PLANTS AS COMPANIONS. 13 



profited. As you cultivate them, you will really cultivate 

 yourselves. Do you ever think of them as being more 

 than companions, and in some sense your relatives f 

 Such is the fact, for they have the same wonderful thing 

 called life. It is in a lower form, but is equally a divine 

 gift, full of mystery and meaning. Perhaps this accounts 

 for the sympathy that comes with their acquaintance, 

 the peculiar interest and charm of their companionship. 



This sympathy with nature in all its varied life is well 

 worth cultivating. It is a most desirable element of 

 character, as well as a rich source of happiness. It may 

 be cultivated the whole year round, and does not require 

 of necessity the costly appointments of a greenhouse. 

 You are with your plants in the " living-room" much 

 more than you could be in either greenhouse or garden, 

 and so have abundant opportunity even in winter time of 

 becoming acquainted and interested. 



In such case, the love of plants will surely grow, as 

 surely with you as with Charney, or others more like 

 you. Why, I have seen grave m> n. and venerable ma- 

 trons become as enthusiastic over their "Picciolas" as 

 any little boy over his first pair of boots ; and I have al- 

 ways observed that such persons bear a sort of perpetual 

 youth the summer of the heart in the winter of age. Is 

 not this the result of their interest in all growing life ? 



I hardly need say to you that it is a very different thing 

 to cultivate plants merely for fashion's sake, because it is 

 accounted "the proper thing to do," or in order to hear 

 some one say : " Oh ! your plants are so much nicer than 

 Miss Grundy's." Such a motive as that seems to be 

 almost a desecration, and certainly it can never have the 

 rich reward that comes from the true love of " Picciola." 



This letter is already long enough for the first, and yet 

 I can not close it without some reference to the connec- 

 tion between "Picciola the plant" and "Picciola the 

 maiden." How natural, poetic, beautiful ! It was fit- 



