570 editor's table. 



forests. When shall it be said that the statement is no longer true ? When shall we be 

 able to point to a complete, or even a respectable American collection of our indigenous 

 trees and shrubs ? 



(tossip. — Fifty specimens of a goo<l flowering plant, when put together, will give more 

 effect when in bloom than fifty varieties of the best flowering plants in the world ; and one 

 kind of annual will have more effect in a planted " bedding" flower-bed than two, three, or 

 more kinds. A rose-be<l, consisting entirely of one variety — say Souvenir de Malmaison — is 



more effective than a heterogeneous mixture. All the China Asters, now so beautiful and 



improved, will come in a month earlier, if sown in tlie autumn. Another sowing of them 

 in the open border by the end of April, and a third in May, will save all the bother of rais- 

 ing them in hotbeds. Clarkias, Collinsia bicolor, Gilia tricolor, and the spotted Nemophilas, 

 should be twice transplanted ; the sweet Alyssum is also best from an autumn sowing ; 

 Oxalis Boweii, when treated as a window plant, will bloom best in the late summer and 

 autumn months. As soon as the flowering is over, lessen water, but give a little so long as 

 the leaves are green. In potting afresh, place from eight to twelve strong bulbs, about 

 three inches or so from the surface, in a six or eight-iucli pot. Passiflora cjerulea is hardy 

 at Philadelphia, and should be planted for balconies in fibry loam and sandy peat. Once 

 established, it should be pruned close back to within a bud or two of the main stems every 



winter. Sir Joseph Paxton, of Crystal Palace celebrity, commenced life as a gardener ; 



and the best mathematician at King's College, Aberdeen, at this time, is a man who part of 

 the year works in agriculture, and during the other part studies in college. Seek, then, to 

 inscribe your name in that golden record of self-made men, a place in which none of us 

 can inherit, but all may aspire to attain. First of all, you must have self-reliance, depend- 

 ence on your own powers, to achieve your own independence. The next step is industry ; 

 " the diligent hand maketh rich" : — 



" Kouud swings the hammer of industry, 

 Quickly tlie sharp chisel rings, 

 And the heart of the toiler has throbbings 

 That stir not the bosom of kings. 

 " He the true ruler and conqueror, 

 He the true king of his race. 

 Who nerveth his arm for life's combat, 

 And looks the strong world in the face." 



John Wesley, in his sermon on the use of money, says : "Make all you can — save all 



you can — give all you can. You must also have temperance. Intemperance, like impro- 

 vidence, is one of the evil eyes which look upon the labor of this country, and is not only 

 the father of that cruel wolf which seeks admittance to the poor man's hearth, viz., want, 

 but is the destroyer of a man's own self-respect, comfort, and respectability. You must 

 likewise possess integrity of heart both towards God and man ; be just and true in all your 

 dealings, and commend yourselves by probity of conduct alike to all around you, as to 

 Him (who seeth not as man seeth). The last step of the ladder which, by the divine 

 blessing, you may hope to attain, is independence." The microscope is now so much im- 

 proved as to attract attention from those least given to observation. When we see a soft 

 snail eating a hard cabbage-leaf or carrot, if we reflect on the operation, we must conclude 

 that it cannot be performed without the agency of teeth. The microscope shows us in the 

 palate of a land or water snail, rows upon rows of teeth, containing, altogether, hundreds 

 and hundreds of molars. The shark's rows of teeth are nothing to the weapons that line 

 the mouth of the little shell-fish called a whelk — half a dozen in each row in the middle, 

 with a chevaux de /rise of tusks on either side. A French microscopist made quite a sen- 

 sation, lately, by proving that the male itch-insect, which had been unknown before, was 



