fe) ABOCH (ORCHIDS. 
Protheroe and Morris, in Cheapside; not at the 
dealers’. Thus they are comparatively inexpen- 
sive. After planting my tulips, narcissus,and such 
tall things, however, I clothe the beds with forget- 
me-not or Szlene pendula, or both, which keep 
them green through the winter and form a dense 
carpet in spring. Through it the bulbs push, and 
both flower at the same time. Thus my brilliant 
tulips, snowy narcissus poeticus, golden daffodils, 
rise above and among a sheet of blue or pink— 
one or the other to match their hue—and look 
infinitely more beautiful on that ground colour. I 
venture to say, indeed, that no garden on earth can 
be more lovely than mine while the forget-me-not 
and the bulbs are flowering together. This may 
be a familiar practice, but I never met with it 
elsewhere. 
Another wild scheme I recollect. Water-plants 
need no attention. The most skilful horticul- 
turist cannot improve, the most ignorant cannot 
harm them. I seriously proposed to convert my 
lawn into a tank two feet deep lined with Roman 
cement and warmed by a furnace, there to grow 
tropical nympheza, with a vague “etcetera.” The 
idea was not so absolutely mad as the unlearned may 
think, for two of my relatives were first and second 
to flower Victorza Regia in the open-air—but they 
