28 APRIL 1939, Page 17

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" In England Now" • A good number of these plants are very nearly indestruc- tible. The wild cherry multiplies itself, almost as successfully as the elm. Gorse may be burnt or may be cut by frost ; but it sprouts again—Pulchrior evenit. Sir Arthur Hill has been trying an experiment at Kew Gardens to test whether trampling or rough pulling can depress the vitality of the bluebells—and these flowers are native to Kew. We may say confidently that the bluebell refuses to be depressed. No force can check Wordsworth's lesser Celandine. It will grow equally well from seed or without seed. It possesses—and uses—at least three methods of reproducing itself. It is more than a work of Hercules to rid a garden either of this or the dogs' Mercury if they have taken well hold ; and though they be weeds who shall say that they do not add their quota to the beauty of England, like the daisies, buttercups and moon daisies of the meadows? Why should not that worse weed, the dandelion, be added? Is it much more common than of old? Shakespeare does not mention it. It was, on the other hand, a favourite with Tennyson and Lowell, who called it "the Eldorado of the grass." It is only of late years that it has spread itself across Canada, from seed brought in imported hay.