SIKHIM AND BHUTAN
bamboos and groups of tree-ferns adding a charm of their own. In early spring the lawns were fringed with daffodils, primroses, polyanthus, daisies, pansies—almost every spring flower you can name, flowering in a profusion seldom seen in England, where cold winds and frosts nip them and keep them back; while on the house the wisteria was a cloud of delicate mauve, with here and there the tender green of early leaves. By the end of April the roses were in full bloom, a perfectly exquisite sight, excelling anything I have ever seen even in England. The house and all the outbuildings were covered with them—Cloth of Gold, Gloire de Dijon, Reine Marie Henriette, Devoniensis, Noisette and the paper white rose throwing themselves wildly over the roofs and hanging great festoons of lovely blooms from every corner. Over the lawns were scattered great bushes of Marie Van Houtte, Gloire de Dijon, Paul Neron, Souvenir de Malmaison, Madame Lambert, and many more; archways of Cloth of Gold and Devoniensis, and in sheltered corners, protected from the rain, Maréchal Niel and La France. These were all old favourites, but against the terraced slope from the house to the little pond below, I later planted Ramblers and many new varieties I imported from France. A great charm was the rapidity with which things grew in that climate where a rose in its second year became a large bush. They flowered in such profusion, thousands of blooms could be gathered without making the smallest impression, and during the summer, the gardeners had daily to sweep up huge baskets full of fallen petals from the lawns. Perhaps the most beautiful sight was my office, a building a few hundred yards from the house, which was completely covered, roof and chimneys included, with roses, and was a sight worth coming miles to see. Paul Nerons I have gathered 6¼ inches in diameter. Everything grew with the same luxuriance. A stock in front of my study window measured 4 feet 6 inches in height and 3 feet 6 inches in diameter, and was a fragrant mass of
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