i885. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



Treeclimber's Talks. 

 leaves: their absence. 



But a few weeks ago, aud all the trees and 

 Iiusheswere elothed with leave.s, now most of 

 these ai'e bare. What a great change has come 

 over the face of nature Ix^cause of this. 



We do not, however, mind the absence of 

 leaves so much, l)ecause we know that in a few 

 months a new crop will come forth, seem- 

 ingly more fresh aud beautiful than any of 

 former years. Examine even now ahuost any 

 ti'ee, and the buds of next year's growth may 

 reailily be seen : they are only waiting for the 

 warmth of next sprmg. to shoot out 

 into new verdure. When that time 

 arrives, we will enjoy the sight all the 

 more, for the winters break, of several 

 months" duration, in leaftime. 



RE.\UTV AND VARIETY IN LEAVES. 



I want to speak somewhat of the 

 beauty and variety found in leaves. 

 The beauty of flowers is constantly on 

 the tongiies oi people, and in the poet's 

 vei-ses. but not so of tlie hardly less 

 beautiful leaves. I have made a ih'aw- 

 ing in outline of four leaves which the 

 publishei-s have had engraved very 

 well, to show something about this 

 matter of shapes and beaut}'. 



The engraving represents some very 

 common leaves. The one to the left is 

 that <.if Grass, next to anil jjartly under 

 this one, is a divided leaf of the Lupine, 

 a common garden Hower raised from 

 seed; the finely-cut leaf to the right is 

 that of a si^ecies of Pojjpy, and back of 

 this, a small leaf taken from a tree of 

 the common Chestnut. 



Here are but f om- forms ; how differ- 

 ent they are, and how pleasing to look at. But 

 the forms found in nature are endless, and af- 

 ford a degree of vai-iety in their shapes that is 

 truly a.stouishing. We have but to open our 

 eyes as we walk out in the season of leaves, to 

 see very many of these. Their forms ai-e the 

 mai-ks by which we may distinguish one kind of 

 plant from another. The more striking shapes 

 of leaves have names, and to gain an acquaint- 

 ance with these is one of the eaa-hest and most 

 useful things to be leanied in studying botauy. 



FLOWERS AND LEAVES. 



I have said, that we hear more of the beauty 

 of flowers than of leaves. Much as I love the 

 flowers which natm-e spreads out over the 

 earth, I think that so far as the office of adorn- 

 ing the earth's sm-face is concerned, the 

 leaves are more important even than are 

 the flowers themselves. The beauty of the 

 gi-een gi-ass which gTows everywhere the 

 world over, hes in the leaf, and the same is 

 chiefly true of the forests: no quantity of beau- 

 tiful flowers could make up for the complete 

 absence of these from this earth. 



I do not draw this compai'ison, as if there 

 was any rivah-y between flowers and foliage 

 as adorning matei-ial. Both have their place 

 and fill it well, but in the constant admiration 

 which flowei-s call fortli, I desire to incite more 

 attention to the beauty of leaves. 



ABOUT THE HYACINTH AND ITS NAME. 



The Hyacinth which is so well known by all, 

 Is a native of the oldest mhabited parts of the 

 world. In such eastern countries as Asia 

 Minor, Syria and Pensia, it is found growing wild, 

 abundantly. We can readily accept the fact that 

 it has also been in cultivation from the remotest 

 times, for no flower to-day is more highly es- 

 teemed, or more easily managed. Its present 



name has come down to us through all the ages, 

 from ancient Greece, and is interesting on this 

 account. Grecian fable links the origin and 

 name of the flower witli the character's of an- 

 cient mythology. A legeml relating to this 

 subject, whiili wa-s lately handed to me by a 

 friend runs as follows: 



"Apollo, god of the arts and .sciences, became 

 very fond of asliephenlyouth, whose name was 

 Hjacinthus, ami took great delight in throw- 

 ing tlie discus with him, a ]>a.stime much in- 

 dulged in by the old Greeks and Romans. One 

 day while engaged in this sport, the discus 

 thrown by .4pollo struck Hyacintluis in the 

 head, aud killed him on the spot. Apollo, very 

 much grieved bj- the sad death of his favorite, 

 chauged liim into a lovely flower which he 

 called after him Hyacinth. " 



HOW THE CYPRE.SS WAS NAMED. 



Another fable told of this same god, and 

 which accounts for the name of the Cyi>ress 



aihnirable as this may l)e, may not prevent the 

 road from being systematically cheated, for a 

 long time, without detection, but also that 

 wrong-doing nmst .sometime have its end, and 

 the wrong-doer l>e made to sutt'er. 



-Vbout fouryeais ajjii sdiiic repairs wei-e made to 

 a small bridge, some miles awnv from auy station, 

 on a railroad in Illinois, and iit' course the bridge 

 gang had jmt up a signln.ai-d ■■|-iui slow," on either 

 siile dnnng the day iir so the liriclgc was weakened. 

 .Just about a.s they hud finished their work the sign- 

 hoards disappeared, and tlievilidnt take the trouble 

 to hunt them uj). 



Some weeks afterwartis tliese signs reappeared in 

 the former places. Xohodv cared. The section 

 mennodoubt thought the bridge men had done it. 

 It was none of the enf^ineei-s' business why tliey 

 were there— their dnty ivi|nir-ed them to slow dow'n 

 at all such signs, luid this they <licl. For about four 

 years not a train had pas.s..d over that little bridge 

 without .slowmt; almo.st to a standstill, costing the 

 coinijany thousands of dollars, to stop and start 

 trains. 



