1 62 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



and the other is, when the leaves have died dgwn in June, 

 and the earth is weeded and raked, to cover the beds 

 where the bulbs are planted with pieces of glass, so that 

 the rains of July, which are so frequent, should not damp 

 the bulbs before they are ready to start into flower in 

 September. When the flower-buds appear, a dose of 

 liquid manure may be given them; and a little fern to 

 protect their leaves in early spring is desirable. I know 

 nothing more beautiful than the fine, pink, Lily-like flower 

 on its thick, rich brown stem when brought into a room. 

 September IGth. — About this date is when we look, 

 here in the South, for the first sign bf cold, or even for frost. 

 The weather must be watched, and any half-hardy things 

 that have not done flowering are best taken up, potted, 

 and encouraged to go on flowering. The drought this 

 year kept many things back. My Tuberoses and the 

 sweet-smelhng white Bouvardia — the one best worth 

 growing, especially outside — I must now take up, and 

 they will go on flowering in the greenhouse. The pink 

 and red Bouvardias are pretty, but have no sweet scent, 

 like the white ; the pink ones are a true pink, and that 

 is always worth cultivating for a greenhouse, where every 

 shade of magenta should be excluded. I am sure many 

 of the eye-shocks we receive with regard to colour — both 

 in dress, in rooms, and in the arrangement of flowers — is 

 not so much owing to what would be called bad taste as 

 to various degrees of colour-blindness. An inability to 

 see colours at all, much less to see the shades truly and 

 correctly, is far more common than we imagine, and is 

 one of the things that should be tested in child- 

 ren, as — though probably the defect cannot be cured, 

 any more than short sight, which is now so much helped 

 by glasses, &c. — any good oculist would give advice as 

 to the best method of cultivating the eye to be true as 

 regards colour. The improvement in the arrangement of 



