34 RIVERSIDE LETTERS v 



when the gardener ceases from troubling". 

 I believe that most gentlemen who keep a 

 large staff of gardeners and have much glass 

 seldom see the inside of their hothouses 

 except on Sundays, and probably have very 

 little knowledge of, or control over, what 

 is grown in them. My little greenhouse is 

 "a poor thing, but mine own," and in it I can 

 carry on any sort of fooleries I like in flori- 

 cultural, or other, experiments without dread 

 of interference. 



On a bright sunshiny bleak day in March 

 the temperature inside the place is delightful, 

 the mere sun heat being of a pleasanter 

 character than when hot pipes are employed. 

 These always seem to me to give a damp, 

 stuffy atmosphere. By the way, it was only 

 quite lately that I learnt how it is the sun 

 heat accumulates under glass ; I had a 

 vague idea, as I dare say most ordinary 

 gardeners have, that the glass somehow 

 drew the heat, and that was all ; I had in 

 fact never considered the fact seriously. My 



