'4 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



October, 



,s 



What the Flowers Say. 



The Red Rose says, " Be sweet," 



And the Lily bids. " Be pure," 

 The hardy, brave Chrysanthemum, 



" Be patient and endure." 



The Violet whispers, '' Give, 

 Nor grudge nor count the cost ; " 



The Woodbine, " Keep on blossoming. 

 In spite of chill or frost." 



— Philadelphia Call. 



A single color for the best designs. 



Corsage Bouquets are worn very large. 



Dinner table decorations are kept even lower 

 than in the past. 



A window basket planted alone with Wandering 

 Jew forms a fine ornament. 



Large Palm leaves arranged in groups are 

 being much used in room decoration. 



A broad, low vase filled with shoots of the Snow- 

 berry, in leaf and fruit, forms a pretty table object. 



Shells as dower holders are coming in vogue. 

 They are pretty by having the flowers made up 

 somewhat one sided, with trailers freely used. 



The Panicled Hydrangea has been umch used 

 of late for wear and decorations. Nothing can ex- 

 ceed the beauty of a tall slender vase holding several 

 fine specimens. 



Sweet Brier roots perfectly cleansed are among 

 the finest of rustic material for trinuning baskets, 

 window boxes and the like. Apply a coat of copal 

 varnish after nailing in place. 



Simplicity in the use of flowers has reached its 

 extreme limit in the style adopted now for table 

 decoration, of loosely scattering a few flowers of 

 one or two kinds, say Roses and Valley Lilies, over 

 the table without any efTort at arrangement. 



Would you like a handsome, picturesque table 

 object v Then take a glass vase and fill it with spikes 

 of the Tritoma or Flame Flower, cut two feet long, 

 and some straggling sprays of Ampelopsis with the 

 leaves changing to autumn tints, and you have it 



Faded Flowers. Youug lady {to Turnkey)— C&n 

 I take these dowers in to the prisoners, sir? Turn- 

 key— Yes^ mem; the thieves an" pickpockets will be 

 glad to get 'em. They dotes on flowers. But there 

 ain't no murderers in now, mem. The last one was 

 pardoned out j'esterday. Young lady— Oh, Vm so 

 sorry. — X. Y. Times. 



The Autumn wild and shrub fruits, such as those 

 of the Thorns, Mountain Ash, Berberry, Dogwood, 

 Burning Bush, Snowberry, Bitter-sweet, Indian Cur- 

 rant. Viburnums afford along with.their own foliage, 

 as fine a kind of embelishing material for most oc- 

 casions as may be wished for. It is better not to mix 

 the different kinds, but arrange in heavy masses. 



Newport florists are not conventional in their 

 ways of sei"ving their ultra-fashionable patrons, not 

 they At one dinner given recently a piece of sod, 

 thick with grass and Wild Daisies, was used for a 

 centre piece. Around the edges some Red Roses 

 were placed. The effect is said to have been very 

 pretty indeed. At another the leading floral piece 

 was made from a Wild Carrot plant in bloom. It 

 was real beautiful in its way. 



A handsome piece as a leading one for a wedding 

 is the Cornucopia. To start with a form 3 feet long 

 and about 1 foot wide at the large end. is a good 

 size. For the outside a simple covering of Adiantum 

 fronds is very effective, but to make this surface of 

 White Carnations or better yet of Golden Pansies 

 Calendulas or Chrysanthemums, it would be still 

 finer. Where the cost might be enlarged upon, to 

 cover it with Golden Roses would be to reach the 

 very height of beauty. The bouquet proper, in the 

 large end, should be mainly of Roses, with some 

 Violets or Lily of the Valley interspersed between. 

 Let this part be devoid of all stiffness in its makeup. 



Plant Auctions. New York took the lead in 

 introducing this way of driving the plant trade; now 

 many of the secondary cities have them also. The 

 auctions afford a direct means of bringing seller and 

 buyer together, and large sales often take place in a 

 remarkably short time at the rooms. On sale days 

 the auction rooms present the appearance of a 

 flower show, much pains being taken in the arrange- 

 ment of plants and flowers to create a fine effect. 

