THE FLOWERS IN MY GARDEN. 233 
<THE FIVE FLOWERS IN MY GARDEN THAT GIVE ME 
GREATEST PLEASURE. 
MRS. GEO. H. PRESCOTT, ALBERT LEA. 
My five favorite flowers? Such a question never before entered 
my mind, the five from so many! A hard problem indeed! In April 
the delicate blue and white crocuses peep out of their furry coats 
almost before the ground is thawed; surely nothing ever is so wel- 
come and gives me so much pleasure as these tiny flowers, fore- 
telling the bright spring days, followed by the sunny days of mid. 
‘summer. The sweet-scented California violets and starry Siberica 
come soon; they must not be slighted, nor the large baby-faced 
pansies, turning their bright eyes towards us, be passed. Next 
come the yellow and white narcissus, old-fashioned but still beau- 
tiful. They should be one of the five. The fragrant and heavily 
petaled hyacinth, in white, blue, pink and yellow—must we omit 
these? Near by are the tulip beds aglow with their bright cups 
held up in'the sunshine—tulips, single and double, tulips red, 
white, pink and yellow, intermingled with the ragged, curly, twisted 
parrot tulips, all combining to make onesolid bed of color. What 
can be more glorious than these? Then the roses begin to bloom. 
No more doubt and wondering now. Of course, roses are and always 
have been my first choice. Roses in all the colors known in the 
family; beautiful from the time they show the first line of colorin 
the growing bud until the climax of beauty is reached in the full- 
bloomed flower; then falling, still leaving a sweet remembrance in 
the bright petals covering the dark earth beneath them. 
Would you know which are my special favorite roses? They are 
Gen. Washington,Gen. Jacqueminot,Marshal P. Wilder,Paul Neyron, 
John Hopper, Coquette des Alps, pink and red La France, Earl of 
Dufferin and Madame Gabriel Luizet. What shall have second 
choice, the canterbury bell, white achilles, the royally purple 
perennial larkspur, the mass of silk poppies, double and single, 
or the long row of sweet peas, covering the wire fence in their multi- 
colored combinations, every color mixed and intermingled in one 
bewildering mass,a thing of beauty and a joy for many weeks? Yes, 
these last shall have second place. Theranunculus,in allits varied 
colors, deserves third, while the fourth belengs to lilies, candidum 
and rubrum. Double peonies, gladioli, Japanese iris, forget-me- 
nots and spireas are beautiful in a way, but are not particular favor- 
ites of mine, so I will give California violets number five, although 
the hardy carnation seems to deserve it quite as well. 
PRUNING WITH THE THUMB.—We all know how we dislike to cut 
off large branches from fruit trees. Itis plain to any thinking per- 
son that if the undesirable branches could be discovered when they 
were very small and prevented from becoming large, there would 
be no necessity for cutting off large ones. Now, this is just what 
we may doin many cases. By watching the young trees carefully 
_ from time to time as the little shoots are starting that will make 
‘the branches, we may rub off with the thumb those that we see are 
destined, if left on, to be such as we will not want. Any shoots 
starting towards the center of the tree, er in any undesirable direc- 
tion, may thus be prevented from going any further. 
