THE SIX OF SPADES. 197 



his brother botanist, Gesner of Zurich) ; the bright 

 Poinsettia, with its scarlet spaths ; the first batch of 

 Gloxinias, just showing leaf; the few rare ferns, A. 

 Farley ense (not the " big one," awful in Mr. Evans's 

 ears), Cheilauthes elegans, and other gems ; the 

 lovely and abundant Eucharis and Pancratium, from 

 which, and from the Stephanotis, on the roof above, 

 many a sweet maid has had her bride's bouquet. 

 But I chiefly use my tiny stove as a propagating and 

 forcing house ; and in that central bed of tan, warmed 

 by the pipes below, seeds germinate, bulbs " spindle," 

 grafts " callus," and cuttings strike, with a sure 

 success and speed. Better than all this I force early 

 strawberries here, which, after giving me intense 

 pleasure by their fragrant beauty, are invaluable in 

 cases where a failing appetite has often longed and 

 craved for them. A good doctor once sent a dozen 

 miles for the same number of berries, and he told me 

 afterwards that his patient " would gladly have paid 

 a pound apiece for them." 



From the vinery, which adjoins my stove, and the 

 greenhouse, which completes my " range," I have 

 beyond the great delight of watching the vines break 

 into leaf, and the fruit develop, and flower, and 

 colour ; and beyond the constant refreshment which 

 I find in my plants, my primulas and hyacinths, my 

 roses and geraniums and fuchsias a far more ample 

 and continuous help in ministering to the sick. A 

 great number of invalids will eat grapes when they 

 can eat nothing else ; and several have told me that 

 this fruit was the first thing which they seemed to 

 relish in the earliest stage of their recovery. As fo r 



