GARDENING FOR WOMEN 167 



asked herself in the harbour of Baltimore, has arisen the 

 Horticultural School of Marienfelde. In the meantime 

 the lady was naturally inclined to continue her chosen 

 career of dentistry, to finish her studies, and begin to earn 

 her living. But the idea would not rest ! Whoever comes 

 to Marienfelde to-day and sees there the stately building 

 in its large garden, or has met a lady-gardener, trained 

 at Marienfelde, in her thoroughly satisfying calling, must 

 acknowledge what splendid results have sprung from this 

 idea of the German student in the distant American com- 

 mercial town. 



A bee -hive with the inscription, " No reward without 

 diligence," is carved over o*ne of the entrance-doors of 

 the school ; a suitable escutcheon as warning and incentive 

 to the entering students, and not less as a reminder of 

 the origin of the school and the busy life of its 

 foundress. 



Elvira Castner was a chemist's daughter, born in 1844 

 in a small town of western Prussia, and was a very lively, 

 clever child. That she might not have to go from home 

 for her education, her parents sent her to a boys' school, 

 kept by a very scholarly pastor ; there she eagerly studied 

 every subject up till then reserved for boys. After two 

 years at a seminary in Posen, she passed her teacher's 

 examination. She liked her calling as teacher, but owing 

 to throat trouble had to give up this profession. She 

 went to Berlin for five years, and her health being re- 

 established, her long-restrained love for medicine woke 

 to new life. Liberal Berlin granted her what had been 

 unattainable in the provinces. 



