[1] As matter of fact, the Snowdrops were less abundant this year than they usually are.—Has it ever been noticed that the colour of the winter flowers, as that of the Arctic animals, is almost always white?
[3] I have since learned that the fact of the ant and the aphis being constantly together is well known; and further, that a sweet juice exudes from the aphis, on which the ant feeds. Pierre Huber declares that the aphis is the milch-cow of the ant; and adds, "Who would have supposed that the ants were a pastoral people?"
[5] It is mentioned in the Baroness Bunsen's Life how Mrs. Delany loved to fill her china bowls with the pink buds of the Monthly Rose, surrounded by sea-green shoots of the young Lavender.
[6] Mr. Buist, of the Rosedale Nurseries, Philadelphia, has since written to the Gardeners' Chronicle on the origin of the Green Rose:—"There appears to be some uncertainty in regard to the origin of this Rose. It is a sport from Rosa Indica (the China Rose of England and Daily Rose of America). It was caught in Charleston, S.C., about 1833, and came to Baltimore through Mr. R. Halliday, from whom I obtained it, and presented two plants to my old friend, Thomas Rivers, in 1837."
[7] I believe, as a matter of fact, that the more received derivation of Apricot is "prÆcox."
[9] Why is this Anemone called japonica? It was first brought from Simla by Lady Amherst (the wife of the Governor-General of India), as her granddaughter assures me.
[10] The editor of the Gardeners' Chronicle explains—"It is simply an admixture of the seed-bearing flowers with the pollen-forming flowers—a not very uncommon event, though ordinarily the male and female blossoms are borne in distinct spikes or panicles." The effect is certainly very curious.
[11] Many years ago Miss Martineau told me of this motto, and I see that in her "Autobiography" she speaks of it as "perfect in its way." She however finally adopted for her own sun-dial the happier "Come, light! visit me!"
[12] See Note IV. on the Sunflower of the Classics.
[13] One of our very best living authorities on such a subject has sent me the suggestion that the common Salsafy, or possibly the Anagallis, may be the flower, but he adds (agreeing with Gerarde), "the word Heliotropium does not mean a flower which turns to the sun, but which flowers at the solstice."
[14] I remember how years ago I was struck with a beautiful little poem about a blind man, written by Mr. James Payn, the well-known novelist. The lines are quite worth repeating, and will be new to many:—
"There an old man, far in his wintry time, Sits under his porch, while the roses climb; But the breath of its sweetness is all he knows Of the glory about the fair round rose; The lilies that sway in the brook beneath, So cold and white in the beauty of death, Are to him far less than the rushes tall When the wind is bowing them one and all, Like the voice of nature so soft and kind, That whispers how fair she is to the blind."
