LETTER VI. 



Selection of Pictures at the R.A. Iris Sitsiana Difficulties of its 

 Culture Author's Method The Mourning Iris Description 

 of Flower Iris Tuberosa Tulips Tulipa Greigi Toads in 

 Greenhouse Toad Changing its Skin Wood-lice " Old 

 Sows '' Wren Cuckoo Wryneck. 



i6//i April, 1894. 



DEAR MARCO I returned from the selec- 

 tion of pictures at the R.A. on the nth, 

 having been sitting with the others for eight 

 days judging some 15,000 works. Alas! 

 alas ! As bad luck would have it, I thus 

 missed the first burst into bloom of an Iris 

 Susiana, to which I had been looking forward 

 with great eagerness. This iris is very diffi- 

 cult to manage in our fickle climate. It is 

 six years since it bloomed with me, then it 

 did so in the open garden, but I have never 



