Teachers' Leaflet. 



6ii 



think so will lead to many failures in gardening. More than a majority 

 of plants that we have in cultivation are foreigners. Although they 

 haA^e been much improved in productiveness or brilliancy of bloom, in 

 the last half century of citizenship, they still retain much of the old 

 country temperament. The pansy is a familiar illustration. Half a 

 century ago, when I trudged back and forth to the red schoolhouse, 

 dinner pail in hand, I passed a bed of what to me were the most beautiful 

 flowers in the world. Twice each day — going and returning — I would 

 gaze through the fence, and converse with those faces. To some of them 

 I gave names. They were " Johnny- jump-ups " then. Now with all 

 the skill of the plant breeders, they are pansies. With all the marvelous 

 improvement in splendor of colors, they have not changed their tempera- 

 ment in being cold-loving plants. Not many years ago, I received a letter 

 from one of my school girl nieces, which read like the following: 



" Dear Uncle John ; My pansies are sick. I am afraid they are 

 going to die. I do not think my pansies want to die any more than I 

 do. What shall I do for my 



j ^ -" " ^V fe^ 



V 



'in 



Wl 



Some gcraiiittnis that have not been 

 made comfortable. 



pansies ? " 



Believing in the impulse of 

 motherhood in plants, I knew 

 my little niece was right ; her 

 pansies did not want to die. 

 Also knowing that they are 

 cold-loving plants, I could 

 well understand why they 

 were sick under the heat of 

 droughty August. As a plant 

 doctor I explained the situa- 

 to my young friend, and for 

 treatment directed that she 



pick all the seed pods, so the plant would be relieved from the labor of pro- 

 ducing starch lunches for the seed; that sh2 give the panries partial shade 

 by putting a frame of slats over them ; also give the plants plenty of water. 

 I said she must keep them in this sanitarium until the shortened days and 

 cooler nights of late September came, and then her patients would be 

 fully recovered. This would be about the date when Equator Shem 

 would for the second time in the year have no shadow, for the vertical 

 rays would be moving south. Pansies attain their greatest glory in 

 the cool and moist climate of England and Holland. T am told 

 that they also are very comfortable in the state of Ore2:on. They are 

 among the most popular of our early spring flowers, and seem comfortable 

 and cheerful during some of the sour and snow squall days of April, 



