25 MARCH 1938, Page 20

Far-off Things Even more alluring, to the countryman, are those

romantic seed and plant catalogues from Africa and India, New Zealand, California and Japan. They offer native seeds, freshly gathered, at absurd prices ; alpine rarities at a tenth of the price •'f home-grown plants ; lily bulbs as cheap as potatoes. TheY are all very, very alluring. Many are perfectly genuine. But there is a gentleman in Japan—perhaps he is now working on the gullible Chinese instead of on the gullible English— who still owes me one pound's worth of Japanese alpines and is, I suppose, likely to go on owing them yet. It was not a question of his not receiving the cash ; I inquired,about that. All easily allured gardeners should remember him.

H. E. BATEs.