BY WAY OF DEDICATION. XI 



her beds of portulaca (a sort of cousin of the 

 fat weed), and utterly cast it out. It is, 

 however, to be expected, that retributive 

 justice would visit the innocent as well as 

 the guilty of an offending family. This is 

 only another proof of the wide sweep of 

 moral forces. I suppose that it is as neces 

 sary in the vegetable world as it is elsewhere 

 to avoid the appearance of evil. 



In offering you the fruit of my garden, 

 which has been gathered from week to week, 

 without much reference to the progress of 

 the crops or the drought, I desire to 

 acknowledge an influence which has lent half 

 the charm to my labor. If I were in a court 

 of justice, or injustice, under oath, I should 

 not like to say, that either in the wooing days 

 of spring, or under the suns of the summer 

 solstioe, you had been, either with hoe, rake, 

 or miniature spade, of the least use in the 

 garden ; but your suggestions have been in 

 valuable, and, whenever used, have been paid 

 for. Your horticultural inquiries have been 

 of a nature to astonish the vegetable world, 



