246 GARDENING OVER A WINTER FIRE. 



through its pages, and marked the kinds I de- 

 cided upon raising. 



I can assure the ladies that the bliss of look- 

 ing through the fashion-plates and ordering the 

 spring styles, is not to be compared with the 

 deliberation on the seeds you intend raising. 

 Then only less welcome, because less familiar, 

 are the catalogues of Peter Henderson, B. K. 

 Bliss & Sons, Thorburn & Co., Bridgeman, 

 Flemming, Landreth, Briggs & Brother, and 

 others ; and between them you are like a gour- 

 mand, who, instead of being invited to sit 

 down to one feast, has placed before him a 

 dozen banquets at the same time, and is bewil- 

 dered how to choose. 



As by a winter fire we turn over these dainty 

 pages, what visions they conjure up to the im- 

 aginative amateur ! " Conover's Colossal As 

 paragus ! " How that sounds ! but from brief 

 trial I am coming to the conclusion that it does 



