FEBRUARY 201 



reserved and caitiff in this part of goodness is the sordid- 

 est piece of covetousness, and more contemptible than 

 pecuniary Avarice.' 



. February 2nd. I have been reading lately two fasci- 

 nating books on natural history by George D. Leslie the 

 painter one is called ' Letters to Marco ' and the other 

 ' Eiverside Letters ' descriptions of his own home on the 

 river. The little illustrations have a great deal of artistic 

 individuality, and are to me, though slight, very superior 

 to the ordinary photographic reproductions. His descrip- 

 tion of cultivating the difficult ' Iris Susiana ' is so good 

 that I think I will copy it : 



' As ill-luck would have it, I missed the first burst into 

 bloom of an Iris Susiana to which I had been looking 

 forward with great eagerness. This Iris is very difficult 

 to manage in our fickle climate. It is six years since it 

 bloomed with me, then it did so in the open garden ; but I 

 have never succeeded in repeating this triumph in the 

 open air, and this is the first success after many failures 

 under glass. This Iris is in its native land (Levant) 

 generally covered with snow during the short sharp 

 winter, and makes its extremely rapid growth during the 

 short spring which follows; after blooming, it endures 

 the long, baking drought of summer, which ripens the 

 tuberous roots thoroughly. Of course in our country 

 such an arrangement in the open ground can hardly be 

 expected, and though when planted in the open the tubers 

 thrive and grow amazingly they make in our damp 

 autumns far too early a start, throwing up a number of 

 strong green blades, which are almost always doomed to 

 destruction by the last frosts of winter without showing 

 the least sign of bloom. The books say that they require 

 some protection such as a hand-light in the winter, but I 

 have tried it over and over again without the slightest 

 success. In my little greenhouse, however, I think I have 