 The stock for sale is packed in convenient lots to 



suit the wants of all classes of buyers, and in a way 



to insure the safe carriage of the articles by express 

 even to distant points. The people that are attracted 

 to the auctions form some curious contrasts. Here 

 you will find the practical florist, the lawyer and 

 the merchant, competing keenly in the bidding. To 

 the heavy purses of the monied men is to be attribu- 

 ted in a good degree the fair prices which so often 

 prevail at these sales. 



lolQ.nic^IB)\id^et 



Heart-wood is dead wood. 



Germany has 8 schools of forestry. 



Autumn flowers are scant of fragrance. 



Peach root tea is a remedy for epilepsy. 



Spines are in the nature of real branches. 



Ghinchona growing in hot-houses develop no 

 quinine in the bark. 



Do Plants Actually FeeU The Sensitive Plants 

 would answer that they do. 



The main stalks of Indian Corn bear only fertile 

 or male flowers, while the suckers from near the 

 ground have both fertile and sterile blooms. 



A Warning to Collectors. Several specimens of 

 the flora of England are said to have been exter- 

 minated by tourists, plant dealers and botanists. 

 Such reports carry sorrow to all true plant lovers. 



Tulips, There is this curious thing about them, 

 when forced, that they do not turn their growth 

 towards the light as other plants do. Even under 

 the center of a wide greenhouse stage we have 

 found that they grow straight up. 



The tuber of the Potato is simply an enormouslj' 

 swollen mass of the imderground stem. The cen- 

 tral mass of starchy matter corresponds with the 

 fruit of an ordinary stem, while the outer layers, 

 constituting the skin, are equivalent to the bark or 

 skin of the other. 



Sunflowers are used in Wyoming Territory for 

 fuel. The stalks when dry are as hard as maple- 

 wood and make a hot fire, and the seed heads with 

 the seeds in are said to burn better than the best 

 hard coal. An acre of Sunflowers will furnish fuel 

 for one stove a year. Scientific American. 



Moisture from Trees. A few years ago a num- 

 ber of scientists of New England made a careful 

 calculation as to the amount of water given to the 

 atmosphere by the " Washington Elm," Cambridge, 

 Mass. They calculated that the leaves of the tree 

 would cover 200,000 square feet of surface, and that 

 they gave out every fair day during the growing 

 season 15,500 lbs., or 7 3-4 tons of moisture.— J. B. P. 



Experiments in Inter grafting. Some experi- 

 ments in this direction are reported by Strausberger 

 showing remarkable results. Among herbaceous 

 kinds of Solanaceas, Datura, Tobacco, Henbane, etc., 

 were grafted successfully upon the common Potato. 

 In the case of the Datura graft, the Potatoes were 

 impregnated with atropine. It is said that Tschudy 

 long ago grafted Tomato upon a Potato stock, and 

 " gathered Potatoes from the bottom and Tomatoes 

 from the tops of the same plant." 



Botanical Exhibits. A most instructive exhibit 

 made at one of the winter shows of the Massachu- 

 setts Horticultm'al Society was that of Mrs. P. D. 

 Richards, consisting of native Wild Flowers and 

 Mosses. Every plant, flower, fern or moss had been 

 gathered in its season, well dried and mounted at no 

 inconsiderable outlay of time and trouble, and ex- 

 hibited not only with the botanical name, but the 

 popular English or local name appended. Such 

 exhibits always prove exceedingly interesting; the 

 materials for them are everywhere at hand. 



A Prickly Grape-vine. There was sent to the 

 Kew Herbarium, London, from China,in 18&4, a dried 

 specimen of Vitis, accompanied by the following 

 note: "Thorny Vine; cultivated at Kinhua; bears 

 large purple Grapes," The foliage is said to be so 

 hke that of Vitis vinif era' tha.t it might well be a 

 variety of it, and Professor Oliver had named it 

 ^^ Vitis luniferoe var? '^ But the prickles or bristles 

 with which the stem is beset present a character 

 unknown among all the numerous varieties of the 

 common Grape-vine. It is at all events an interest- 

 ing subject and attracts wide attention. It may pos- 

 sibly prove the pro jenitor of the common Grape-vine. 



