258 LETTERS TO MARCO xxxvn 



the little hot-houses he has constructed in 

 your town garden. Horticulture is, I am sure, 

 when really personally attended, one of the 

 most refining and interesting hobbies a man 

 is capable of enjoying. I sometimes wish my 

 garden were not so large ; for, as I do all the 

 flower part of it myself, I can scarcely find 

 time to do it justice. In town gardens the 

 great difficulty is to get things to grow ; byt 

 in the country things grow only too fast and 

 too thick, and one's whole time is taken up 

 by preventing the spread of the clumps one 

 into another in inextricable confusion. Plants, 

 when first introduced, seem small, but in a 

 very few years they overspread their original 

 space and have to be taken up and divided ; 

 thus in the autumn I feel dreadfully cruel and 

 wasteful in absolutely throwing on the rubbish- 

 heap strong roots and clumps of such things 

 as the day-lilies, German irises, Japanese 

 anemones, antirrhinums, Iceland poppies, 

 globe-thistles, doronicums, aconites, etc. Of 

 course there must be some people who would 



