of Rural Art and Taste. 



45 



advantages, coupled with an intelligent and 

 hospitable people, renders it a more eligible 

 situation for orange culture than the barren 

 region described by Mr. 0. 



[TO BE CONTINUED.] 



Window G-ardening. 



BY PANSIE. 



ONE of the best for fine effects, but which 

 I have never seen specially noticed in 

 the books is the single scarlet African Hibis- 

 cus, a shrubby plant resembling the '' Rose 

 of Sharon" of old fashioned gardens, with 

 dark green, glossy leaves and splendid, tro- 

 pical-looking flower of a brilliant scarlet, as 

 large as a coifee saucer. The stamens are 

 yellow and the pistil a dark velvety red. 

 The flower buds are formed on the terminal 

 branches, and it is in almost constant bloom 

 both in summer and winter. It is of the 

 easiest culture and requires but the ordin- 

 ary temperature, the only drawback being 

 that the gorgeous blooms only last a day ; 

 but they are so bright and attractive that I 

 should never be willing to be without them. 

 My two plants are of different species and 

 have been in my possession for several 

 years. I sink the pots in June, and they 

 do equally well in the yard all summer. 

 Geraniums, of course, are indispensable and 

 grow and bloom profusely in such a window. 

 I have a very novel effect on one — a zonale 

 green, with a lighter zone. A pure white 

 shoot, both stems and leaves, has been 

 thrown out, which retains its color as it 

 continues growing, although standing in full 

 sunshine. I hope to be able to propagate it. 

 Then, there are the old favorites usually 

 grown — roses, pinks, azaleas, accacia, prim- 

 roses, bouvardias, maheriiia, etc., etc. I 

 even find it possible to raise some hothouse 

 plants by placing them on a high shelf in a 

 warm corner, and succeed with begonias, 

 heliotropes, poinsettia, euphorbia, coleus, 

 and many of the foliage plants, which retain 

 all the glory of midsummer. 



But the gem of all is a magnificent calla 

 of about sixteen years. A pot containing 

 three large bulbs and some smaller ones, 

 with large leaves and lovely golden-hearted 

 lilies (for it is almost always blooming with 

 three or four flowers at once) — its majestic 

 stateliness is very striking. I wonder if it 

 is generally known that two flower-buds are 

 produced from the same leaf-stalk ? I cut 

 off the first when fully opened and begin- 

 ning to fade, and soon another bud makes 

 its appearance beside the stalk of the first. 

 The only culture needed is to keep the sau- 

 cer filled with water, adding occasionally a 

 few drops of aqua ammonia or guano water. 

 Sink the pot in partial shade and let it care 

 for itself during the summer, and do not 

 disturb the roots more often than is neces- 

 sary to remove extra bulbs. A fuchsia — I 

 think a speciosa, as it blooms constantly — has 

 grown into a fine specimen. It is of trailing 

 habit and has been trained up the side of 

 the window. Some of the branches are five 

 or six feet in length, the leaves are large 

 and ovate and beautifully veined with red. 

 The flowers grow in long clusters on the 

 ends of evei-y branch and keep forming ; as 

 fast as the first ones bloom new buds grow 

 out. Sometimes I have had over twenty 

 flowers on one branch at a time, with buds 

 still coming. 



For delicate climbing vines I find none 

 prettier than smilax and maurandias. The 

 foliage of both is most graceful, and the lat- 

 ter blooms and grows either out or in-doors. 

 Some of my pots of it are several years old. 

 I take out the roots in June and plant them, 

 and they soon run up six or seven feet and 

 are covered with wreaths of bloom. In Sep- 

 tember they are taken up, cut back neai'ly to 

 the roots, and they soon start into new growth 

 again. They also make fine climbing plants 

 for lianging baskets— as, for instance, a white 

 one growing upon the wires, crimson-leaved 

 altenantheras around it, with a fringe of the 

 delicate blue lobelia. One basket that is 

 always showy and sweet is just a mass of 

 sweet alyssura. Tropoeolums in variety, and 

 especially the dark Tom Thumbs, climbing 



