28 JANUARY 



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 maxi- 

 mus\ 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 G-ulf Stream: but 

 West Coast 

 Meteoro- few care to inquire into the meteorolo- 



lOSTV 



gical machinery by which it affects the 

 temperature. The mere afflux of a body of water, a 

 few degrees warmer than the rest of the Atlantic, 

 against the western shores of these islands, would 

 never add appreciably 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 ; 



