138 JULY 



and grace; but so many outside claims to his 

 attention have arisen this year, that he has no time 

 for these, his children, and I try to be their 

 foster-mother. The best, the Phoenix, the Areca 

 Lutescens, the Plumosa, and the Eotundifolium, 

 are in large tubs in partial shade under the south 

 wall, where they remain evergreen the whole year 

 round. It would be nice if they would stop when 

 they have attained to a good-sized growth, but they 

 will not. They grow and grow, and burst their 

 tubs, and strike their roots into the ground, and 

 some, the Livistonias, become too gigantic for 

 anything. 



Every fresh gardening coolie we get has to be 

 instructed in the art of using the English wheel- 

 barrow, a perfectly new form of garden implement 

 to them. It is odd to see how gingerly they handle 

 it, and how incapable they are of driving it straight, 

 usually letting it wander and meander about, almost 

 dragging them after it. When they arrive with 

 their load, they cannot be induced to drive it up 

 smartly and tilt its contents out in a heap. It is a 

 most excellent wheelbarrow, all made of iron and 

 tips up quite easily, but the coolie always empties 



