fin ^ntfcfpatfon. 25 



I shudder when I think of the books I ought 

 to "assimilate," directly and indirectly, in con- 

 nection with the subject of gardening. Think 

 of it ! Darwin's " Vegetable Mold and Earth- 

 Worms," Dyer's " Natural History of a Flow- 

 ering Plant," Harris's "Talks on Manures," 

 Warder's " Hedges and Evergreens," Darwin's 

 " Climbing Plants," Berthold Seemann's " Re- 

 vision of the Natural Order Hederacese," Ben- 

 tham and Hooker's " Genera Plantarum ad Ex- 

 emplaria imprimis in Herbariis Kewensibus ser- 

 vata definita," Loudon, Downing, Lindley there 

 is, apparently, no end to them. 



The illustrations of the unabridged diction- 

 aries, too, that one is forced to encounter ; the 

 cuts of the snakes and the reptiles that are coiled 

 around every other page of a book one is com- 

 pelled to read ! One always opens the diction- 

 ary at the snake pages, or is confronted with a 

 growling peccary, a hooded basilisk, a Mephitis 

 Americana, or open-mouthed crocodile, to pro- 

 mote a shiver that is liable to develop into bron- 

 chitis. The most barbarous words, likewise, 

 seem always placed at the top of the page in 

 staring capitals medical and scientific terms 

 one must perforce swallow, even though the 

 dose be nauseating. The serpent and lizard 

 appear to be the favorites of the lexicogra- 

 3 



