JULY 137 



books or modern catalogues, one feels one has nothing in 

 one's garden, t>ut I must confess that visiting other 

 people's gardens very often makes me feel I really have 

 a very fair collection. A notebook is a most important 

 companion on gardening expeditions. I use metallic 

 paper, to ensure a permanent record, and an ordinary 

 pencil. I write the date and name of the place, then jot 

 down the names of plants and general observations. I 

 have also kept a kind of gardening journal for many 

 years, making notes three or four times in the month, 

 and on the opposite page I keep lists of any plants I buy 

 or bring home from friends, with the date ; noting the 

 deaths the following year is instructive. I have lately 

 had a rain-gauge given me. This is a great interest and 

 amusement, especially where rain-water is always in 

 demand and often running short. I did not know the 

 importance of rain-water when first we came to live 

 here; and though we have lots of roofing, we are not 

 sufficiently provided with underground tanks. Our small 

 ones are supplemented now as much as possible by 

 petroleum barrels sunk into the ground, and the water- 

 shoot from the roof allowed to pour into them. You can 

 connect this first barrel with others by a little piece of 

 lead piping, and so increase the storage. 



For those who have not got very good memories for 

 the names of plants, I strongly recommend them, if they 

 can draw, to make a little coloured sketch, however small, 

 on the page of a gardening book 'next the name of the 

 plant. This will be found a great help to the memory ; 

 I began gardening so late in life that I had to get all the 

 help I could. I have lately been visiting what I call 

 intelligent gardens, and will make a few remarks about 

 them. In one place where Eoses grow well I saw a 

 beautiful specimen of La Marque Eose one of the most 

 satisfactory Eoses for a wall. Everyone ought to try and 



