1 86 PROSERPINA. 



grand botanical collections, and you can find it 

 all out for yourself. That you should be able to 

 ask a question clearly, is two-thirds of the way 

 to getting it answered ; and I think this chapter of 

 mine will at least enable you to ask some questions 

 about the stem, though what a stem is, truly, " I am 

 not sent to tell thee, for I do not know." 



Knaeesborough, 30th Apiil, 1876. 



I see by the date of last paragraph that this 

 chapter has been in my good Aylesbury printer's 

 type for more than a year and a half. At this 

 rate, Proserpina has a distant chance of being 

 finished in the spirit-land, with more accurate in- 

 formation derived from the archangel Uriel himself, 

 (not that he is likely to know much about the 

 matter, if he keeps on letting himself be prevented 

 from ever seeing foliage in spring-time by the 

 black demon-winds,) about the year 2000. In the 

 meantime feeling that perhaps I am sent to tell 

 my readers a little more than is above told, I 

 have had recourse to my botanical friend, good 

 Mr. Oliver of Kew, who has taught me, first, of 

 palms, that they actually stitch themselves into 

 the ground, with a long dipping loop, up and down, 

 of the root fibres, concerning which sempstress- 

 work I shall have a month's puzzlement before I 



