PtlEFACE. 5 



Then it is that you would feel all the value of a 

 chamber-garden, the flowers of which could be 

 renewed at small cost every few weeks ; taking 

 care to admit into it those only which, from the 

 delicacy of their perfume, or their absence of 

 smell, would be sure not to be injurious to your 

 health. 



Suppose this enforced seclusion to have be- 

 gun in the month of May, a season at which a 

 garden possesses the greatest attractions ; sup- 

 pose your circumstances such as to forbid your 

 indulging in the luxury, little expensive as it 

 is, of a flower-stand ; in that case, here is a re- 

 ceipt for gardening without earth, without water, 

 without so much as a flower pot even ; in a word, 

 without any expenditure beyond a mere trifle. 



Procure from a gardener a fresh bunch of a 

 thick-leaved plant, named rhodiola rosea, in 

 English the houseleek, that will cost you at 

 most a few cents. At the beginning of June 

 the stalks of the rhodiola are garnished along 

 their whole length with fleshy leaves, and ter- 

 minated by a bunch of buds, as yet but little 

 developed, and disposed in a corymb. Drive 

 into a wall two hooks, about half a yard apart 

 in a horizontal line ; and upon this support lay 

 the stalk of rhodiola, without tying it in any 



