SOME GARDEN VICES 



hypnotized purchaser, lured on and befuddled by his 

 obsession, buys and sows, plants and digs, and waits 

 in tremulous anticipation for the consummation so con- 

 fidently predicted in his favorite quarterly. And season 

 after season the unashamed truth looks up at him from his 

 carefully tended beds, beautiful in its own way, doubtless, 

 but what a different way ! Where is the gaudy glory 

 promised by the shiny page ? Where the immense 

 spread and height of leaf and flower, the dahlias reach- 

 ing to the dining-room windows, the moon-flower 

 covering the entire wall of the house, the solid bank of 

 yellow poppies, the foot-long spires of mignonette ? 



Woe upon printed deceit ! Instead of the lush growth 

 of branch and many-tinted flower, a shy, conservative 

 bloom rewards your expectations. Many of the dahlias 

 have elected to open in a one-sided manner, as though 

 reluctant to leave the bud for the full ear; the moon- 

 flower has devoted most of its length to the ground, 

 refusing the proffered assistance of wire netting to lift 

 it skyward and so with the rest, for, oh ! the differ- 

 ence between nature and art. 



There are other failings to which the amiable among 

 garden folk are subject, different small vices, harmless 

 enough, it may be, but capable of arousing extreme 

 bitterness of soul in those who must endure their con- 

 sequences. Their name, indeed, is legion, and it were 

 an impossible task to enumerate them all. But a few 

 stand out with a certain salience and merit mention, not 



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