66 A Little Maryland Garden 
dahlia. This was so instructive, and so at- 
tractive with its photographs of different 
varieties, that I had it bound. It is the 
only way to preserve a pamphlet. Otherwise 
they are always disrespectfully treated, as 
belonging to the class of ephemeral literature, 
and lose their first and last leaves, and sink 
into disgrace. 
After reading this little book nothing but 
the small space I had to give prevented me 
from plunging heavily. There is a tremend- 
ous magnetism about the handsome, highly 
cultivated flowers. If one reads about roses 
he wants a rose garden; and if iris or peonies 
become the subject of his studies, he has a 
covetous desire to own every sort—the purple 
and red, the rose, blush, and white, all display 
themselves so attractively to the mind’s eye. 
The country dahlias I had seen were 
entirely of the deeply quilled sort and 
generally bright scarlet or yellow. My read- 
ing inclined me to the cactus variety, but 
two of the decorative class made too strong 
an appeal to be dismissed. These were 
