1 34 GARDENING BY M YSELF. 



They may be packed in damp moss and oil- 

 silk paper, and go safe ; but as people seldom 

 carry those conveniences in their pocket, and 

 as one may be offered a new rose-shoot when 

 one is away at a tea-drinking, let me tell 

 you a substitute. Ask for a raw potato, cut 

 it in two, and stick the ends of your rose- 

 shoots well in. There is nothing better. 

 I am not sure that any of the books recom- 

 mend a plan so unlike all *' modern improve- 

 ments," but our old gardener approved it 

 greatly ; and he would go off in a hot morn- 

 ing and bring back a potato full of new 

 cherry buds, or have apple shoots sent to 

 him thus from a hundred miles away. 



Hot weather is not the best time for cut- 

 tings ; but of course we who live by our 

 wits must learn to make use of things just 

 when they come, and cannot refuse sprigs 

 of geranium because it is July. We get 

 them in a bouquet, or on a visit ; or they 

 come to bless our sick-room. And here let 

 me say, there is no sweeter kindness to an 

 invalid than to send her flowers — cut flow- 



