COLOR IN NATUKK AND AKT. 



siilplinr upon the coolest parts of the heatiiiji^ apparatus, and f,nve a trifle more heat fur 

 a tow days, wlieii the pest will disaj>pear. As the blossoms continue to expand, go 

 over the whole once a day, when the sun shines, and give them a sudden but light flirt 

 with the finger, which will liberate the pollen and gi-eatly assist impregnation ; and 

 nip out the end of each shoot, a leaf or two above the flowers, to help the embryo fruit 

 to swell. I have never been troubled with insec-ts, in forcing this fruit, but if Ived Spider 

 (^Acarm) should appear, the sulphur will destroy it; and Green or Black Fly (Aphis) 

 may be got rid of by fumigating with tobacco. No further care is requisite, than occa- 

 sionally removing suj)erfluous or weak branches, withered leaves, and such like ; and 

 the crop, with attention, will continue to produce frojn Christmas until those in the 

 open ground are ready for use. 



COLOR IN NATURE AND ART* 



We do not generally make a sufficient use of color as a beautifier of our dwellings. 

 This is partly owing to the fact that the physical organization of northern nations is 

 not so susceptible to the impressions of color as is that of southern nations, even though 

 these latter be intellectually our inferiors. It is in tropical countries, where light is 

 most dazzling, that color is most gorgeous and abundant. These are tlie native 

 climes of the sapphire, the diamond, and the emerald, — of sunsets unspeakably gor- 

 geous, and of night-skies, through the azure of whose transparent depths the eye wan- 

 ders upwards until it loses itself as if on the threshold of other worlds. The savan- 

 nahs there are covered with perennial flowers ; the pillareil forests arc linked in a maze 

 of beauty by the scarlet and other brilliant blossoms of the trailers that hang in festoons 

 from tree to tree ; and the green mantle of earth flashes everywhere into colors beneatli 

 the flood of sunshine which keeps all nature a-pulsing to the rythm of its subtle and 

 inconceivably rapid vibrations. Color, like its parent light, dies away towards the 

 poles ; and as the constitution of nations is ever in harmony with the region where 

 they dwell, the susceptibility of us hyperboreans to color is far inferior to that of the 

 race who produce the magic dyes of India, or the still nobler one who built the glow- 

 ing walls of the Alhambra. Even our next-door neighbors, the French, beat us hollow 

 in the art and use of color ; and we do not think we overstate the case when we sav, 

 that there is no civilized people on the earth who do not etjual or excel us in a taste and 

 passion for color. 



We are too fond of paleness, colorlcssness, in our interiors. We shrink from bright 

 colors, because we do not know how to use them, and believe we show taste when we 

 have produced an effect which is simply commonplace. With M. Ciievheul for our 

 guide, let us ofier a word or two upon this subject. We shall begin with the more 

 grand and artistic parts of a mansion, and then come quickly down to remarks which 

 may be as interesting to tlie single gentleman with his triplet of rooms in the Temple, 

 as to the more stately occupants of palatial edifices. Enter a gallery of sculpture, and 

 see wliat hints about color there suggest themselves. Here we have our old friend the 

 Venus dc Medici, showing the perfection of physical beauty, but with as little as possible of 



• From UlacitDorcTs Magazine. 



