P E E F A C E. 



My Dear Uncle : 



A few of us girls they call us " young ladies," but I like girls, 

 and we are only young girls have been trying to keep plants in 

 our rooms through the winter. We are Rose and Lilly Rich- 

 mond, Mary Miner, Jennie Weeks, Daisy Burritt, and myself. 



We began last winter in a small way, and made rather sorry 

 work of it. So many of our plants either died outright, or just 

 lingered along like invalids. But a few did tolerably well ; so we 

 are not entirely discouraged, and we are not going to give it up 

 yet. We have no trouble with our pets in summer time ; it is all 

 in winter. Oh, if we only had a greenhouse ! But that's out of 

 the question. 



I know well enough that we need help. We have tried to get it 

 from books; but the few that we have seen have a great deal 

 more to say for outside gardens and rich men's conservatories 

 than for our poor little greeneries. We have questioned Judge 

 Kent's gardener, and have found out some things from him ; but 

 he has never tried plants in rooms like ours, except to bring them 

 in for a little while from the greenhouse ; and so he can't tell us 

 exactly what we want to know. All our friends who try to keep 

 plants through the winter are but little, if any, better off than we 

 are. We have frequently compared notes with them, and, of 

 course, have gained a little ; but it is, oh, so very little ! 



But now we begin to have hope. Before Aunt Mina left us last 

 week (what a delightful visit we have had with her !) she told us 

 about some of your experiments, and how much interested you are 

 in all such small attempts at floriculture. You didn't " profess to 

 be a florist," she said, but she was sure that you could tell us many 

 of the very things we need to know ; and she thought you would 

 be willing to write us a few plain letters about our plants, but I 

 must write first, and ask you. 



So, now, please do ! That's a dear, good uncle. Tell us all 

 about that embowered study of yours. How I wish we could see 

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