How it all came about, was this: An unscnipu- 

 lous fanner near by stole these boards and put them 

 up again at his leisure. For four yeai-s he ha.s 

 been going into the town or coming from it on 

 the trains, getting on or off right at his own door. 

 It was a slick scheme, but his game is uii 

 now. and the engineers are having their 

 revenge by keeping up an infernal screech- 

 ing of their whistles at all houi-s of the 

 day or night whenever they pass that 

 farmhouse. 



LEAVES OF VARIOUS SHAPES- 



tree was, that Apollo was also very much at- 

 tached to another shepherd -hoy, for this god 

 was the guardian deity of the herds and flocks. 

 The boys name was Cyjjarissus, and it is said 

 that he had the inisfortime to accidentally kill 

 one of the favorite stags of the god. This so 

 grieved him that he pined away and died of 

 a broken heai-t. Apollo then transformed him 

 into the Cypress tree, which has ever since 

 borne his name, 



Timothy Treeclimber. 



Mistakes that are Natural Enough. 



It is not strange that chikh-en should make 

 many mistakes, before they master the ai-t of 

 spelling words with silent letters in them. 

 Usually there is very little to indicate what 

 the silent letter might be, by the sound of the 

 word or syllable, containing it. A difliculty 

 somewhat like this is found, in mastering the 

 use of words which liave the same sound but 

 are flifferently spelled, or have different mean- 

 ings. So,too,in the application of namesthatare 

 aUke, or nearly so, as the Pine, which may re- 

 fer to either the tree by that name or to the 

 Pineapple, In view of this fact relating to the 

 word pine, and also tliat the fruit of the pine- 

 apple somewhat resembles a pine-cone, the mis- 

 take of the boy here alluded to was natural 

 enough. 



One day last ni.intli a lady in Maryland gave her 

 son, a lad of five years, iierniission to eat a " pine- 

 apple." although she wondered at the time wTiere 

 he could get a pineapple. Later she saw him sit- 

 ting in the yard trying to chew a pine-cone that he 

 had pulled from a neighboring tree, under the belief 

 it was a real pineapple. 



Found Out at Last. 



The following amusing incident told by 

 the Chhayu Hi-nild, shows how the work- 

 ing out of all the details of a gi-eat railroad, 



The young ai-e apt to look upon 

 discipline and early responsibility as a 

 form of adversity. On the other hand 

 the exjierience of this world teaches, 

 that in the long run, the tiling we call 

 good fortune — shelter from hardships ; 

 indulgence of all kinds and money aid 

 for every venture, or every fancy, 

 more often work against the true in- 

 terests of the young throughout tlieir 

 lives than otherwise. 



PET BIRDS, ANIMALS, ETC. 



If you have more than one cage, re- 

 member that birds get jealous, over hav- 

 ing their neighbors perch higher than 



they do. 



The Goldfish is a carp, and a native of 

 the warm jiarts ot China, It is now natur- 

 alized in many ot the .streams of southern 

 Eiu'ope, and also in American waters. Its 

 perfect adaptability to glass globes in living rooms, 

 is partly accounted for by the fact of its thriving Ijest 

 in water kept above the ordinary temperature. 



At night, in cold weather, unless the bird cage 

 is kept in a warm room, it should be covered. For 

 this an old woolen shawl is better than anything 

 else. It not only keeps the bu-d warm but through 

 darkening the cage, makes him later in waking in the 

 morning, and thus leaves you to finish your own 

 nap, without being disturbed by his early cries. 



Bad as a disease is, the remedy may be worse. 

 A friend had a bird that was troubled with vermin ; 

 an authority was consulted as to what to do, A re- 

 medy for the trouble ran thus: "Wash both cage 

 and bird m hnseed or rape.seed oil." These instruc- 

 tions were followed to the letter; although it killed 

 the parasites, it left the bird m a most uncomfortable 

 condition, veiy near killing it. The oil was only 

 removed by the light use of refined benzine on the 

 feathers, taking a tew at a time. 



For Canker about the head of pigeons, says a 

 writer in the Piiullry ^fontllll/,the best application is 

 nitrate of silver- Touch with this to begui with and 

 afterwards apply twice a day a solution of one part 

 of L-arbolic acid to ten parts ot glycerine ; keep the 

 parts clean by a sponge dipped in permanganate ot 

 potash. To make this, add a tcaspoonful of potash 

 to a quart bottle of water, and shake till dissolved. 

 This is a capital disinfectant for sprmkling about 

 the nests or shebes. or the Kjft generally. 



Unhealthy Canary Birds. .Sometimes when ca- 

 nary birds are not doing well, and one cannot im- 

 agine what the trouble is, it hes in then- being 

 affected with the red mite. To ascertain whether 

 such may be the ca.se, cover up the cage at night 

 with a white cloth, and in the morning you will see 

 the tiny red mites on the cloth. To get rid of these 

 pests, dust the bird with insect powder, wash the 

 cage with scalding water, and keep it also dusted 

 with the powder. It is also a good plan to give the 

 bird a bath, have the water tepid, and put some 

 flowers ot sulphur in it. This is to be repeated every 

 other day. Two or I liree drops of sherrj- in its water 

 as a tonic is also desirable. I^t it have lettuce or 

 any green food you can get.canary .seeil or inga seed. 



