I/O 



GARDENING BY M YSELF. 



Let me say for your comfort, with a good 

 catalogue in your hands, you can hardly go 

 wrong. Take one that is prepared by an 

 honest and reliable man, and 3^ou will be al- 

 most sure to go right. For the dearest 

 things are not always the finest ; and a ten- 

 cent Sta7idard royal may be just as true a 

 " novelty " to you^ as a one-dollar King Pe- 

 pin, or any other new beauty that has taken 

 its place and price. If I could only give 

 you some faint idea of the wonders that 

 decked my garden last spring, you would 

 see that these same mazes of the catalogue 

 are no desert land. 



Concerning varieties of these fair winter 

 flowers, there must after all be differences 

 of opinion, as about other things ; and to 

 really advise, therefore, might be — on the 

 whole — to disappoint. I shall counsel noth- 

 ing, but that you choose for yourselves. 

 This being distinctly understood, I can with 

 a clear conscience go on to tell you of some 

 things 1 have especially enjoyed. 



I have said that bulbs are reliable,— yet 



