56 RIVERSIDE LETTERS vn 



the plant than my neighbour's garden, for it 

 never grew in either my father's, my mother's 

 or my own gardens, whilst in all the gardens 

 next to all these it has invariably flourished. 



There is at present a fine plant on the 

 summer-house in my neighbour's garden, and 

 D.V. I will really have one in my own before 

 next year. Another equally old friend is the 

 Japan Quince, sometimes called Camelia 

 Japonica. This has grown, I am happy to 

 say, in all my gardens, and lives and thrives 

 with me still. My human living friends, of 

 fifty years standing, I can now, alas ! count 

 easily on the fingers of one hand ; how 

 changed in appearance are even these ! where- 

 as the "old familiar faces" of the flowers 

 once loved remain the same year after year, 

 young and beautiful. These old friends are 

 to me the real floivers with which I am con- 

 tent to live and die ; I never feel much 

 longing for the brilliant novelties, which are 

 yearly announced and figured, in gaudy 

 colours, in the nurserymen's catalogues. I 



