A Little Maryland Garden 69 
of her backwardness, and dug her up. I 
found the tuber covered with bluish lice. 
This was something unheard of in my garden 
experience, but I dealt with it by the light of 
common-sense, washed them off, and planted 
her again. She now throve, but a worse fate 
befell her. In my zeal, with that ambition 
of ignorance that leads mothers to overtrain 
their first children and gardeners to kill their 
plants with kindness, I provided for the 
visits of the borer long before borers were 
even hatched. I made a solution of Paris 
green according to directions, and watered 
it about the roots of my dahlias. This is 
recommended as a preventive against the 
visits of that active insect. My thoughtless- 
ness, however, lead me to throw away the 
leavings of the mixture, with its residue of 
poison, over the last plant I came to, the 
Nymphea. It was too strong a dose, and 
the tuber was completely burned by it. 
So that it had been saved from one enemy to 
be delivered over to a more cruel death. 
Mary Service presented me with some 
