EXPENSES 
59 
and Iris germanica for this low price, and 
Anchusa Dropmore for 4s. a dozen. 
The cheap advertisement written in glowing 
terms and specially designed to catch the 
ignorant, is to be taken with that pinch of 
salt so healthful for beginners. Some of the 
things offered may be healthy stock and true 
to name, but often bitter disappointment is the 
lot of the gardening ignoramus who is attracted 
by the wonderful descriptions and prices to 
match. Sales by auction in country towns 
are not much good either. Often the plants 
are hawked about from one town to another, 
and are so shrivelled and weary at the end, 
that they never properly recover. 
Order your plants from some reputable 
nurseryman. If he is your neighbour, so 
much the better ; and try to get them home 
in September or early October. You will find 
that the clumps of most of them will pull to 
pieces and divide into three or four pieces 
again. Do not cut them with a knife or 
spade, but pull apart, or use a blunt chisel to 
help you. Plant these pieces carefully in good 
soil, and in the spring, say in April, if you 
take them up you will find that in some cases 
you can divide again into three. Each of 
these pieces will flower, and by planting them 
