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Another series of early-blooming, small-flowered species is represented by G. blandus, flesh colored, G. Watsonius, scarlet, G. alatus, yellow and red, and G. tristis, pale yellow, sweet scented. All are native to the Cape of Good Hope and can endure little cold.

The central thought is of death, but around this he curiously twines, first, the early-blooming lilacs which the poet may have plucked the day the dark shadow came; next the song of the hermit thrush, the most sweet and solemn of all our songsters, heard at twilight in the dusky cedars; and with these the evening star, which, as many may remember, night after night in the early part of that eventful spring, hung low in the west with unusual and tender brightness.

We were neither "rapid" nor "gay," and it was still only the first week of June; if we were summer boarders, therefore, we must be of some unusual early-blooming variety. First came a lady, in excellent repute among the savants of Europe and America as an entomologist, but better known to the general public as a writer of stories.

Until yesterday she had never heard a cuckoo call, and its hollow mellowness gave her delight. It meant the spring in England, and nowhere else. There was space enough to ramble about in the gardens. Paths and beds were alike overgrown with weeds, but some strong, early-blooming things were fighting for life, refusing to be strangled.

The corms of these early-blooming species are less resistant than those of the summer-blooming kinds and can rarely be kept over winter in good condition. The species in this class are many, several are fragrant, and all are worth growing by the specialist for their individual charm, but few are likely to attain commercial importance in this country for a considerable time.