SOME GARDEN VICES 
hypnotized purchaser, lured on and befuddled by his 
obsession, buys and sows, plants and digs, and waits 
in tremulous anticipation for the consummation so con¬ 
fidently predicted in his favorite quarterly. And season 
after season the unashamed truth looks up at him from his 
carefully tended beds, beautiful in its own way, doubtless, 
but what a different way! Where is the gaudy glory 
promised by the shiny page ? Where the immense 
spread and height of leaf and flower, the dahlias reach¬ 
ing to the dining-room windows, the moon-flower 
covering the entire wall of the house, the solid bank of 
yellow poppies, the foot-long spires of mignonette ? 
Woe upon printed deceit! Instead of the lush growth 
of branch and many-tinted flower, a shy, conservative 
bloom rewards your expectations. Many of the dahlias 
have elected to open in a one-sided manner, as though 
reluctant to leave the bud for the full ear; the moon- 
flower has devoted most of its length to the ground, 
refusing the proffered assistance of wire netting to lift 
it skyward—and so with the rest, for, oh ! the differ¬ 
ence between nature and art. 
There are other failings to which the amiable among 
garden folk are subject, different small vices, harmless 
enough, it may be, but capable of arousing extreme 
bitterness of soul in those who must endure their con¬ 
sequences. Their name, indeed, is legion, and it were 
an impossible task to enumerate them all. But a few 
stand out with a certain salience and merit mention, not 
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