DECEMBER 141 



assurance that every one of them was worth having: 'A 

 selection of Roses which, in ground well dug and lib- 

 erally fed with farmyard manure, sheltered but not over- 

 shadowed, like Phyllis, "never fail to please." Hybrid 

 Perpetuals: Duke of Edinburgh, Etienne Levet, 

 General Jacqueminot, Her Majesty, Jules Margottin, 

 Margaret Dickson, Mrs. John Laing, Merveille de 

 Lyon, Paul Neyron, Ulrich Briinner. Hybrid Teas: 

 Captain Christy, Grace Darling, Gustave Regis, Lady 

 Mary Pitzwilliam, La France, Viscountess Folkestone, 

 Caroline Testout. Teas : Anna Ollivier, Bouquet d'Or, 

 Homfere, Madame de Watteville, Madame Faleot, 

 Madame Hoste, Marie Van Houtte, Perles des Jardins. 

 Polyantha: C6cile Brunner, Perle d'Or.' 



I have a near neighbour who is a most successful 

 Rose grower. Walking through his beautifully kept 

 beds the other day, I noted that the centre parts of the 

 plant, both in standards and dwarfs, had some bracken 

 twisted into them. This is a great protection against 

 the coming frosts. For anyone who cares about the 

 choicer Ferns, it is a protection to them, too, to have 

 their own leaves twisted round them in the shape of a 

 knob of hail- on a woman's head, firmly tucking in the 

 ends so that the winds of March may not untwist them. 



December 21st. — The perennial and ever -recurrent 

 aspect of the London streets at this time of year always 

 reminds me of the old happy Christmas holidays and of 

 long walks with three young gentlemen lately returned 

 home, who then considered it my chief defect that I had 

 not three arms. The mental attitude which I tried to 

 instil into them was to enjoy looking in at the shop- 

 windows rather than to admire or, above all, wish to 

 possess the extraordinary amount of rubbish displayed 

 inside, which, though it looked well enough arranged in 

 redundant heaps, would, I liioiight, seem to them mere 



