LETTER VII 



" Jew's Mallow " Kerria Japan ica Corchorus Next-door Neigh- 

 bours A Funeral in the Forties Old Friends and "Real" 

 Flowers Pine-apple Place Reminiscences of Childhood. 



y>th April, 1894. 



DEAR MARCO People may be held fortu- 

 nate who strike up friendships with plants 

 and flowers early in life, for unlike other 

 friends, these never grow old or desert us, 

 but return each year with their sweet faces 

 unaltered. One of my earliest acquaintances 

 amongst flowers is "the Jew's Mallow," or 

 Kerria Japonica, and yet I had lived for 

 more than fifty years in familiarity with it 

 before learning to name it correctly. It is, I 

 suppose, an introduction from Japan, but it 

 must have been introduced into England a 



