10 MVKRr WOMAN HER OWN FLOWER GARDENER- 



humblest can raise flowers which Solomon, in all his glory, could npt 

 have eclipsed! 



Why does not everybody have a Oeranium, a Rose, a Fuchsia, or 

 some other flower in a window, if they do not own land enough to 

 plant a garden ? They are very cheap — next to nothing, if raised from 

 a cutting, and of small price if purchased from the florist; and there is 

 companionship in them, as well as grace and beauty. 



Charming Leigh Hunt, whom I love to quote, says: 



" Flowers sweeten the air, rejoice the eye, link you with nature and 

 innocence, and are something to love. If they cannot love you in re- 

 turn, they cannot hate you ; cannot utter hateful words even if neglected ; 

 for, though they are all beauty, they possess no vanity ; and living, as 

 they do, to do you good, and afford you pleasvire, how can you neglect 

 them !" 



There are few dwellers in the country who are so destitute as not to 

 be able to indulge in a love for flowers. The garden may be of the 

 smallest size — a mere tiny circle— and it will often be loved the more for 

 its smallness, and receive more care and attention. 



It will not do to care for it a week, and then neglect it for two 

 weeks. It demands constant care, daily attendance, waterings, and 

 weedings. 



Nothing destroys its beauty like the noxious weeds that will grow up, 

 like Jonah's gourd, if not constantly uprooted. The tenacity of their 

 life is wonderful ; uprooting will not always kill them, and they will 

 mature their seeds, and prepare for another struggle with you in an 

 ensuing summer, even when their roots lie withering in the sun. 

 " What hidden virtue is in these things, that it is grunted to sow them- 

 selves with the wind, and to grapple the earth with this unmitigable 

 stubbornness, and to flourish in spite of obstacles, and never to suffer 

 blight beneath any sun or shade, but always to mock their enemies, with 

 the same wicked luxuriance ? " 



Thus enquires Hawthorne, while sturdily waging a warfare against 

 them, in the garden of the " Old Manse," at Concord, Mass., and no one 

 can " make reply." Animal manures, though very stimulating to vege- 

 table life, are the sources whence many of the grassy weeds spring. 

 Artificial manures do not introduce so many of these pests into the 

 beds and borders, yet some of them are so highly charged with noxious 

 exhalations that one dislikes to apply them. 



