JANUARY 177 



suit they certainly did, for they gave us the very greatest 

 pleasure and were the envy and admiration^ of everyone 

 else who saw them.' He put his Calochorti into a bor- 

 der with all the best mixed make-up soils he could find. 

 Planting them in November, they flowered the following 

 June. The only trouble from which they suffered in 

 their infancy was slugs. But slices of Potato and Tur- 

 nip acted as counter-attractions, and the plague was 

 stayed. He says : ' There were about seven varieties 

 of the Calochorti, and I don't think that in their own 

 Calif ornian forests they could have done much better. 

 Anything more perfectly fascinating than a vaseful of 

 Calochorti it would be impossible to grow in a British 

 garden ; and they last such a long time in water.' He 

 names, without describing them, two other favourites, 

 the first of which I have, Dracocephalum argumense and 

 Vancouveria hexandra, 'Tooth gems in their way.' He 

 goes on ' For those who are fond of rare Tulips, I must 

 not forget to recommend Tulipa Kaufmanniana, which I 

 bloomed for the first time last spring, and which is quite 

 equal in its way to Tulipa Greigi and several other Tulip 

 species which I have had from time to time from my 

 aforementioned Dutch friends. After the Calochorti, 

 perhaps a bed of Ixias from the same Haarlem firm was 

 the next best thing my garden produced in 1897. I find 

 Ixias the very easiest plants to grow, and this year they 

 were all but as good as I have ever seen them in Italian 

 gardens. So marvellously brilliant were they as to be 

 quite dazzling to the eyes on a sunny day. They have 

 only one fault; viz., that, after flowering in June and 

 ripening off, they begin their next year's growth in Oc- 

 tober, and so their young leaves are rather apt to get 

 punished by the black frosts of spring. The fact is, 

 they suffer from insomnia, and so by rights they should 

 be lifted in July and made to sleep, in spite of them- 



