THE SIX OF SPADES. 181 



we should all of us like to show Ljelia purpurata with 

 sixty-four spikes of hloom as some of us have seen it 

 shown, tree-ferns almost too tall to travel under the 

 railway arch, Thrinax elegans eight feet by six feet, 

 anaectochilus in brewing-tubs, and azaleas in soft- 

 water butts ; no doubt we all have the talent to do 

 so ; but. if we have not the space nor the means, 

 perhaps we had better select something which we can 

 grow, and, what's more, grow to perfection. 



In my younger days one of my masters came to 

 me and said, "Evans, I am going to enlarge the 

 stove and the little New Holland house, and we'll go 

 in for specimen plants." Well, the addition of a few 

 new lights made our tiny places look quite grand in 

 our eyes. I was sent to London to purchase plants, 

 and returned from the nurseries of Messrs. Veitch, 

 Williams, Bull, Lee, Henderson, and Fraser, with the 

 nicest lot of young stuff for training you ever set your 

 eyes on. So with the best of turf, peat, sphagnum, 

 and sand, and with any amount of heat and moisture 

 in my stove, and of light and air for my hardier 

 plants, I went to work in earnest. Of course I had 

 to fight the usual foes. Fungus sprung up in my 

 bed of tan, until one gardener as came a-visiting very 

 nearly got his head punched for inquiring, as he 

 entered the stove, whether it was our house for mush- 

 rooms ; mealy-bug and scale did not forget us ; but 

 time and resolution, turpentine and patience, over- 

 came them all, and my plants started off a-growing 

 like custard-marrows in a hotbed. It was very 

 pleasant to watch them for the first two seasons, and 

 master was in and out continual, talking about this 



