NOVEMBER 95 



get on well without it. It is an admirable book ; in fact, 

 its only fault is that it is so comprehensive one feels, as 

 with most of the specialist gardening books, that the rest 

 of one's life must be spent in trying to understand that 

 one plant. I think there is a good deal to be said for 

 this kind of gardening. As the amateur advances in 

 knowledge he naturally wishes to grow with extra 

 perfection some plants with which everybody cannot 

 succeed. And I think, in the case of small gardens near 

 towns, that it would be a real interest for a man to grow, 

 let us say, Lilies from Dr. Wallace's book, or Irises by 

 the advice of Professor Foster, or Cactuses according to 

 Mr. Watson. This has been done over and over again in 

 the case of Eoses; but rarely, in my experience, with 

 other plants. 



November %lth. My principal flower- table in summer 

 is in a cool hall away from the sun. In winter, now that 

 I live here all the year round, I have it in the sitting- 

 room, close to a large south window. The sun in summer 

 quickly kills flowers that are cut and in water, but in 

 winter this is not so. On the contrary, it seems to cheer 

 them up and make them open out and look happy. I 

 will describe this flower-table as it stands before me. At 

 the back, in a pot, is a baby Araucaria (Puzzle-monkey). 

 These trees, so ugly when growing on a lawn, are 

 charming in the baby stage. They can be grown from seed, 

 and they do very well in a room. This little tree is raised 

 on a Japanese stand. Beside it is a pot containing a small 

 orchid, Odontoglossum picturatum, one mass of flowers like 

 yellow Violets. Various Cypripediums are in front in a 

 glass, and Imantophyllums that have stood out all the 

 summer and thrown up a few late autumn flowers ; they 

 are always most effective picked. There are also pieces cut 

 from a bright yellow Coronilla flowering out of doors 

 against a greenhouse wall, a bunch of white Paris Daisies 



