SEPTEMBER 31 



Dervishes had melted to companies and the companies to 

 driblets, they broke and fled, leaving the field white with 

 jibba-clad corpses, like a meadow dotted with snowdrifts." ' 



Is this really the last of these snow-flecked plains, or 

 will another Mahdi and other Dervishes arise in future 

 ages, to once more strew the ground with these white-clad 

 corpses ? 



September ~L3th. Last year, about this time, I drove 

 to Mr. Barr's at Long Ditton, and there I saw, planted out 

 in an open bed, Tigridias, both white and red ; and they 

 looked splendid. I have never seen them grown out of 

 doors in gardens, but Mrs. Loudon in her ' Ladies' Flower 

 Garden ' (the volume on bulbous plants) speaks of them as 

 easily cultivated if taken up in the autumn. Mrs. Loudon 

 says : ' They have tunicated bulbs and very long fibrous 

 roots which descend perpendicularly. They should be 

 planted in a very deep rich soil, which should either be of 

 an open nature, or be kept so by a mixture of a sufficient 

 quantity of sand, so as to allow a free passage for the 

 descent of the roots, in the same way as is necessary for 

 Hyacinths. If Tigridias are to be raised from seed, the 

 seeds are sown in March or April on a hot-bed and 

 transplanted into the open border in May. Here they 

 may remain till the leaves begin to wither in autumn, 

 when the young bulbs should be taken up and kept for 

 planting the ensuing spring. The splendid colours of 

 this flower and the easiness of its culture render it a 

 general favourite. Its only faults are that its flowers 

 have no fragrance, and that they are of very short 

 duration, never lasting more than a day. But they are 

 produced in such abundance in succession as to com- 

 pensate for this defect. It is a native of Mexico. In its 

 native country its bulb is considered medicinal, and it 

 was on this account that it was sent to Europe by 

 Hernandez, physician to Philip II. of Spain when he 



