WINTER FRUITS AND BERRIES. 



427 



tions of water and insecticides as described 

 are commenced with early in the season, and 

 applied occasionally during the winter, it will 

 prevent the appearance of these enemies to 

 house and window plants. Too often the 

 application of preventives and remedies is 

 neg-lected until the plants are infested with 

 insects, when severe measures have to be 

 taken, and strong- solutions used, that will 

 perhaps kill the plant before it removes the 

 pest. " An ounce of prevention is better 

 than a pound of cure." This old adage cer- 

 tainly commends itself to plant lovers, who 

 wish to have the plants in their windows 

 looking bright and fresh during the cold 

 dreary days of winter. 



In conclusion I would say to those who 

 take an interest in window gardening that 

 they should at all times endeavor to make 

 the surroundings of their plants in the house 

 as nearly as possible similar to the natural 



conditions and surroundings as found by the- 

 plants in their native haunts. If a little 

 study and application is devoted to these 

 important points and conditions of plant 

 life, success will be sure to crown the efforts 

 of those interested in the delightful and 

 pleasing occupation of winter window gar- 

 dening. If, on the other hand, no attempt 

 is made to give the plants the surroundings 

 they have when growing naturally, failure 

 and disappointment will be sure to be the 

 result. It is surprising how easy it is to 

 succeed in window gardening, as many of 

 our readers can testify, if plants are only- 

 given even a small modicum of natural 

 treatment amidst the certainly unnatural 

 and trying surroundings that plants in win- 

 dows have usually to contend with during 



severe winters. 



W. Hunt. 

 Hamilton. 



WINTER FRUITS AND BERRIES. 



NOTHER bright fruit is the high 

 cranberry, Viburnum oxycoccus, a 

 relative of the European snowball or 

 guelder rose. It is a good shrub in foliage 

 and flowers, and the berries are eatable, of 

 a keen acid flavor. The black berries of the 

 sloe, so-called. Viburnum prunifolium, are 

 also conspicuous in winter. They are sweet, 

 and with a little more pulp in proportion to 

 their skins and seeds would be quite a suc- 

 cessful fruit. 



We must not forget the red hips of the 

 sweet-brier rose, which are so highly pol- 

 ished that you can see yourself in them as 

 you come near, and the evergreen habit of 

 the bush for the first weeks of winter helps 

 the effect. 



The exotic barberry covers itself with the 

 brightest red. Its fruit is eatable if one 

 Hkes its keen sourness. 



Here in the woods are knolls and mounds 



— formed of the earth that has fallen from 

 the roots of great trees uptorn by prehistoric 

 tempests — of all sizes and forms. The drj- 

 summits of many of them are covered with 

 a thick mat of evergreen vines beautifully 

 mingled with verdant ferns and mosses, the 

 gray or green cups or the red caps of the 

 Cladonia lichens, while even the stones are 

 decorated — it is the partridge berry, squaw, 

 or tea berry, Mitchella repens, with its scar- 

 let berries. The last extremity of cold and 

 mild sunny days, of bare and frostless earth, 

 are all the same to this hardy plant. Its 

 sweet and eatable fruits keep their form and 

 tint until spring is nearly here, while the 

 dark evergreen foliage enhances their effect. 

 Each berry has borne two white tubular,, 

 fragrant flowers. Filled with down they 

 came forth in midsummer under the heavy 

 shade of forest foliage. — Vick's Magazine 

 for November. 



