422 STATE POMO LOGICAL SOCIETY. 



plant. The flowers are now as large and as double as the rose or as perfect as 

 the camellia. The German florists have devoted much time to the perfection 

 of the flowers. We sliould hardly recognize the old balsams of twenty years 

 years ago in the superb double blossoujs of to-day. 



The balsam is an East Indian plant, and requires plenty of beat to bring it 

 to perfection ; hence it cannot be well grown in the cool climate of Grevit Brit- 

 ain only in pots under glass. With us, however, it is one of most rapid grow- 

 ing border plants, flowering abundantly from seeds sown in the open ground 

 the latter part of May. To have them in greater perfection the seeds may be 

 planted now in a hot-bed, and as soon as large enough potting them off into 

 small pots, shifting once or twice, and planting out in the border in June. 

 The soil should be rich to produce good, strong spikes of large and perfectly 

 double flowers. English cultivators, who pride themselves on producing the 

 finest double blossoms, never use seed unless three years old ; fresh seed, they 

 say, is more likely to produce only semi-double or single flowers. Few plants 

 add more to the beauty of the flower border than the double balsams, and those 

 known as the camellia-flowered are the most esteemed ; they are beautifully 

 blotched and spotted or striped like a fine carnation. 



CUT FLOWERS. 



SUCCESS WITH FLOWEKS. 



Some people are never successful with flowers, while others are uniformly so. 

 There is such a thing as too mucii care, and it is equally as injurious as too 

 little. We know of one lady who was always seeking advice about the 

 management of this and that flower, and always took everybody's advice, until 

 all her flowers perished. Then she tried again, using her own judgment, 

 assisted in a general way by a standard work on the subject; her success has 

 been all that could be desired since. Some water too much. No rule about 

 supplying water can be laid down — except the general one — wacer whenever 

 needed. This leaves it to the discretion of the grower, and the habits of each 

 variety must be closely observed, to be successful. It is a great accomplishment 

 to be able to bring out all the rich beauty of a flowering plant — a greater one 

 than to be able to make an imitation in wax, or even in water colors or oil. 



INFLUENCE OF A PLANT. 



A little plant was given to a sick girl. In trying to take care of it the family 

 made clianges in tlioir way of living. First they cleaned the window, that more 

 light might come to its leaves; then when not too cold they would open the 

 ■window, that fresh air might help the plant to grow. Next the clean window 

 made the rest of the room look so untidy ihat they used to wash the floors and 

 walls and arrange the furniture more neatly. This led the father of the family 



