290 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[October, 



Few things are more valued in winter than a ' 

 bunch of Sweet Violets. A few may now be | 

 potted, and they will flower in the window to- , 

 wards spring; or a small bed of them may be ^ 

 made in a frame, which should be protected by 

 a mat from severe frost. To have Pansies flower 

 early and profusely in spring, they may be 

 planted out in a frame, aa recommended for the ^ 

 Violet. 



Herbaceous hardy border flowers are often 

 propagated in the fall by dividing the roots ; but 

 unless it is convenient to protect the newly-made 

 plants through the winter, it is better to defer 

 this till spring, as the frost draws out of the : 

 ground and destroys many. Where it is now 

 resorted to, a mulching of leaves or litter ' 

 should be placed over the young stock when 

 transplanted. 



Chrysanthemums now in flower should have 

 their names and colors rectified, against the 

 time when in spring they may have to be re- 

 planted, when they can be re-arranged with ac- 

 curacy and satisfaction, according to the owner's 

 taste. 



Amongst the pretty effects which we have seen 

 this year, have been several attempts at forming 

 winter gardens of evergreens. It was suggested 

 in England a few years ago, that the massing : 

 system of growing flowers in summer was object- 

 ionable in this, that it left the beds naked 1 

 through the winter. To remedy this, they had 

 a reserve garden of evergreens from which the 

 plants were taken every year after the frost had 

 killed the flowers, and set in the places where 

 the flowers were. This makes the flower garden 

 look green at least during the summer season. 

 This reserve garden of evergreens is usually put 

 into an out of the way place, and does not look 

 -very inviting in the summer time. In the case 

 -we have reference to, the reserve garden had the 

 evergreens set rather wide apart, and the spaces 

 between filled with Coleus, Achyranthus, and 

 other colored and variegated leaves. The effect 

 was very pretty indeed. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



WOMAN IN HORTICULTURE. 



BY S. B. PABSONS. 

 Readbefore the New York Horticultural Society. 



My few words will not consist of compliments 

 to woman. However deserved, they belong to 

 the social rather than the horticultural circle, 



to the drawing-room rather than the platform. 

 Mine will be simply an appeal to the women of 

 New York to aid this society by the charm of 

 their presence and the influence of their ex- 

 ample. 



The true, the well-balanced, the perfect wo- 

 man is an embodiment of taste and skill and 

 culture, with the addition of those other graces of 

 mind and sentiment and form which influence 

 fathers, husbands and brothers. This influence is 

 potent, and every true man, loving some true 

 woman, delights in nothing so much as the grat- 

 ification of her wishes. 



Men are immersed in business — in the many 

 engrossing cares of life. They have little time to 

 give to its pleasures. A rise in stocks, an ad- 

 vance in sheetings, a corner in wheat, will give 

 them a sensation which the fairest flowers can 

 never furnish. But when the cares of the day 

 are over, and in the quiet evening a man be- 

 comes the centre of his home circle — of "daugh- 

 ter and sister and wife — he realizes the breathing 

 of a new atmosphere. 



In the gentle nature which is then uppermost, 

 he responds gracefully to all intimations. If 

 Edith describes that love of a bonnet which she 

 saw in Broadway, a few tens are quietly slipped 

 into her hand, and an arm stealing around his 

 neck with a pat on the cheek tells him that he 

 is a very nice sort of a father ; if sister Sue has 

 seen at Stewart's a new silk, the shimmer of 

 which is like sunlight, a piece of paper with two 

 ciphers upon it finds its way between the leaves 

 of her book ; and when the crown of the house- 

 hold, with her shining eyes, describes the beauty 

 of Moran's Holy Cross, a check is found next 

 morning upon her toilet table. 



Now, this is all as it should be, only, for a 

 little while, we would urge that in place of the 

 bonnet and the silk and the picture, they 

 would describe the rich scarlet of the Jacque- 

 minot, the pure white of the Niphetos, the deli- 

 cate fawn of the Safrano roses, with all the rich- 

 ness of the various flowers which they have seen 

 during the day at the monthly exhibition of the 

 New York Horticultural Society ; and impress 

 upon him how much more worthy of a perma- 

 nent home — of a hall of their own — are these 

 pictures of nature's painting than all the pro- 

 ducts of the genius of man. The last are lim- 

 ited by the narrow bounds of human skill and 

 power ; the former are limitless in their shades 

 of color and variations of form. Nature never 

 copies. Every shade of a color, every curl of a 



