VI 
WINTER 
l 75 
certain that no work can be done in the garden, 
but you may perhaps have a few plants in the 
house to tend through the winter. If so they 
must be given as much light and air as possible, 
and children should be careful not to keep them 
very hot during the day, while the fires are 
burning brightly, and not to leave them near 
the window in a room which will get very 
much colder during the night. I was very 
disappointed once with one of those pretty 
“Japanese lilies,” or “joss flowers.” The 
bulb was placed on a few stones in a little 
china bowl kept full of water, and it grew 
beautifully, threw out roots, which clung round 
the stones, and long green leaves and flower¬ 
ing stalks. I had grown it in my bedroom, 
where it was fairly cool in the day, but never 
got very cold at night, until one day when the 
buds were very nearly out, and its narcissus¬ 
like flowers would be open in about two days, 
I was so proud of it that I carried my plant 
down to the drawing-room that it might be 
more seen. It was a large room, facing south, 
and all day my lily stood on a marble slab near 
the window, the sun warm on one side and the 
blazing fire on the other. Sad to relate, I left 
it there all night, through ignorance, not care¬ 
lessness. During the night the fire burnt out, 
the room grew cold, the large window-panes 
