2/8 Home Adornment in the West. 



suit his taste and fancy. Most of them are perennials, and, when once 

 established in the garden, will require but little labor to keep them in 

 thriving condition. 



A few annuals or semi-biennials, such as CoUinsia venia and the scarlet 

 painted-cup, require somewhat different treatment. Beds for these should 

 be in portions of the grounds not likely to be disturbed by hoe or spade. 

 Here they will bloom and ripen, and sow their seeds, without our meddling, 

 year after year, thickening and spreading their flowering masses ; only requir- 

 ing the weeds and grass to be kept out, and the surface lightly stirred about 

 midsummer. The young plants will appear in September, and get sufficient 

 strength to winter safely. The Collinsia feels the first impulses of spring, 

 and becomes a thick show of pretty blossoms about the time of the crocus 

 and hepatica, following them closely. 



I hope something may have been said in this brief article to awaken 

 some interest in the cultivation of our native plants, — these old-time her- 

 itors of glebe and wold, — which only wait our call to embellish many bare 

 and unsightly places, where people stay, but do not really live. 



And now, lady-reader, will not you stir up husband or brother or some 

 one to the heavier task of the trees and shrubs, and also to lend a help- 

 ing hand to you in the lighter labor of the flowers ? As spring opens, and 

 the season advances, you will take basket, trowel, and light spade, and go 

 forth collecting successively the flowers, and placing in your grounds what- 

 ever of these floral gifts may contribute to the enjoyment and attractiveness 

 of home. Burgess Iruesdell. 



Elgin, III., Dec. 2, 1867. 



CAULIFLOWERS. 



We hope all our readers who are fond of this most excellent vegetable 

 (and those who are not should be) will make arrangements to grow it for 

 home-use at least, and so plant as to have successive crops from early to 

 late. For early, they should be started in hot-beds, and set out as soon as 

 the ground is in prime condition, and treated very much as cabbages are 

 treated. Those for later use may be sown or planted in the hills where 

 they are to grow. Procure the best of seed, if you would rai^e good heads. 



