PREPARATIONS FOR REMOVAL. 259 



difference in leaf, which seemed so puzzling, must 

 have been due to what florists would designate as a 

 sportive change in the plant possibly the first speci 

 men of a new and valuable seedling. 



I tended those plants carefully ; water was given 

 them regularly, the windows were opened on every 

 genial day, and the directions contained in my books 

 were marked, and re-read daily, to insure the observ 

 ance of every important point. Still the plants did 

 not seem to thrive. They grew weaker slowly, but 

 steadily; every morning found them less vigorous, 

 and often was marked by a premature death. In 

 fact, the living ones diminished quite rapidly, and 

 ere a month had elapsed nearly all had perished ut 

 terly. This epidemic was peculiarly fatal among 

 my verbenas, although the books had described them 

 as being rather unusually hardy ; and with the ex 

 ception of Patrick s new seedling, which was vigor 

 ous enough, they were either dead or dying. This 

 was quite an appalling state of affairs. Eecourse 

 was had to my literary counselors ; recipes were 

 found for curing mildew, bugs, borers, red spiders, 

 and a large number of other difficulties, but nothing 

 on the subject of general debility. 



My flowers had no active disease, unless it were an 

 analogy to human consumption, or what our quack 



