i886. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



47 



owGjfeppue^ 



Treeclimber's Talks. 



ABOUT THE RAUKIST AMERU'AN PLANT. 



Some plants, like the Dandelion and Chick- 

 weed, are so (.-oiuniou that everybody knows 

 them. This is also true of sueh shrubs as the 

 Hose and the Lilac,audof Maple, Elm and Poplar 

 trees, which shade our streets, and yrow in the 

 forests. Of course we all know that many 

 other kinds of plants are less common ; it 

 is not a strange thing to hear people say 

 when they visit other peoples' gardens, " I 

 never saw this plant before," referring to 

 one sort or another, that pei-haps is not 

 common. No one can know evei-y plant. 



I desire now to introduce my young 

 readers to one o( the rarest plants of 

 America, or indeed of the world. It is so 

 rare, in tact, that it has almost became 

 extinct. For a plant or an animal to 

 become extinct, you know, means that it 

 has died out on the face of the globe, a 

 thing which has occurred to numbere of 

 both plants and animals. The plant I 

 here refer to is the 



PRETTY LITTLE SHORTIA GALACIFOLIA. 



This plant has been found growing only 

 in two small spots on the globe, one in 

 Japan, the other in McDowell Co., North 

 Cai'olina. So being it is an American, in 

 part at least, we of this country shoiild 

 take the greater interest in it. The ac- 

 companying engraving shows the plant 

 at about one-half its natural size. As you 

 may see, the flowers are primrose-like in 

 form; the leaves ai'e dai'k green and 

 glossy, resembling somewhat those of the 

 Wintergreen plant of om' woods. 



To show how comparatively scarce the Shortia 

 is, it may be said that while the common little 

 Dandelion opens its bright golden flowers abun- 

 dantly on this continent, from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific, and from the Gulf of Mexico northwards 

 to the Ai'ctic regions, wherever man lives, this 

 only known habitation of Shortia in America, 

 in the county above named, is a space of less 

 than ten feet wide by forty feet long, and here 

 not over one hundi'ed plants have been found. 



For many years after the existence of such a 

 plant in Amei-ica was first suspected, by the 

 presence of a dried siiecimen of it in a Paris mu- 

 seum, labeled as from this country, its localitj- 

 was unknown. Much search was given to finding 

 its whereabouts, but for a long time without suc- 

 cess. At last, however, some eight years ago, 

 this small patch of it was discovered to the 

 great joy of aU our botanists. The place has 

 of lat« years been visited by many lovers of 

 rare plants. 



THE PERFUME OF FLOWERS. 



Whenever you are shown a handsome flower, 

 one of the first things you want to know, is, 

 whether it is sweet or not. No matter how 

 gaudy may be its colors or pleasing its form, 

 if it lacks fragi'ance you thiuk less of it. 

 About the only charm possessed by the modest 

 Mignonette is its odoi-; yet that is enough to 

 cause it to be loved by everyone as few other 

 flowers are. 



It maj" be noticed that such sweet flowers as 

 Mignonette, Violets, Lily of the Valley, Car- 

 nations anil Roses, are the greatest favorites 

 with true lovers of flowers. They please the 

 nose as well as the eye ; without such as these a 

 nosegay cannot be made. 



Little is known about the perfume of flowers 

 besides the mere fact that it exists. No one 

 can describe it, exept by saj-ing it resembles the 

 odor of other flowers or things. I have often 

 been amused to hear how many people will say> 

 when they smell of the Heliotrope, 



IT .SMELLS LIKE ICE CREAM, 



they could more properly Say it resembles the 

 odor of vanilla, an article ranch used for flavor" 

 ing ice cream and candies. We can say of the 

 Gilly flower, tliat it has a fi'uity fragi'auce, of 

 the Tubei'ose that it has a Jasamine-like smell, 

 and of the leaves of the Rose Geranium, that 

 their sweet odor closely resembles thai of Roses, 

 and thus convey an idea of these, but further 

 than this no one can describe a fragrance so 

 that another would know it from the descrip- 

 tion given. 



The perfvmie of flowers is gathered and pre- 

 served for later use in [Jerfumery. All boys and 

 girls, I believe, like perfumery of one kind or 

 another. Perfumery of some kinds is derived 



This is utit a iin-tty picture, but it is a tnie one. 

 Wliere there's a will t<i get money there's a way. 

 The world is a big place; tlieie are a tliousaiiil 

 olmnces appearing every day for those who can 

 see them; thei-e is work for tliose who can ilo it; 

 there are good ami equal laws to protect you in 

 winning and keeping money, and there is a free, 

 fair chance for- all. 



The Memory. 



The power of retjiiuing impressions made 

 through the senses ui>on the mind, is oni' of the 

 most wonderful gifts tcj mall. "Why some tilings 

 should be readily retained in the memory, and 

 then others of equal importance shoulrl he as 

 easily lost has puzzled many witliout a solution 

 of the matter being reached. It is Siiid that 

 memory depends upon attention, or that the 

 more we attend to a thing the better we 

 remember it. The old remark that a 

 person never forgets a debt owing to him, 

 perhaps illusti-ates this. Cicero after long 

 thinking about the memory, found in it a 

 striking proof to his mind of the immor- 

 tality of the soul and the existence of a 

 God. Samuel Smiles recently remarked 

 on this subject as follows: 



The most extraoi'Uinary instances of memory 

 are those furnished by the ages which pre- 

 ceeded the art of printing. 



