2 
The Young Gardener . 
the plants chiefly treated of. Many an hour after- 
wards in the long winter evenings we pored over 
“ Mawe’s Gardening,” but that was an old-fashioned 
and a very solid work, and we did not make much out 
of it. After awhile, however, we were enchanted 
by a present that we received of a book called “Mrs, 
Loudon’s Gardening for Ladies.” Oh, how charmed 
we were — I have still got the book. But after all 
it was a great way beyond such limited wants as 
ours ; the fine long names besides were always so 
very tempting, and led us into trouble. I do not 
like them now, because we soon discovered that 
the best things get pet names ; and I have too 
gone back again to think, with most children, that 
the commonest things are nicest, so that we need 
not scout a Primrose or a Blue-bell— no, nor the 
wild Geranium, although they are very common. 
Why, if we talk of common, the double white 
Narcissus grew wild in our own fields. Lilies of 
the Valley carpeted the woods, and the loveliest 
pink Violets that I remember anywhere grew on a 
limestone rock just above the quarry. And there 
was also a Hawthorn-tree, it was a pink one, and 
you should have seen the Violets that clustered 
around its root ! 
Do you want to grow specially fragrant Violets ? 
