JANUARY 181 



than those great, flat, floppy, opulent, tuberous-rooted 

 ones that flower in the summer. The parent of my plant 

 (mossy green leaves, spotted silvery-white) must have 

 .been called B. alba picta. 



The white Arums which were laid on their side all the 

 summer in the pots and well dried are handsomer plants, 

 and throwing up more flowers, than I have ever had before 

 when they were planted out in summer. 



In this dry frosty weather we thin and prune out the 

 shrubberies. Every plant is given a fair chance or else 

 cut down. Taking all suckers from the Lilacs improves 

 them immensely. How seldom it is done ! 



January 28th. There is nothing like a date and a 

 detailed account of the weather for accentuating a garden 

 fact. We have had lately several days of frost, and 

 we had to-day for luncheon so excellent a green vege- 

 table that both gardener and cook had immediately 

 to be interrogated as to details. The gardener said it 

 was grown from Button's hardy-sprouting Kale called 

 ' Thousand-headed,' and I see in a note to the catalogue 

 that ' the Borecoles thrive better in poor soil than most 

 vegetables.' This naturally accounts for their being 

 good-tasting here. In Vilmorin's list they are described 

 as a cattle-feeding plant of large size, and bearing frost 

 extremely well. The cook informed me that she had cut 

 the green of the leaf carefully off the stalk, and then 

 cooked it exactly like Spinach. I give my cook the credit 

 for cutting it off the stalk, as I had never suggested it. 

 The result was most satisfactory. 



RECEIPTS 



An excellent way to improve northern or frozen game, 

 of which a great deal is now sold, is to lay the birds in a 

 bath of milk for twenty-four hours, changing the milk 



