JANUARY 183 



by English people. Most English cooks only use them 

 as a flavouring for soup or boiled beef. They are really 

 excellent stewed, and very good raw, cut up with beet- 

 root, especially if not the large, coarse kind recom- 

 mended in most of the English catalogues. The Long 

 Winter Leek {Poireau long d'Hiver de Paris) is quite 

 distinct from all other kinds. It is very delicate, quite 

 small, withstands the winter well, and is the only kind 

 that produces those fine, very long, slender Leeks which 

 are seen in bundles early in the year in the Central 

 Market at Paris. In France, gardeners help nature a 

 little by earthing up the plants while they are growing. 

 It can be chopped up fine with other salad herbs when 

 Chive tops are not to be got unless they are forced. The 

 wild Leek (the Allium ampeloprasum) still grows, I 

 believe, in parts of Wales, and is, as to form and 

 tint, beautiful and decorative. It is, of course, well 

 known as the Welsh emblem. 



January 27th. — I have on my flower table a shrub- 

 by Begonia, in a pot, with small, pointed, spotty leaves 

 and hanging white flowers. They are easily reared 

 from seed, and I do think they grow so beautifully and 

 can be pruned into such lovely shapes ! They are far 

 more beautiful than those great, flat, floppy, opulent, 

 tuberous -rooted ones that flower in the summer. The 

 parent of my plant (mossy green leaves, spotted silvery 

 white) must have been called B. alba picta. 



The white Arums, which were laid on their side all 

 the summer in the pots and well dried, are handsomer 

 plants, and throwing up more flowers than I have ever 

 had before when they were planted out in summer. 



In this dry, frosty weather we thin and prune out the 

 shrubberies. Every plant is given a fair chance or else 

 cut down. Taking all suckers from the Lilacs improves 

 them immensely. How seldom it is done ! 



