MAY 71 



and the rose bushes have had practically none of it. 

 But the Abol syringe knows how to behave itself; 

 it never comes back and looks you in the face and 

 drenches you ; it goes direct to the object aimed at ; 

 and above all it requires filling about one quarter as 

 often as any other syringe which I have used. For 

 by some clever contrivance the spray diffuses itself 

 so gradually and so finely that nothing can escape 

 it, and destruction comes upon the intruding insect 

 whose undesired presence has threatened a dearth 

 of roses. 



Christmas roses in pots are being divided and 

 replanted, as they had grown too much choked for 

 good blooming, and arum lilies are being set out in 

 manure trenches for the summer. There are many 

 persons who succeed in getting good results from 

 these callas by keeping them in pots, and only 

 aiding them in the autumn with manure water. 

 But the planting- out system is less troublesome, 

 and in my experience more successful, though the 

 flowers come a little later. They are taken up in 

 September, and kept close for a few days in a frame 

 until they have recovered the change, and then they 

 go on merrily to their flowering season, making a 

 whole winter beautiful. 



How glorious are the yellow tree lupins in the 

 wild garden ! They are not unsuited to large 

 borders, but I like them best in the grass, because 

 they look as if they belong there of right. Yet 

 their lease of life is sadly short, for I have not 

 known one to live longer than five or six years. 

 I should like to know whether in California, whence 

 they have come to us, their life is so brief, or 



