GARDENING BY M YSELF. j 5 3 



Portulaccas too are not mid-day flowers ; 

 much as they love an open, sunny situa- 

 tion, and well as they stand dry weather, 

 their blaze of beauty cannot bear the direct 

 heat. They are all aglow at breakfast, and 

 nowhere at dinner. Poor soil agrees with 

 them, and a mixture of Hme rubbish im- 

 proves their colour. 



For gay steady bloomers through heat and 

 drought, few things are better than the dwarf 

 tropasolums — T. minor. How brilliantly 

 T. King of Tom Thumbs faces the wither- 

 ing sunbeams, and comes off with flying 

 colours ! It quite refreshes one even to see 

 such endurance. How rich in contrast are 

 the dark maroon blossoms of T. King 

 Theodore, — not black, as was said at first — 

 (and . now, in some unscrupulous cata- 

 logues — ^) but very, very dark. One of the 

 deep worsted-shades of red. Mr. Vick says 

 the finer cHmbing tropaeolums make a beau- 

 tiful bed, if well pegged down ; but I have 

 never tried them so myself. 



There's a temptation to everything just 



