xxvm LETTERS TO MARCO 191 



wet like this he runs straight into the kitchen 

 to be wiped and dried. He is a very great 

 favourite of the cook. 



The late cold weather has kept the plants 

 in my garden in very backward condition, 

 though the ground is alive with little nubs 

 and noses of all sorts poking through, and 

 ready to start on the least accession of heat. 

 These early-flowering plants have different 

 sorts of protection afforded them from the cold 

 they have to face. I mentioned the Pasque 

 flower, Anemone pulsatilla, in a former letter; 

 it blooms about Easter - time generally, 

 whence its name. On the bleak chalk downs 

 around here it is often found. In its wild 

 state it grows very dwarf, and its first buds 

 are enveloped in a thick woolly coat, but in 

 a garden with shelter it develops consider- 

 ably ; when wild it throws up but one solitary 

 flower, but under cultivation numbers of 

 blooms arise with far longer stalks. After 

 the bloom is over, it sends out a quantity of 

 foliage which has no wool about it. This 



