Chincherinchees The nearest rival to the Gleams within the house
is a bowl of South African Chincherinchee flowers sent over in cold storage. They are a marvellous combination of strength and delicacy. The bottoms of the stalks which you are advised to sever were so tough that they almost defied a strong pair of scissors. The delicate white heads of flowers open slowly and sedately and persist in virgin freshness for a great many weeks. South Africa is not only peculiarly rich in lovely flowers ; her season waxes when ours wanes ; its heyday is our autunin ; and even those who visit that sunny and most hos- pitable land in February find some glorious relics, especially in the heaths, which might very well be imported here for they last for months. Experto crede. The flowers are one example out of many signifying how closely we are in touch with South Africa, that floral paradise. Octavo-sized Christmas cards, sufficiently solid and weighty in structure, go out for the sum of one halfpenny ; and go quickly, by air mail. An illustrated well-bound book (lighter, it is true, than such books often are) that I sent out to a resident near Cape Town cost twopence halfpenny. The " shrinkage of the world " (a title coined by Mr. Townsend in The Spectator over forty years ago) has con- tinued at a pace even beyond the imagination of that very imaginative writer.
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