Part One—Plants in the House 
CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTION 
P “Q0-DAY the garden is in the zenith of its 
glory. The geraniums and salvias blaze in 
the autumn sun; the begonias have grown 
to a small forest of beautiful foliage and bloom; 
the heliotropes have become almost little trees, and 
load the air with their delicate fragrance. To- 
night — who knows? — grim winter may fling the 
first fleet-winged detachment of his advance across 
the land, by every road-side and into every garden- 
close; and to-morrow there will be but blackening 
ruins and burned bivouacs where the thousand camps 
of summer planted their green and purple in the 
golden haze. 
And what provision, when that inevitable day of 
summer’s defeat comes, have you made for saving 
part of the beauty and joy of your garden, of car- 
rying some rescued plants into the safe stronghold 
of your house, like minstrels to make merry and 
cheer the clouded days until the long siege is over, 
and spring, rejuvenescent, comes to rout the snows? 
I do not know which is the more commonly over- 
