1 36 GARDENING BY M YSELF. 



how to make them grow ? The way is not 

 hard. But first about getting them. Do 

 you think I am needlessly fastidious? 

 Where a plant is large, why may not one 

 take a cutting ? Or what harm to gather 

 from another plant, loaded with ripe seed ? 

 That sounds reasonable ; but it does not 

 work well. An unmanageable golden rule 

 encircles other people's flowers, to my eyes : 

 a sure sense that, for some reason or other, 

 somebody would rather I should not touch. 

 Perhaps those seeds are the very first that 

 have ripened, and the owner has not yet 

 secured her own supply — perhaps you 

 might take off a cutting in just the wrong 

 place. One thing is certain : if you know a 

 person well enough to treat her plants as if 

 they were your own, you also know her 

 well enough to ask leave. 



Now then for our cuttings. How will 

 you choose them ? — if you can choose, — for 

 upon the proper ripeness of the wood will 

 depend much of your success. In all soft- 

 wooded plants, such as fuchsias and verbe- 



