xiv RIVERSIDE LETTERS in 



indicated by landscape painters, though they 

 are very beautiful in nature, forming fine 

 graceful lines on the dull gray surface and 

 likewise helping to give the level look by their 

 perspective ; but when I come to think of it 

 landscape painters very seldom paint the effect 

 of rain on a river at all. 



Though we have had such a cold, wet 

 summer, it is curious that my acanthuses 

 bloomed magnificently. These plants, with 

 me, are very shy bloomers ; I have had them 

 now for over six years in my garden, and this 

 is only the second time that they have 

 bloomed. They are very handsome, throwing 

 up huge spikes of bloom, the character of 

 which is just what I greatly admire, having 

 plenty of quaint construction. They retain 

 their form, like the teazle, far into the autumn, 

 when the seed pods swell up beneath a sort 

 of little roof of a purplish colour ; this first 

 forms part of the beauty of the flower, and 

 remains unchanged until the seed is nearly 

 ripe. The whole plant bristles with sharp 



