vi RIVERSIDE LETTERS 47 



is curiously variegated with chocolate-coloured 

 spots ; it is one of the first bulbs to shoot out 

 above the ground, and snow, frost, and rain 

 harm it not. It is just the tulip for my 

 garden, where things get left alone, and rest 

 in peace from year to year, as it does better 

 for being undisturbed ; these bulbs of mine 

 have been seven years in their present place, 

 and are this year finer than ever I remember 

 them. 



On Sunday the 8th I found my two toads 

 swimming in the tank in the greenhouse, it 

 was the first time this year that I had seen 

 them, I cannot say how long they might have 

 been in the water, but it was impossible for 

 them to get out again, the water being low in 

 the tank, and the tank having an overhanging 

 Mange on its top edge, so I placed a board 

 sloping clown into the water, which they 

 availed themselves of, for the next morning 

 they were both beneath the root branches of 

 the fig-tree. I did not look for them again 

 until the I4th, when I could only find one. 



