174 MORE POT-POURRI 



splendidly. I wish I had room for eight pots of them 

 instead of only two. There are several pots with JEpi- 

 phyllum truncatum in full flower. The flowers are very 

 pretty when seen close, and look well gathered and put 

 into small glasses ; but the colour is a little metallic 

 and magentary. Most greenhouses have them, but few 

 people manage to flower them well. 



Ficus repens is a little, graceful, easUy cultivated 

 greenhouse climber, which hangs prettily in baskets or 

 creeps along stones in a greenhouse border. 



Every year we grow various Eucalyptuses from seed 

 — some for putting out, and some for retaining in pots — 

 especially the very sweet Uucalyptus citriodora, which is 

 in the greenhouse now and is a great help, as it looks 

 flourishing ; while the sweet Verbenas will have their 

 winter rest, as they are deciduous, whatever one does — 

 at least, so far as I have been able to manage up to now. 

 But I am not sure that autumn cuttings, grown on in 

 heat, might not remain growing at any rate for part of 

 the winter. Life is always rather unbearable to my lux- 

 ury-loving nature without Lemon-scented Verbena, and 

 I miss it so in the finger-bowls at dinner, partly because 

 those few leaves supply what one wants without much 

 trouble. But a little bunch of Violets carefully arranged, 

 and one Sweet Geranium leaf, especially the Prince of 

 Orange, make a combination that pleases everyone, and 

 they are always at hand at this time of year. 



January 14th. — In the January number of a charm- 

 ing little periodical called 'The Sun -children's Budget,' 

 intended to teach young children botany easily and 

 amusingly, there was an account and an illustration of a 

 rare English wild flower, Pceonia coralUna. The coloured 

 print of it gives the idea that the red may not be of a 

 very pretty hue ; but this would not matter, as the chief 

 charm of the plant is the seed-pod. This slightly re- 



