SOCIETY OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 267 



her clergyman, a wise old man, pointed to a very handsome and 

 valuable painting in her living room, saying, "That is what 

 caused your boys to run away to sea." The picture was one of 

 her wedding presents, and represented a fine ship in full sail. It 

 had hung where her children could always see it and admire it, 

 and it made an impression upon their youthful minds that nothing 

 could efface. 



We read, in our school days, of a battle that was lost "all for 

 want of a horse-shoe nail;" but, although they see the impor- 

 tance of the horse-shoe nail, how many realize what effect upon 

 our characters, and our whole lives, a mere picture may have? 

 One who has grown in a rocky, sterile, mountainous country, 

 differs as much in character from one who has always lived on 

 rich, fertile plains as the native places of the two differ. 



If such things affect a human life to such a degree, what will 

 not the constant association, either in the taking care of plants or 

 simply seeing them, do for one? A person cannot live in a home 

 where there are house plants, and not be influenced for the better 

 by them. 



I think there is a whole sermon in this fact. Everyone 

 who has a window admitting even an hour's sunshine should have 

 a plant or two. It does not require technical knowledge and 

 elaborate information to be successful with house plants, as many 

 suppose. "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow," and 

 apply your knowledge thus gained to the care and cultivation of 

 plants. It is not so important to start the plants when the signs 

 are right, or to plant them in the moon, as it is to use a little 

 common sense, put them in good earth, set them in a sunny 

 window, and water them regularly. Drowning them one 

 day, and drying to death the next, does not insure thrifty 

 plants. 



House plants, like most things in this world, will reward you 

 according to the care bestowed upon them. There is no plant 

 more satisfactory than the geranium. For winter blooming, slip 

 them in May, and not later than the first part of June, notwith- 

 standing that the books say September. For convenience, start 

 the slips in one box. As soon as they begin to grow, transplant 

 them into the pots you wish to put into the windows, and do not 

 transplant again until you put them in the ground the next May, 

 w 7 hen you take slips again. When you transplant the old plant 

 from the pot to the garden, set it, pot and all, on the spot in 

 which you intend to put it, and leave it a few days. In that way, 

 it becomes used to the new place, and when it is removed from 

 the pot to the earth its growth is not checked. Try to set them 

 out just before a rain. If it is not convenient fo do so, pour a 

 quantity of water on the roots before they are entirely covered. 

 Then finish filling around with earth. In this way, the earth will 

 not dry out and bake hard around the roots. 



