OCTOBER 59 



can be bought, there is the additional advantage of safety 

 in growing it on clean ground instead of buying it out 

 of a dirty ditch, when it often tastes of mud. 



I find that in Germany the roots of the pink Oxalis 

 floribunda are eaten as a vegetable, and a most excellent 

 vegetable it is. It is not quite hardy. The way to treat 

 it is to take it up about this time of year, eat the big 

 roots, preserve the small ones in sand, and re -plant them 

 in the spring. Celeriac and salsifies are also much 

 better taken up now and stored in dry sand under cover, 

 like carrots. They grow old and spotty if left in the 

 ground in the usual English way. 



Before cutting down our asparagus we collect the 

 pretty red seeds, sow them at once very thickly in ordi- 

 nary or fancy china pots, and keep some for later sowing. 

 The seedlings come in well as an ornament in the green- 

 house at Christmas, look green and fresh and refined, 

 and most people do not know what they are. They have 

 the great merit of costing nothing and of being very 

 easy to grow for anyone who has a warm greenhouse. 



October 28th. We are benefiting now by the extra- 

 ordinarily dry autumn and no early frost. The number 

 of flowers in the garden is quite surprising. I picked 

 this morning a large bunch of Nemesia. The Lavenders 

 are flowering a second time, and there are plenty 

 of Tea Roses. 



The following instructions for growing the Tro- 

 pcsolum speciosum, which has failed here so often, were 

 sent me by a lady: 'The two great needs seem to be 

 moisture but not great moisture at the roots and 

 dampness of atmosphere round the foliage when in 

 summer growth. These objects are best obtained by 

 first, in England, or at least in the southern counties, a 

 north wall ; second, by being planted about two feet 

 deep in a trench properly prepared for it ; third, by fre- 



