Old Time Gardens 
454 
of such sowings, and he pictured the delight and sur- 
prise of country folk in the future when they found 
the choice blooms, and the confusion of learned bota- 
nists in years to come. The delight and surprise 
and confusion would have been if any of his seeds 
sprouted and lived ! A few years ago a kindly 
member of our United States Congress sent to me 
from the vast seed stores of our national Agricul- 
tural Department, thousands of packages of seeds 
of common garden flowers to be given to the 
poor children in public kindergartens and pri- 
mary schools in our great city. The seeds were 
given to hundreds of eager flower lovers, but starch 
boxes and old tubs and flower pots formed the 
limited gardens of those Irish and Italian children, 
and the Government had sent to me such “ hats full, 
o 
sacks full, bushel-bags full,” that I was left with an 
embarrassment of riches. I sent them to Narragan- 
sett and amused myself thereafter by sowing several 
pecks of garden seeds along the country roadsides ; 
neyer, to my knowledge, did one seed live and pro- 
duce a plant. I watched eagerly for certain plant- 
ings of Poppies, Candytuft, Morning-glories, and 
even the indomitable Portulaca ; not one appeared. 
I don’t know why I should think I could improve 
on nature ; for I drove through that road yesterday 
and it was radiant with Wild Rose bloom, white 
Elder, and Meadow Beauty ; a combination that 
Thoreau thought and that I think could not 
be excelled in a cultivated garden. Above all, 
these are the right things in the right place, which 
my garden plants would not have been. I am sure 
