JANUARY ^5 



were no social duties and no vineyards^ in Algiers. 

 My two sisters and I bought three horses, and j^ode wild 

 every day in the scrub of Myrtle, Cistus, Dwarf Oak, 

 &c. It was about iive miles from the town, on what 

 is called the 'Sahel,' that the one plant grew that I 

 was told botanists knew ought to exist, but with all 

 their searching had never found. I am thankful that 

 I dug it up instead of picking it, only knowing that it 

 was a pretty flower. Then after a year or two Durando 

 saw it, and took off his hat to at, and told me what a 

 treasure it was, and proceeded to send off little bits to 

 his friends ; and among them all. Ware of Tottenham 

 managed to be beforehand, and took a first-class certi- 

 ficate for it. It is odd that there should never have 

 been another plant found, for there never was such a 

 free-growiag and multiplying plant. My sister in 

 Herefordshire has had over fifty blooms this winter; 

 but we count it by thousands, and it is the feature in 

 all decorations in every English house in Algiers." 



Throughout January, and indeed from the middle 

 of December, is the time when outdoor flowers for 

 cutting and house decoration are most scarce ; and yet 

 there are Christmas Roses and yellow Jasmine and 

 Laurustiaus, and in all open weather Iris stylosa and 

 Czar Violets. A very few flowers can be made to look 

 well if cleverly arranged with plenty of good foliage; 

 and even when a hard and long frost spoils the few 



' The planting of large vineyards had destroyed the botanical 

 interest of wh^t liad beei) beautiful flowei^ -ffastes. 



