v RIVERSIDE LETTERS 37 



them up, as they required a good deal of 

 looking after, and kept the sun from the fig- 

 tree ; besides which I found that they did far 

 better in the open air. I now have in this 

 front bed one or two clumps of chrysanthe- 

 mums, they are of good ordinary sorts, dark 

 red, yellow, and white ; they have not been 

 moved for four or five years, and nothing 

 clone to them except cutting them down in 

 the winter, adding a little top dressing each 

 year, and watering freely in the summer ; 

 otherwise they are left entirely alone to grow 

 at their own sweet will, and very well they do 

 it, rising to the glass roof, bending over, 

 down, and up again in beautiful and graceful 

 curves, intertwining with one another in 

 inextricable confusion, and at length bloom- 

 ing in numberless clusters, which, when 

 gathered entire with long stalks are extremely 

 decorative for the house. 



I have no bother in striking, potting, re- 

 potting, tying up, disbudding, placing out of 

 doors, carrying them in again, fumigating, or 



