JUNE 37i 



others : 'Very gently and respectfully we would say 

 "Avoid the dictatorial attitude," and we would point our 

 meaning by an ancient horticultural saying of the Mid- 

 lands : ' ' Different people have different opinions some 

 like apples, and some like inions." Mrs. Earle, it seems 

 to us, might well consider that occasionally others may, 

 without being guilty of sin against art, admire that 

 which revolts her sense of the beautiful. Frankly, her 

 denunciation of Ampelopsis Veitchii hurt our feelings. 

 But the dictatorial tone, the inability to recognise two 

 sides to a question, is characteristic of even the greatest 

 gardeners.' 



What I did not sufficiently explain is that it is not a 

 plant that I condemn in itself, but what I do condemn is 

 the placing of it in wrong situations, or allowing it to 

 destroy architectural beauty. I have, under my own bed- 

 room window, an ugly piece of slate roofing which this 

 autumn was covered with a mixture of Virginia Creeper 

 and Ampelopsis the latter still green, the former one 

 mass of ruby and gold. Nothing could be more beauti- 

 ful. But then it is growing where hardly anything else 

 would grow, which is different to sacrificing a good south 

 or west wall for this one week of beauty in the year. 



My objection to Ampelopsis Veitchii was certainly in- 

 creased while in Florence, as it grew with the greatest 

 profusion in every direction, and as a picturesque object 

 (say, for sketching) the beautiful old Porta Romana was 

 entirely destroyed and put out of tone, both with sky 

 and earth, by being almost entirely covered with this 

 terrible brilliantly green Japanese Ivy. 



June 27th. Just before I left I went to see the Ric- 

 cardi Palace, in the Via Cavour. The chapel I thought, 

 as I suppose everyone does, one of the most interesting 

 gems in Florence ; it is so wonderfully fresh in colour. 

 The frescoes are by Benozzo Gozzoli. We are told his 



