Garden Topics. 



27 



A Nebraska paper describes the advan- 

 tages of that State in this glowing language : 

 " Who says farmers cannot get rich in this 

 State ? Fifteen years ago, a young man 

 came to this State, without a dollar in the 

 world. Last week he went out of the State, 

 carrying with him the sum of one dollar and 

 thirty-eight cents, the savings of fifteen 

 years of frugal life. Come West, young 

 men, come West ! " 



Charm of a G-arden.— It is, indeed, the 

 frequent change, the never-wearying variety, 

 that is the main charm of the garden. You 

 leave home for a little time, and when you 

 return, lo ! everything is changed. New 

 colors, new forms, new perfumes greet you. 

 There are fresh flowers on the stem, fresh 

 fruit on the bough. Few. things are more 

 enjoyable than a first walk in one's garden 

 after an absence from home. Few men who 

 are really fond of gardening ever care to be 

 long away from their household gods. It 

 is, indeed, one of the most salutary effects 

 of a love of gardening that one's thoughts 

 seldom turn towards the delights of va- 

 grancy and the charms of strange places. 



A Beautiful Rose.— About a year ago, 

 says "Daily Rural Life," in the Rural 

 Neiv-Yorker, my gardener purchased, from 

 one of our large florists, a dozen plants of a 

 Countesse de Bertha rose, which has proved 

 to be one of the best perpetual blooming 

 sorts that I have seen. The flowers are of 

 a deep pink color, quite large, double and 

 elegant in form, and the fragrance is most 

 exquisite, being entirely indescribable, but 

 may be called a spiced sweetened Tea. A 

 bud cut off when it begins to open, and 

 placed in a room, will perfume the entire 

 atmosphere within for one or two days. The 

 plants are very vigorous, not being subject 

 to mildew in the house, and they bloom al- 

 most continually ; even small plants struck 

 out from cuttings bloom when only a few 

 months old. We may have more showy va- 

 rieties, but there are few that will please 

 better than the Countesse de Bertha. 



The " Geographical Garden " is one of 

 the latest novelties in Paris. The idea 

 seems to be to inform the masses a little 

 more definitely as to the whereabouts of 

 Persia. A space of ground is laid out to 

 represent the "five-quarters " of the world ; 

 kingdoms are separated by gravel walks, 

 and continents by rills. The geography of 

 the globe can be learned in an afternoon, 

 and a voyage around the world can be taken 

 for one franc. 



The Petunia.— The Petunia is really 

 one of the most valuable summer flowering 

 plants we have. Not much for cutting 

 from, it is true, but still they are so easily 

 grown, so indifferent to heat and drought, 

 so continuously flowering, and flowering in 

 so many of its shades of color so gaily, what 

 in these valuable particulars can excel it ? 



There is, besides all this, some novelty 

 in them. We recollect very well when the 

 Petunia first came into general notice as a 

 cultivated flower. It was then a pale rose 

 color, and not half the size they are now. 

 A few years after, the big, coarse, white 

 flower kind got into our gardens, and since 

 then there have been numerous forms and 

 shades of color ranging between white and 

 rose. The florist has taken hold of them 

 and produced distinct races, and given them 

 fancy names, borrowed from aristocratic 

 people, as if that is the proper course to 

 pursue in making aristocratic caste in Petu- 

 niadom. Then some of them are very 

 sweet, especially at nightfall, and their odor 

 attracts the night moths, until a bed of pe- 

 tunias of a light summer evening is by no 

 means a small attraction in the most preten- 

 tious flower garden. And then they can be 

 had so easily, A ten-cent paper will give 

 plants which will flower where they are sown 

 in six weeks afterwards. — Germantown Tele- 

 graph. 



The Poetry of Trees.— Said Nathaniel 

 Hawthorne : " The trees, as living exist- 

 ences, form a peculiar link between the dead 

 and us. My fancy has always found some- 

 thing very interesting in an orchard. Apple 



