OCTOBER 187 



that dislike a draught circulating about their roots. 

 The peat can be kept moist as is required, which is 

 a great help in the growing of some things. The 

 portion of tray which is over the stove is filled with 

 sand instead of peat. This is not a desirable plunge, 

 but in our circumstances it is a necessary one ; for 

 where there is now sand there once was peat, which 

 ignited by the heat under it given out by the stove, 

 to our almost irreparable undoing. 



We pack a great deal into the greenhouse. 

 There are in it now fifty large chrysanthemums, 

 nearly all of them in seven-inch or nine-inch pots ; 

 seventy pots of zonal pelargoniums, eighteen of 

 freesias, twenty of primulas, twelve of arum lilies, 

 twelve of cyclamens, and a few odd things, such as a 

 large pot of smilax growing up many strings for 

 cutting ; another large one of the dwarf asparagus 

 fern, also for cutting ; one or two winter-flowering 

 cacti, a lemon verbena, and so on. 



A large four-light frame contains other plants 

 cinerarias, fancy pelargoniums for the spring, 

 Christmas roses in pots, Solomon's seal, with nar- 

 cissus, paper-white and double Roman, in large 

 boxes, just taken from the plunge. There are also 

 numerous begonias, gloxinias, achimenes, fuchsias, 

 and other things which made the greenhouse gay 

 in summer. 



Four more frames hold the violets, which already 

 are yielding profuse bloom. There is one frame of 

 the lovely Princess of Wales, whose blossoms hide 

 a penny-piece ; these are now in perfect condition. 

 They will be of no use at mid-winter, but will come 

 on again in early spring. Two of Marie Louise 



