78 THE RESIDENCY GARDEN

Carmine Pillar; and we had our first plateful of strawberries. ;

A light mauve iris, a native of Kashmir, uow came into bloom; geraniums and some lovely varieties of Shirley poppy which I had obtained from Mr. Luther Burbank, the famous plant-breeder of California, began to blossom ; and roses of every variety came rapidly on till the garden became a blaze of colour.

The first of some remarkably beautiful del- phiniums—some a deep blue, some sky blue, and some opalescent—which I had also obtained from Luther Burbank appeared in bloom on May 17th.

A spell of hot weather now set in, and on May 21st the maximum temperature rose to 84° in the shade and 184° in the sun, and the minimum to 54°.

By May 25th the roses were at their maximum of beauty. The sweetly-scented and delicately- coloured La France roses were at ‘perfection. Rich bushes of General Jacqueminot, of John Hopper, of the pink rose of Kashmir, and of many other kinds whose names I do not know, formed great masses of colour against the soft green leaves and the plenti- ful foliage of the chenar trees. William Alan Richardson climbed over the trellises. The Shirley poppies gave every deep or delicate shade of red