she answered in the correspondence columns of the Magazine, and
in July 1884 it was suggested that a "Parkinson Society" should be
formed, whose objects were "to search out and cultivate old garden
flowers which have become scarce; to exchange seeds and plants; to
plant waste places with hardy flowers; to circulate books on gardening
amongst the Members;" and further, "to try to prevent the
extermination of rare wild flowers, as well as of garden treasures."

Reports of the Society, with correspondence on the exchanges of plants
and books, and quaint local names of flowers, were given in the
Magazine until it was brought to a close after Mrs. EWING'S death; but
I am glad to say that the Society existed for some years under the
management of the founder, Miss ALICE SARGANT, and when she was
obliged to relinquish the work it was merged in the "Selborne
Society," which aims at the preservation of rare species of animals as
well as plants.

The "Letters from a Little Garden" were published in _Aunt Judy's
Magazine_ between November 1884 and February 1885, and as they, as
well as "Mary's Meadow," were due to the interest which my sister was
taking in the tending of her own Earthly Paradise,--they are inserted
in this volume, although they were left unfinished when the writer was
called away to be

"Fast in Thy Paradise, where no flower can wither!"

HORATIA K.F. EDEN.

_December, 1895._

* * * * *

NOTE.--If any readers of "Mary's Meadow" have been as completely
puzzled as the writer was by the title of John Parkinson's old book,
it may interest them to know that the question has been raised and
answered in _Notes and Queries_.

I first saw the _Paradisi in sole Paradisus terrestris_ at Kew, some
years ago, and was much bewitched by its quaint charm. I grieve to say
that I do not possess it; but an old friend and florist--the Rev. H.T.
Ellacombe--was good enough to lend me his copy for reference, and to
him I wrote for the meaning of the title. But his scholarship, and
that of other learned friends, was quite at fault. My old friend's
youthful energies (he will permit me to say that he is ninety-four)
were not satisfied to rust in ignorance, and he wrote to _Notes and
Queries_ on the subject, and has been twice answered. It is an absurd
play upon words, after the fashion of John Parkinson's day. Paradise,
as _Aunt Judy's_ readers may know, is originally an Eastern word,
meaning a