It is a very old book, and very queer. It has a brown leather
back--not russia--and stiff little gold flowers and ornaments all the
way down, where Miller's Dictionary has gold swans in crowns, and
ornaments.

There are a good many old books in the library, but they are not
generally very interesting--at least not to us. So when I found that
though this one had a Latin name on the title page, it was written in
English, and that though it seemed to be about Paradise, it was really
about a garden, and quite common flowers, I was delighted, for I
always have cared more for gardening and flowers than for any other
amusement, long before we found Miller's Gardener's Dictionary. And
the Book of Paradise is much smaller than the dictionary, and easier
to hold. And I like old, queer things, and it is very old and queer.

The Latin name is, "_Paradisi in sole, Paradisus terrestris_," which
we do not any of us understand, though we are all learning Latin; so
we call it the Book of Paradise. But the English name is--"Or a Garden
of all sorts of pleasant flowers which our English ayre will permitt
to be noursed up;" and on the top of every page is written "The Garden
of Pleasant Flowers," and it says--"Collected by John Parkinson,
Apothecary of London, and the King's Herbarist, 1629."

I had to think a minute to remember who was the king then, and it was
King Charles I.; so then I knew that it was Queen Henrietta to whom
the book was dedicated. This was the dedication:--

"TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY."

"_Madame_,--Knowing your Majesty so much delighted with all the
fair flowers of a Garden, and furnished with them as far beyond
others as you are eminent before them; this my Work of a Garden
long before this intended to be published, and but now only
finished, seemed as it were destined to be first offered into
your Highness's hands as of right, challenging the propriety of
Patronage from all others. Accept, I beseech your Majesty, this
speaking Garden, that may inform you in all the particulars of
your store as well as wants, when you cannot see any of them
fresh upon the ground: and it shall further encourage him to
accomplish the remainder; who in praying that your Highness may
enjoy the heavenly Paradise, after many years' fruition of this
earthly, submitteth to be your Majesties,"

"In all humble devotion,"

"JOHN PARKINSON."