19-ra NOVEMBER. 



THE GARDEN begins to look more like summer. The first 

 blue agapanthus plants are in bloom ; and how welcome they 

 are ! 



Crinum longifolium (C, capense] is good this season, as we 

 have had rains at intervals and an exceptionally high winter 

 rainfall. This Crinum is extremely handsome with its 3-foot 

 stout stems and umbels of large lily-like pendent blooms, 

 striped and flushed with pink. A very good thing for a her- 

 baceous border or planting at the edge of a shrubbery, it 

 continues to bloom most of the summer as long as it gets 

 water ; it is one of the few plants that show to better advantage 

 as single specimens. I have not seen the hybrids between this 

 plant and Amaryllis belladonna (Brunsvigia rosed} ; but I hear 

 they are good. Crinum varialnle does not do well here (probably 

 it dislikes our wet winters), but the rare C. Kirkii is very hand- 

 some. 



Pelargoniums are making a grand show, especially P. 

 Burtoniae. It has yellow-green leaves, and its masses of bloom 

 are in a queer shade of red that I cannot describe ; the petals 

 of the flowers are very narrow and quite distinctly 3 down and 

 2 up, giving the heads of bloom a very gay effect, quite different 

 from the smug pomposity of our well-known " scarlet ger- 

 aniums ". Unfortunately this species seldom sets a seed. 



In my kloof garden is an enormous bush of Pelargonium 

 inquinans, about 5 feet high and as much in circumference, just 

 covered with heads of soft pink bloom. One may cut 3-foot 

 branches of it and make wonderful decorations in large bowls 

 or jugs. This is probably not the true Pelargonium inquinans^ 

 which I think has bright scarlet flowers. 



Pelargonium triste is still in bloom. It does not make a startling 

 display, but its tufts of finely-cut leaves are attractive, and the 

 heads of greenish or maroon blossom have a mysterious quality, 

 giving the impression of being very, very old. The plant makes 

 an underground tuber and disappears completely when summers 

 become too hot. Pelargonium echinatum has much the same habit, 

 but it leaves a thick woody stem protected by prickles in which 



