The Pleasures of a Small Greenhouse 213 



The best plant is the one that has the deepest significance to you, even 

 though it never make a flower. I know a man who has hmidreds of plants 

 m expensive greenhouses, and the best plant of all is a little white clover 

 that closes its leaves by night and opens them by day. 



Against the background of winter every green and growmg plant is 



A snug little greenhouse where green things grow and flowers bloom in the very teeth of a northern winter 



emphatic Against the luxuriant background of summer a plant twice 

 as good may be overlooked and lost. The simplest and easiest things are 

 best, for it is not well to make the uncommon things too common. A dainty 

 rarity is all the better because it is seen in contrast w'th the homespun of 

 the geranium and begonia ; and the common things perpetuate the con- 

 tinuities and purposiveness of our lives. 



Like all effort that is worth the while, the labour of growing plants 

 under glass requires watchful care. This care is its own reward. Many 

 plants, however, are easy to grow, and with these the novice should begin; 



