294 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. 



The geranium may be treated as an open ground plant in summer 

 and placed in the cellar in winter» or it may be kept in pots the year 

 around. 



I have not yet mentioned the rose. As a pot plant I find it an entire 

 failiu'e, this being caiised by the spideT. Out of doors we have quite 

 good success. Any hardy or ever-blooming rose is very pretty. 



I would have chrysanthemums by the dozefi, could I have the success 

 some of my neighbor.s have. 



My best success with the least labor is with the pot plants. Of these 

 I have over 100 pots. The ones that I think the amateur would have the 

 best success with would be the following: Begonia, fancy-leaved gerani- 

 um, coleus, wandering jew, sultana, iva geranium, umbrella plant, yellow 

 jasmine, cactus, marguerite, white and red oxalis. Lady Washington gera- 

 nium, ferns, primroses. If yon have plenty of sunlight, flowering gera- 

 niums also. A great amoimt of sunlight is needed for petunias. 



I am now trying to get some pot plants that will be useful. I have 

 the Japan lig, both the American Wonder and ponderosa lemon and a pot 

 grape. I do not think many of our homes are of the right temperature 

 to gi'ow palms. 



Indeed, we ought to make an effort to make our homes beautiful, 

 for, as Payne has said, "There is no place like home." 



FLOWERS. 



BY MRS. J. B. BURRIS, CLOVERDALE. 



"Flowers — the sole luxxu'y that Nature knew, 

 In Eden's pure and guiltless garden." 



The love of flowers comes down to us through the centuries. "I am 

 the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys," sang Solomon in ages 

 past, a beautiful Oriental figiu'e of speech, indicating the high esteem in 

 which flowers were then held. 



The Greek nation was the first to euiiolile flowers. In that time, that 

 clime, "Where burning Sappho lived and sung," the poet, the athlete and 

 the patriot were all rewarded with wreaths of flowers. Even ambitious 

 Rome held a flower crown as fit reward for the mightiest service. It 

 was there that the festival in honor of Flora was institute as early as 

 736 years before the birth of Christ, in the reign of Romulus. The love 

 of flowers is inherent in the Anglo-Saxons as well as the Romans, and 

 from them we come by our love of flowers rightfully. 



