SUMMER MEETING AT BROOKFIELD. 77 



center and the border we have tulips and hyacinths, the latter of five 

 or six different colors. We often find two or even three flower stalks 

 from a single bulb of hyacinths ; not so with the tulips. But this last 

 year we had two perfect blooms on a tulip, the stalk dividing into two 

 equal branches about four inches' above the soil. I have never seen 

 the like before, have you ? My experience favors the idea that a good 

 bulb bed should be mainly of pure humus — wood-earth, cow dung and 

 sand. Holland and Belgium are the countries that send us the best. 



ROSES. 



We have a pillar rose, originally brought from Kentucky, which 

 generally blooms with us in April. It was May this year before the 

 flowers appeared. The rose is pink, with but few more petals than the 

 wild rose ; is very pretty in the bud, and thornless. Since the first 

 bloom on this bush we have not been without roses to decorate our 

 table and mantels until the last week in November. 



Of June rose& we have, single bushes on the lawn and in a rose 

 hedge, George IV, Maiden Blush, yellow roses, and what we prize very 

 highly, a Crested Moss. This last is an erratic grower, a straggler, and 

 very hard to propagate under any circumstances ; this, like all moss 

 roses, is most beautiful in the bud, but unlike most moss roses, the full 

 blown flower is also very fine, very double and fragrant. The moss is 

 so profuse as to frequently scatter over the foliage. 



Of flowering shrubs we have the White Fringe — most beautiful — 

 Japan quince, Hercules Club, Dutzia graoilis and three varieties or 

 colors of lilacs. Never have I seen such profusion of bloom as on the 

 lilacs this last season, not only on our grounds but on every bush 

 throughout our county. 



Hybiscas, in various colors, was seen in almost every garden in 

 Kirkwood but our own. The moon-flower vine has also become a gen- 

 eral favorite ; it is a very rapid grower, blooms in the night during 

 warm weather, but as the days grow shorter and the nights cooler, the 

 flowers hang on and keep open during the day. 



And now, Mr. President and friends, allow me to close with a quo- 

 tation for a sentiment — Whittier : 



"The night is mother of the day, 



The winter of the spring, 

 And ever upon old decay 



The greenest mosses cling. 

 Behind the cloud the starlight lurks. 



Through showers the sunbeams fall ; 

 For God, who loveth all his works, 



Has left his hope with all." 



