243 STATE HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



''Yes, that is for sale," said Neilson, promptly. 



''What is the price?" 



"One hundred and fifty dollars." 



"I'll take it," said he, as promptly, and he went down into his pocket and 

 produced three crisp fifty-dollar greenbacks. 



In a twinkling the prima donna snatched the two buds and spray of stnilax 

 from her hair and handed them to the gentleman with a graceful "thank 

 you," to the intense delight of ever3fone who witnessed the transaction. 



The story flew about the hall like wildfire, and in ten minutes all the 

 demoiselles attending the tables were importuning the florist for a spray of 

 "that Boston vine." The next day the New York florists sent for the Boston 

 man in haste, and all were willing and anxious for some of the Boston vine. 

 One wanted two hundred strings a day for a month ; another a thousand 

 strings a week for the season, and everybody wanted more or less. In a very 

 short time the Boston florist had orders for an immense quantity. He lost no 

 time in telegraphing to his partner in Boston, and in twenty-four hours the 

 firm had control of nearly every smilax in Boston and vicinity. Large 

 shipments were made to New York, and since that time smilax has been a 

 staple article with the metropolitan florists. 



LANDSCAPE GARDEXIXG. 



Mr. S. B. Peck, of Muskegon, gives in the Rural New Yorker some old 

 truths in new dress that we take pleasure in reproducing here : 



It is a principle generally assented to, that "curved lines are more beautiful 

 than straight ones." There is also another principle, not perhaps so generally 

 assented to, but of equal force, that "the beauty of a thing depends on its 

 perfect adaptation to its use." In the arrangement of walks and drives these 

 two principles are often confused, and the latter is ignored or sacrificed to the 

 insane idea of adopting the former in cases entirely incongruous. Thus, a 

 public building situated in tiie center of a large, inclosed plat, and used only 

 for public offices, has entrances from the surrounding streets at each of its 

 four corners, from which walks to the front and rear entrances are made in 

 the shape of a crescent, thus increasing the distance from 10 to 15 per cent. 

 In case of a fire, the firemen would surely cut across this arc to reach the 

 burning building. Equally inappropriate would be grounds devoted exclu- 

 sively to ornament and pleasure, like public parks, laid out in squares and 

 parallelograms. Triangles might be in good taste, but rarely, and should be 

 small, and there should plainly appear a reason for that particular shape at 

 that particular place. 



A walk from tSie street entrance to the front door of the house should be in 

 a direct line, but branching from that walks are in good taste curving around 

 the angles of the house to the side or back door. 



In public or private parks and cemeteries the case is different. There curved 

 walks and drives are indispensable to good taste. Let us look at the rationale 

 of the thing. It is a waste of time to prolong the distance to a public office or 

 to one's home, and it is not natural for business men to loiter by the way, 

 therefore curved walks in such places are not well adapted to their uses; but if 

 one's private grounds are sufficiently large to admit of a portion of them being 

 devoted to ornamental trees, shrubbery, and flowers, that portion is certainly 



