THE TUBEROSE. 7' 



The Dahlias have been good with me this year, 

 but I have done badly in Hollyhocks. The 

 Tobacco-plants, which I generally grow, and 

 which were last year so handsome, have also failed 

 me ; and so have the Ice-Plants, the Egg-plants, 

 and the Amaranthus salicifolius, nor do I see any 

 sufficient reason for it. 



The Tuberose, the flower which, even in the 

 perfect garden of the "Sensitive Plant," was said 

 to be 



* The sweetest flower for scent that grows,'' 



has been very sweet with us. But we dare not 

 leave it in our garden ; we bring the pots, with 

 their tall green wands tipped with delicious tufts 

 of bloom, into the centre hall, and the warm 

 perfume rises up the staircase, and floats along 

 the open gallery above. 



September 19. I have just gathered from the 

 wall between the vineries the finest blossom I ever 

 happen to have seen of what I maintain is the 

 finest flower in the world the Magnolia grandi- 

 flora so large and round is it, of such a rich 

 cream colour, and with such a rich strong scent. 

 The Tuberose even seems a plebeian flower bv the 



