HARDY PLANTS FOR COTTAGE 
GARDENS 
IN THE BEGINNING 
+ did from the head of Jupiter. Opening wide his 
wicket gate the author discloses hundreds of rosebushes bend- 
ing under a perfumed burden; he points to shrubs of giant 
height and multitudes of perennials, difficult to raise, that are 
perpetually in bloom. Though the author may touch blithely 
upon the possible disasters of the floral kingdom, they are 
treated more as a matter of tradition than as a present evil; 
his larkspurs show no blight, his hollyhocks are free from rust; 
his lilies fail not from mites or drought. Apparently all is 
smooth sailing from start to finish; yet we, who have dabbled 
a bit with Nature, read with mixed emotions as we recall sea- 
sons of despair over our own roses, lilies, larkspurs and holly- 
hocks; for these wayward inhabitants of our garden have had 
an unfortunate habit of contracting every known disease. 
Other unhappy memories of defeat and loss rise up and 
darken the page. Our humiliation is needless; for, in the 
flush of success, authors have thoughtlessly omitted any men- 
tion of mistakes. 
The present volume is not an ambitious contribution to the 
subject of floriculture; it is a faithful record of the ignorance, 
repeated failures and disheartening losses that have attended 
I 