Plato, Socrates, and the philosophers of their 

 time, depended entirely on their memories. 

 Seneca could repeat two thousand proper 

 names in the order in which they had been 

 told him. without a mistake. 



After prmting had been invented, but while 

 books were still rare and dear, memory con- 

 tinued to perfonn its great teats. Bot'tigella 

 knew by heart wdiole books verbatim. 



It is recorded of Pascal, that he forgot 

 nothing of what he had done, read or thought, 

 in any part of his rational Hfe. He knew the 

 whole Bible by heart, and could at any moment 

 cite chapter and verse of any part of it. 



THE RAREST AMERICAN PLANT— SHORTIA GALACIFOLIA 



from animals as in the case of musk, but plants 

 furnish the most of that used. In these it is 

 due to a volatile and highly inflammable oil 

 known as otto. The chief pai't of the per- 

 fumer's ai-t is to separate this oU from the 

 vegetable matter in which it exists. Some sub- 

 stances, like the peel of oranges or lemons con- 

 tain so much of this oil, that it can be squeezed 

 out with the hand. 



Timothy Treeclimber. 



A Condition not to be Evaded. 



One of the conditions of our existence in this 

 world is, that we must work. It is n,ot always 

 an easy idea for the young, those who have 

 plenty of the needful things of life all about 

 them, provided by the hands of others, to come 

 to. But it must be done if we would be truly 

 independent and happy throughout life. 



Let one look about him, and if he is a close 

 student of humanity he wiU see that those who 

 ai'e busily employed, are the most contented, 

 while the few who try to get tlu'ough life with- 

 out labor, however wealthy they may chance 

 to be, ai'e anything but happy. The ranks of 

 the "tramps" aresoouer or later mostly made 

 up of those who ridiculously boast that the 

 world owes them a living, without their work- 

 ing for it. 



On the subject of work and money making 

 for the young, Mr. Charles Barnard says, in the 

 Youth^:^ Cniiipttniitn : 



Must a fellow work to get money "/ Thafs a sorry 

 end to the matter. Is there no other way of getting 

 money y No. The fact is the world is a hard place 

 to live in for lazy folks; unless you can do some- 

 thing; unless you can pick money out of the ground, 

 or the sea; unless yon are wilUng to work for some 

 one wdio has money, you can cohie to w ant with the 

 greatest ease. 



If you cannot work by reason of any defect, the 

 public will supply your needs— in a hospital. If 

 you will not work, down, down yon go, deeper and 

 deeper into poverty, poorer and poorer, till at last 

 there is the poorhouse, with its bare doors, its 

 coarse bread and miserable end— a nameless grave 

 in the Potter's Field. 



PET BIRDS, ANIMALS. ETC. 



The Goldfish does not bear cold well. 

 Never let the cage door slain, it you want a 

 tame bu-d. 



Where Goldfish are common flsh, they are 

 eaten as a delicacy. 



Name your pets when you fu-st get them: use the 

 name and it will soon be learned. 



If the door of the dog-house be at the side near 

 the end, instead of in the end as usually made, there 

 will be better protection to the animal from wind 

 and ram. The bed in winter should consist of 

 plenty of fine shavings or wheat straw; change at 

 least once eveiy fortnight. The house needs to be 

 raised from the earth, to pi'event dampness. 



Has the Bell Yet. About twenty fouryears ago. 

 just a little before the war of the rebellion, a turkey 

 buzzard was caught, and a bell attached to his neck. 

 This bird has occasionally been identified, and again 

 quite recently by the ringing of the bell. This fact 

 goes to show what has long been known, that the 

 turkey buzzard is long hved. In most of the South- 

 ern States, it is unlawful to kill them, because of 

 their value as consumers of carrion. They are 

 further presen-ed by the superstition of the negroes, 

 that it is liad luck to hurt them. 



Scattering the Seed is a troublesome and waste- 

 fid trick in a bii'd. Mi-s. Helen Jliller writes that if 

 you wish to avoid this, never p;it twt> kinds of seed 

 together, and never leave shells on lop of the seed. 

 ^Vllat leads to the practice of this trick, is that birds 

 get ui the way of looking for a favorite kind, and 

 this they learn is to be found under other kinds some- 

 times. Always put fresh seed in the dish even if it 

 is not half eaten, blowing out all shells first. lu 

 giving two kinds have two dishes or else — what is 

 better— put one kind on the ground. 



Cage Birds do not require any special attention 

 at this season of the year. The chief points are, 

 to supply them with suflicient food and no more, 

 to avoid coddling them, on the one band, and ex- 

 posing them to cold draughts on the other. The 

 cages should be suspended in a light position and 

 near the window, or other position where they will 

 have a fair amount of air. In gas-hghted rooms 

 the tops of the cages should be from three to four 

 feet from the ceiling, because of the impurity of the 

 atmosphere of the npi>er part of rooms where 

 special means are not adoiited for carrying off the 

 vitiated air. The food with which the birds are 

 suppheil should be generous, but not overheating or 

 too fattening, and the supplj" of green food nuist 

 not be neglected. At the present time there is no 

 green food to surpass \Vatercress,grown under glass, 

 and groundsel, for Canary and other small birds. 



