372 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



little caution, there is no risk. The use of the boiling water is to destroy any 

 insects that may have escaped the planter's eye when making up the compost. 

 It will not only do that, but it will kill their eggs also, and equally make an 

 end of the seeds of the weeds and the mycelium of fungi ; all of which are 

 enemies better got rid of at first than to be hunted for when their ravages 

 become a source of alarm. 



When the pan is nearly cold, the ferns may be planted, and the process of 

 planting will consolidate the compost, so that it will, when all is finished, be 

 an inch below the edge of the pan, as it ought to be ; it may indeed go below 

 that, and need filling up with some of the finest of the mixture, which should 

 be sprinkled over as a finishing touch. — Land and Water. 



-*- 



CUT FLOWERS. 



FLOWERS FOR THE TABLE. 



Set flowers on your table — a whole nosegay if you can get it, or but two or 

 three, or a single flower — a rose, a 2:»ink, a daisy, and you have something that 

 reminds you of God's creation, and gires you a link with the poets that have 

 done it most honor. 



Flowers on the morning table are especially suited to them. They look like 

 the happy wakening of the creation ; they bring the perfume of the breath of 

 nature into your room ; they seem the very representative and embodiment of 

 the very smile of your home, the graces of good morrow; proofs that some 

 intellectual beauties are in ourselves or those about us, some Aurora (if we are 

 so lucky as to have such a companion), helping to strew our life with sweet- 

 ness, or in ourselves some masculine wilderness not unworthy to possess such 

 a companion or unlikely to gain her. — Leigh Hunt. 



FLOWER DESIGNS. 



There are many beautiful ways of arranging flowers besides in our costly 

 vases. For example, take a basket and knit a strip of different shades of 

 moss-colored worsted ; then dip in hot water and press them ; when dry ravel 

 nearly out, only leaving an end which can be fastened on to the basket with 

 sewing silk, or green glance thread and a large needle. A basket tastefully 

 covered in this way looks as if it were made of moss and retains its beauty 

 longer; a tin dish should be made to fill it and painted green ; keep it filled 

 with natural flowers; such an ornament is nearly as beautiful as costly porce- 

 lain. 



To form a pyramid of flowers, take three, four, or five wooden bowls, 

 according to the size you wish for your pyramids ; let there be a regular grada- 

 tion in the size ; procure some round pieces of wood like ribbon blocks, graded 

 in size; glue the tallest into the center of the largest bowl, so that it will 



