This
sloped gently upward toward some birches that margined a pond. The
birches themselves were as yet but in tassel, the near-by grass was
green in spots only, and yet here in the midst of the chill, reluctant
promise of early spring was firmness of leaf and clustered flowers of
almost hothouse texture and fragrance. Not a single spray or a dozen,
but hundreds of them, covered the bushes.

This shrub is _Daphne cneorum_, a sturdier evergreen cousin of _Daphne
mezereum_, that brave-hearted shrub that often by the south wall of my
garden hangs its little pink flower clusters upon bare twigs as early as
the tenth of March. Put it on your list of desirables, for aside from
any other situation it will do admirably to edge laurels or
rhododendrons and so bring early colour of the rosy family hue to
brighten their dark glossy leaves, for the sight and the scent thereof
made me resolve to cover a certain nook with it, where the sun lodges
first every spring. I am planting mine this autumn, which is necessary
with things of such early spring vitality.

Another garden point akin to colour value in that it makes or mars has,
I may say, run itself into my vision quite sharply and painfully this
summer, and many a time have I rubbed my eyes and looked again in wonder
that such things could be. This is the spoiling of a well-thought-out
garden by the obtrusive staking of its plants. Of course there are many
tall and bushy flowers--hollyhocks, golden glow, cosmos--that have not
sufficient strength of stem to stand alone when the weight of soaking
rain is added to their flowers and the wind comes whirling to challenge
them to a dizzy dance, which they cannot refuse, and it inevitably turns
their heavy heads and leaves them prone.

[Illustration: DAPHNE CNEORUM.]

Besides these there are the lower, slender, but top-heavy lilies,
gladioli, carnations, and the like, that must not be allowed to soil
their pretty faces in the mud. A little thinking must be done and stakes
suitable to the height and girth of each plant chosen. If the purse
allows, green-painted stakes of sizes varying from eighteen inches for
carnations to six feet for Dahlias are the most convenient; but lacking
these, the natural bamboos, that may be bought in bundles by the
hundred, in canes of eight feet or more, and afterward cut in lengths to
suit, are very useful, being light, tough, and inconspicuous.

In supporting a plant, remember that the object is as nearl