284 JANUARY 



self that my notes did not mean anything, for I 

 begin by marking all the plants I should like to 

 have, and then winnow them down to the things 

 that I must have. But when the time came for 

 sending my list to the salesman in August, I found 

 myself in a great hurry, and tried to think that 

 I had no time to look through it and correct it. 

 " Of course," said the tempter, " there are one or 

 two things that you may have left in error, but 

 time is valuable ; there is so much to be done. 

 Better leave the list as it is. There cannot be 

 more than one or two things that you did not mean 

 to order." One or two ! They have seemed like 

 a hundred when I found them taking up room that 

 would have been better given to other plants. This 

 buttercup, for instance, seems to fill a shelf itself, 

 though there are only two pots of it ; but they are 

 large nine -inch pots, and each contains a dozen 

 tubers. The foliage is beautiful, the colour of the 

 flowers perfect, but alas ! they never leave the bud 

 stage, because my greenhouse is not warm enough 

 for them. In March they will have a second period 

 of flowering, and will be a gorgeous mass of colour, 

 but I shall have outdoor things by that time, 

 and these will have lost some of their value in 

 consequence. 



The violets have flowered well, but their stems 

 are getting short, so the soil round those in frames 

 has been stirred, and some good old manure pricked 

 in among them. When the cold snap is over and 

 they yield their blooms again, they will be greatly 

 improved in consequence of this attention. Chinese 

 pseonies also have been heavily top dressed with 



