JANUARY 5 



flowers. In the autumn (at the time that 

 they were sheltered carefully under thick 

 green spruce branches), each little spray and 

 twig was loaded with a mass of buds just 

 formed. 



Alas ! a glance underneath the covering 

 at once betrayed the irremediable hurts our 

 pets had suffered. They were all brown 

 and grey, diffusing a sort of sickly fragrance, 

 not perceptible in their summers of full 

 strength and inflorescence. It has to be 

 confessed, that our 'garden lies too low, 

 and is not sufficiently dry, to suit some 

 things. 



Gentians seem to be always blowing : the 

 vitality of them is marvellous; there was 

 one on a patch niched snugly in the rock 

 garden, that bloomed on for ever! It dis- 

 played its ultramarine magnificence every 

 day for fully six weeks. Every day when 

 the sun shone, I did homage to it. 

 Sometimes the blue of it was so velvety, 

 so brilliant, that one could scarce forbear 

 to stoop and kiss its open face ! I find 

 this in my garden diary: 'Oct. 15. A 

 large blue gentian on Roman walk. It 



