures—I “got in” 
some “quite ordinary sorts” of these miscellaneous bulbs and 
now find that in these prohibitive times 1 am the proud possessor 
of rare delights much sought after by my friends. 
I have loved those small bulbous plants always; they come 
so early in the spring and continue on until summer, begin again 
in autumn and last until the ground freezes hard. Yes, they 
do! 
A Brave-hearted Group of Earliest Spring 
W ITH me the first to appear are Spring Meadow-Saffrons 
(Bulbocodium vernum) and Spring Snowflake (Leucojum 
vernum). The former much resembles the Autumn Crocus 
(Colchicum). It has a pinkish violet flower which pushes up 
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