82 IDLEHURST : 



subject, in every name of all that grows, from 

 England to Van Diemen ; they work, too, vigorously 

 at times, with paraphernalia of aprons and gloves 

 and knowing forks and scissors. But there is little 

 or nothing to be shown for it all. In their conserva- 

 tory you find a Marechal Niel just green enough to 

 support the armies of the aphis, a dozen sticky 

 geraniums, some dead ferns, and a collection of 

 relics, cytisus, indiarubber plants and cyclamens, 

 bought in bloom at the door and lingering out a 

 depressing life on the stage. 



Your friend is very well contented, busily " damp- 

 ing down " with a beautiful new syringe, or trying 

 the latest patented fumigator upon the fly. In the 

 open garden, the borders are almost flowerless at 

 any season ; you are shown with great pride some 

 miserable little novelty or oddity in solitary state 

 upon the barren soil. To the owner's eye all is 

 beautiful. " I am going to make great alterations 

 here next year; I shall have all these beds turfed 

 over, and roses all along here." And so the desert 

 blossoms in the flitter-winged fancy of Mrs. Kitty 

 and her kind. Or in less optimist hours it is : 

 " Really, Wickens is perfectly hopeless. I must get 

 a man who understands flowers ! " or else the seeds- 

 man has been dieadfully unprincipled ; or the soil 



