i 2 8 MORE POT-POURRI 



Outdoor Heaths seem to do better for cutting back 

 after flowering. 



Just lately I have received from the South of France 

 a box of dried figs, not pressed at all, but just dried in the 

 sun, as the peasants eat them. They are delicious, I 

 think; far better than the usual dried figs we get in 

 England, the inside seeds of which as a rule are much 

 too hard. 



December llth. The Hornbeam one of the old in- 

 digenous trees of England, and among the very best 

 for firewood is, judging from what I notice, very little 

 planted now and rarely named in catalogues. And yet 

 for many purposes it is useful and beautiful. It stands 

 the knife to any extent, and makes most satisfactory 

 hedges. 



In my last book I spoke of Pergolas those covered 

 walks made with poles, or columns of bricks or stone, and 

 overgrown with creepers of all kinds. Now I would speak of 

 the ' Charmilles ' walks either of turf or gravel covered over 

 with arches of growing trees, with no supports or wires 

 or wood, merely the interlacing of the boughs till they 

 grow thick overhead with continual pruning. There is a 

 little short walk of this kind at Hampton Court I forget 

 how it is made (I mean, with what trees it is planted) 

 and in the Boboli Gardens at Florence there are end- 

 less varieties, as everyone knows, of these covered walks. 

 They would be very beautiful on the north or east side of 

 many a sunny lawn ; and if a garden were too small for 

 such a walk, there might still be room for an occasional 

 self-forming arch, which adds mystery and charm to any 

 garden. It could be made either with Hornbeam, Beech, 

 or (perhaps best of all in light soil) Mountain Ash, which 

 flowers and berries too all the better for judicious 

 pruning, and which could make a support as well for Honey- 

 suckle or a climbing Rose. This kind of planting to gain 



