PURCHASING 



grower or dealer putting out the catalogue is an 

 all-important matter about which inquiry should 

 be made. 



Peony growers' booklets contain much valu- 

 able information, but they are sometimes mislead- 

 ing. The fascination of the printed word seems 

 never to be so strong as in flower catalogues. The 

 ingenuousness with which one peruses and accepts 

 all of these that come to hand each year is un- 

 deniable proof of the vernal and eternal charac- 

 teristic of hope. While catalogue reading is prac- 

 tically unexcelled as a form of indoor agricultural 

 and horticultural diversion, I fear that it is some- 

 what dangerous to the happiness if not to the life 

 or liberty of the novice. The extravagant use of 

 "the best," "superb," "splendid," "magnifi- 

 cent," " indispensable " and other ecstatic adjec- 

 tives at times thrills even a hardened buyer, but 

 to the beginner, sensitive to suggestion, it is often 

 positively hypnotic. I would not for a moment 

 intimate that this is wilful misrepresentation: it 

 does not seem, however, always to be the whole 

 truth. A peony may be veraciously described as 

 so appeahngly beautiful that one's hand at once 

 reaches for the order form. But before indulging 



121 



