between brown and maroon, with all sorts of chequered 

 markings in primrose shades. It reminds me of the fritillarias 

 which we used to pick in a special meadow in Suffolk, and 

 which are so well described by V. Sackville-West : 



where the springing grass 

 Was dulled by the hanging cups of fritillaries, 

 Sullen and foreign-looking, the snaky flower, 

 Scarfed in dull purple, like Egyptian girls 

 Camping among the furze, staining the waste 

 With foreign colour, sulky-dark and quaint, 

 Dangerous too. . . . 



However, my gladiolus is more cheerful : it does not hang its 

 head, and its allure is not so deadly. But it has a great fascination 

 for the hybridist, though I do not think that a really successful 

 cross has yet been made with it. Anyone who has once felt the 

 attraction of the gladiolus species can never leave them. They 

 are undoubtedly difficult ; I was much troubled with a sclero- 

 tium disease and used to dip in formalin solution every season, 

 but now I grow them on sandy soil and not on the same ground 

 for more than four or five years, and my bulbs are all perfectly 

 healthy, the only trouble being rodent moles, for which there 

 seems to be no cure but only one long unceasing fight. 



The big torch-lilies (Kmphofia Zululandiae] near the waterfall 

 are making a brilliant flame of colour among the ferns and 

 tall grasses of the streamside. These are the biggest and most 

 fiery that I have seen. There is a so-called hybrid grown in 

 England which looks much the same : the stem is five to six 

 feet tall and the flowers about two feet of it. They make one 

 remember the glow from a blacksmith's forge on a late 

 November afternoon in England. When cut they look majestic 

 with Strelit^ia reginae, which is blooming quite close to them. 

 I first saw this plant in the public gardens in Conoor, Madras, 

 and could hardly believe it to be a flower ; I little thought 

 that I should ever see it in bloom in a garden of my own. There 

 is nothing of the get-rich-quick about them for the nursery- 

 man. To begin with, they often take a year to germinate, 

 though they will sometimes make an appearance at three months 

 if the seeds are well soaked before sowing. They then make 



48 



