ON GETTING THERE 13 



excellent in the world for cycles. They are, he 

 says, no matter what the weather, always so clean. 

 That is true, clean they are ; hut good ! — it is a 

 matter of opinion. There is a foot- wide brick track 

 in the centre, deep sand everywhere else ; at least 

 such are the roads to the bulb gardens I know 

 best. 



But in den Heer's case part of the bulb land 

 was round the house. He had other farther away. 

 Land so near Haarlem is too valuable for a man 

 to own all he wants there. It would, of course, 

 be to this near garden he would go when the 

 important letters were finished and the visitor 

 rested. It is no impressionist picture of colour 

 splashes to be got there, but detailed, like an old 

 Dutch painting. You do not see the stretches of 

 blue and yellow iris, you see the flowers. They 

 are individuals to den Heer, not masses. He 

 knows them, or, at least, representatives among 

 them. He stops before the long strip of new 

 iris — mixed sorts raised from seed, in the hope 

 of producing some variety worth saving and 

 propagating. 



" Ah, Ah ! " he will purr as he touches some 

 one among them, "here we have a good flower, 

 the violet — the true violet — observe the eye." 



