242 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1 



of your compost over the bottom to make 

 the bottom moist. This same box will hold 

 a great lot of little plants, and there will be 

 room enough for the plant between the top 

 of the pot and the pane of glass. If there 

 is not, you can raise the glass a little. Of 

 course, this box is to be used when the seed- 

 pots are all removed. The whole apparatus 

 can be used in any window nicely. But in 

 a window you will have to turn the plants 

 around every day, else they will grow over 

 toward the light. My tropaeolums have to 

 be turned every morning regularly. By af- 

 ternoon they will be straightened up. The 

 next morning they will be over toward the 

 hght. I can tell when a new plant or cut- 

 ting is going to grow, in just one hour, by 

 watching to see if it turns its leaves over 

 toward the light. 



Now, one of the most interesting things 

 in growing plants from seeds is to watch 

 the different- sized seed-leaves. I never saw 

 a geranium seed-leaf in my life until I sowed 

 some geranium seeds. These seed-leaves 

 are, many of them, very pretty; and the 

 little character-leaves that come between the 

 seed-leaves in a few days are just as cute as 

 can be. You can explain to the children it 

 is a baby geranium, and so with the pelar- 

 goniums, snap-dragons, petunias, verbenas, 

 salvias, colei, and all the rest. With the 

 colei, the plant when it comes through the 

 ground is almost microscopic; and where you 

 have mixed seeds, as I nave, what a won- 

 derful thing it is to see the tiny leaves take on 

 their respective colors! I tell the children 

 it is the kind of painting that is done by the 

 finger of God, the great loving Father who 

 gave us these things to study and admire, 

 and to permit us to turn our thoughts to- 

 ward him, the great giver of all good. 



I think I would have little boxes made to 

 take a certain number of each of the pots. 

 When the plant gets its pot so full of roots 

 that they run clear around, sometimes again 

 and again in trying to find more room, then 

 they need to be in a larger pot. Put a little 

 bit of moss in the bottom of the larger pot to 

 keep the dirt from stopping up the hole for 

 drainage ; then set the pot "^vith its roots and 

 earth just in the center, and with a spoon 

 put a little soil all around the sides, pressing 

 it down with a thin flat stick. Keep on giv- 

 ing larger pots until your plant is in bloom, 

 or when the weather becomes suitable, so it 

 can go outdoors in the flower-bed. 



A shelf in front of the window will do 

 very well. A bay window with light in 

 front and at each side is ever so much bet- 

 ter; and a little bit of greenhouse, letting 

 the light come through from overhead 

 (right on top of the plants), is better still. 

 This matter can be arranged with a couple 

 of sashes. In Gleanings for last season 

 you will see pictures of my little green- 

 house leaning up against the cellar windows, 

 and also one made of cotton cloth instead of 

 glass. Something of this kind can be made 

 very cheaply, and will answer nicely. A 

 cloth-covered structure we use as the weath- 

 er gets warmer. 



Now. I hope you who love flowers, perhaps 

 the little girls and boys as well as the older 

 ones— will get right to work collecting some 

 good potting-soil for starting seeds. You 

 can find a box at the grocery that will be 

 about right, and may be one that will fit a 

 regular- sized pane of glass without any cut- 

 ting. By the way, this box with the pane 

 of glass over the top is a splendid place for 

 sick plants. They have moist air, and you 

 can give them an even temperature by mov- 

 ing the box where it is warm nights. 



Some plants like the coleus, Chinese prim- 

 roses, and others, sometimes rot off just at 

 the surface of the ground, especially if you 

 have been careless and given them too much 

 water. If you have a forcing-bed— that is, 

 what we call a glass-covered box - you need 

 not feel bad if your plant tumbles over. 

 Just cut away the diseased part, put the rest 

 of the plant in a pot, with moist sand, and, 

 if you keep the sand damp, and never let it 

 dry out, your plant will take root and grow 

 better than it did with the old diseased 

 roots. Where a plant gets broken off by 

 some accident it can be saved in the same 

 way. Of course, you can multiply plants in 

 this way. And please remember, when you 

 get so many you have not room for all, to use 

 them for presents to some deserving boy or 

 girl. I do not know of any thing in this 

 whole wide world so nice for a present or a 

 reward as a pretty little plant in a neat lit- 

 tle pot, especially if the plant has buds or 

 blossoms on it. 



Another thing, what is there that adds 

 more to the enjoyment of church service or 

 Sunday-school than to have some pretty lit- 

 tle plants on the table? If they are in pots 

 you can set them on the table during the 

 service, then bring them home again. They 

 can be used in the same way to put on the 

 table when you have company coming. If 

 some one of the family gets to looking blue 

 and discouraged, say when he is tired or 

 hungry, just hold a pretty little plant up be- 

 fore him and see what a smile it will bring. 

 Don't you believe it is one of God's messen- 

 gers, sent by him for some great and good 

 purpose to this world of ours ? Our text 

 tells us, as I said in the beginning, that the 

 dear Savior loved them and appreciated 

 their wondrous beauty. Is it not fitting 

 and proper, then, dear friends, that we 

 should love them too ? 



One particular plant that is making me 

 happy just now is the cyclamen, or Persian 

 violet, as it is sometimes called. It was 

 sent me by mail by G. W. Park, and it look- 

 ed pretty well wilted down when I unpacked 

 it. I just put it in my box with a glass top, 

 and the next morning it had straightened up 

 its wilted stem and commenced to unfold one 

 of its beautiful flowers. There is a grotesque 

 grace about this plant— not only its blos- 

 soms, but it has something about its queer 

 leaves that always gives me a thrill. Friend 

 Park is the man who makes a specialty of 

 furnishing rooted cuttings for a very small 

 sum of money. He will send you his catalog 

 if you ask him for it. 



