8 2 GARDENING BY M YSELF. 



the two broad, full-fleshed seed leaves with 

 which all the rest came forth into the light, 

 this sent up one Siamese-twin of a leaf; the 

 two seed-leaves that should have been, were 

 joined together nearly their whole length, 

 and with a single footstalk. Where would 

 the true leaves make their appearance? 

 There was no sheltering nest between the 

 seed-leaves, but only an irregular, out-of- 

 the-way affair, that looked as if it had never 

 found out its vocation. I watched and 

 waited ; the plant did not droop, it did not 

 grow. The other young dahlias, its com- 

 panions, put forth their first pair of leaves, 

 and their second pair of leaves; and still 

 the strange little seedling shewed nothing 

 but its first one-sided growth. At last, 

 when the third pair of leaves was unfolding 

 on all the rest, the life in this began to stir. 

 Down at the very foot of its one leaf stalk, 

 close to the ground, came out a confused 

 tuft of leaves. One seed-leaf — a sort of 

 compound of what the first should have 

 been and what it was — with a cluster of 



