JANUARY 23 



flowering shrub, in which one is very likely to be 

 deceived in the same way, is the beautiful witch hazel 

 (Hamamelis arborea). Time after time I have received 

 from tradesmen the American H. virginica, a plant 

 of no merit whatever, and found out too late that no 

 crimson and yellow flowers were to reward me at 

 Christmas-time. It is worth some trouble to get this 

 shrub, for it is as hardy as box, and the blooms, like 

 small orchids, load every spray. 



The hellebore season in properly managed gardens 

 may be made to last five or six months. It opens with 

 the giant Christmas rose (Helleborus niger maximus), 

 far the fairest of all, which begins to flower late in 

 October; then come the other varieties of H. niger, 

 commonly known as Christmas roses, after which the 

 white, purple, and streaked species, and Dutch hybrids 

 prolong the series till Easter. 



X 



People say, truly enough, that we are warm in the 

 west because of the Gulf Stream; but few care to 

 inquire into the meteorological machinery WestCoaa 

 by which it affects the temperature. The Meteoro- 

 mere afflux of a body of water, a few degrees Offy 

 warmer than the rest of the Atlantic, against the 

 western shores of these islands, would never add appre- 

 ciably to the warmth of the air. If that were so, then 

 it would raise the summer temperature as many degrees 

 above that of the rest of Great Britain as it does the 

 winter temperature; whereas it is well known that, 



