^9^' 



*~r 



Your voiceless lips, 0, Flowers! are living preachers, 

 Each cup a pulpit, every leaf a book. 

 Supplying to my fancy numerous teachers 

 From loneliest nooks. 



'Were I in churchless solitudes remaining. 

 Far from all voice of teachers and divines. 

 My soul would find in flowers of God's ordaining. 

 Priests, sermons, shrines."— Horai r. Smith. 



A NNUAL GREETING. 



DEAR FRIENDS:— I take pleasure in offering to you my list of flower seeds for 1S97. In preparing this list I have 

 aimed to discard all inferior varieties and add only those things that are proving really desirable, and which flower- 

 lovers will be glad to add to their collection. A careful examination will show that my catalogue contains such varieties 

 especially as make a fine show in the garden, or are valuable for cutting. With added experience, I am sure that I offer 

 this year a greatly improved list. What seed I do not raise I procure from the most reliable sources. My PANSY and 

 ASTER seed are of the finest German importation, and some other varieties are of California growth, in a climate es- 

 pecially adapted to their most perfect ripening, notably the SWEET PEAS and COSMOS. 



All my seeds have been subjected to careful and repeated testing, and under the right conditions you must get 

 good results. Should you, however, fail, when you know that your own part has been carefully performed, or should 

 any of my seeds fail to be true to name or unsatisfactory as to quality, I shall want to hear from you about it, and will 

 try, so far as possible, to please you. 



But, dear friends, something besides good seeds is necessary, as any cultivator of flowers knows. Plants are like 

 children. You can't treat them all alike; their habits and needs must be considered. You cannot sow your seeds all at 

 one time, in the same soil, at the same depth, with the same heat and moisture, and expect good results. Yet that is 

 just what some do, and then think the seed is at fault if all does not go right. Read my CULTURAL DIRECTIONS care- 

 fully and get all the information you can in other ways, and you will, if the season is at all favorable, be successful. 



Thanking you for your patronage and wishing you the best of ^ 



success in your summer garden, and hoping that it may be to you \J, 



a continual delight, I am with you (^TsTl/f /?!/! sfl . 



A lover of flowers, KJ^fV(//VL/VL/ 



