In the Garden Every year one flower or another stands
out above th rest. Last year brought a miraculous spring for violets all colours. This year snowdrops have undoubtedly bee' finer than for some years past. Beginning late, they grt- extremely tall. During the whole of February they were ne% :- flattened by rain or snow and came through into Marc:- strong and clean. They were at their best, as always, grass, especially in grass under hedgerows, and it was good to see them ramping in thousands across a paddock of sheep But the best of the week was felt not so much in the flowers as in the burst of spring-cleanliness : lawn mown, edges trimmed, borders forked, carrots sown, onion-bed as smooth as sand after tide. There were more important things behind all this. The winter had produced far fewer casualties than had been expected ; the spring itself seemed neither forward nor backward, but just right. We cheated its progress by bringing sprays of pink flowering-currant into the house, and they rewarded us by opening tassels of oure white.
H. E. BATES.
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