The Canterbury-bell. In the August Botanical 

 Gazette B. W. Barton gives some interesting notes 

 on the adaptation of this flower to cross-fertilzation 

 through the agency of insects. The howers. as it is 

 well known, are uniformily erect. The corolla on 

 the inside is so smooth that even glass-climbing in- 

 sects, such as flies, cannot cling to it. Most insects 

 visiting the flower for the sweets in th^ bottom 

 of the corolla, are unable therefore to escape by 



climbing the sides of the erect blooms, but they 

 find it easy to escape by passing out over the style 

 and stigma. The plant being proterandi'ous {that 

 is with the anthers of the flowers perfected before 

 the stigmas), cross-fertilization thus becomes almost 

 inevitable. Bumblebees, spiders, house flies and 

 crickets placed in the flowers were, with all their 

 ready ability to climb, unable to escape except in 

 the way indicated. Some small ants, however, 

 seemed to find it as easy to ran over these smooth 

 walls as if they had been sanded. How any con- 

 siderable quantity of rain which might fall into 

 these upright flowers could get out again the ex- 

 perimentor did not discover. He says it is not unlike- 

 ly that when a certain quantity of water does collect 

 either by its weight it will bend the flower over and 

 escape, or else its presence may excite some move- 

 ment causing the flower to nod and dump it out. 



ABOUT THE PLACE. 



A good time for painting. 



Poor fences make unruly live stock. 



Dampness, more than cold, kills bees. 



Animals suffer in cold rains; fall pasturage is in 

 our mind. 



We find sowed Com cures and keeps the best in 

 small bundles 



Milk is only a "• complete food "' when the cows 

 are supplied with what is complete food for cows. 



A rather dry cellar is desirable. To plaster the 

 walls on the inside with water-lime cement will pro- 

 mote dryness. 



Fattening Animals, if not more than one pig 

 is to be fattened, i"emember this, to keep it in a 

 warm, comfortable place will save feed and hasten 

 matters. 



Was the paint brush left to dry without clean- 

 ing ? It is too bad, for it can never be quite as good 

 as it was before. The one thing that will put it in 

 shape is a turpentine bath, washing afterwards in 

 warm soap-suds. 



A shoe scraper made of a broken hoe or spade 

 may not be of the most ornamental kinil, but it 

 answers its end as well as any. A scraper of some 

 kind should certainly be at the back door, and one 

 at the outside cellar door. 



A seasonable job for now is to put all out-build- 

 ing windows needing it in repair. The breaking of 

 glass lights is one of the commonest of accidents 

 about stables: it may be largely prevented by 

 covering each sash on the outside with some gal- 

 vanized wire netting, say such as has a half-inch 

 mesh. Bars of wood across the windows inside 

 and out, at six inches apart, will help also. 



The bane of many a home is the kitchen slop 

 pipes, emitting a death-dealing smell. Now, harm 

 from this can be in a large measure prevented b5' 

 an occasional wash-out of the pipe with water in 

 which chloride of lime or copperas (sulphate of 

 iron) has been dissolved. These solutions will kiU 

 all bacterial life, the one thing to be aimed for. 

 The cost is almost nothing ; the saving may be 

 beyond computation. Take the onlj- safe course. 



A hint for improving the cow stables, found in 

 Farin^ Field and Fireside, is so good, even for 

 those who keep but one cow, that we offer it here: 

 At a point just in front of the cow's feet when she 

 stands eating from the rack (hence standing back 

 pretty well), pin down across the stall a round stick 

 4 inches in diameter. In front of the stick keep 

 plenty of dry bedding, for it will rarely be fouled, 

 and the cow will quickly learn to bring her body 

 just forward of the rail when laying down. 



Greasing Wheels, There is a right way and 

 there are wrong ways of doing it. A paper de- 

 voted to the coach-making industry gives some 

 lessons on the subject that are worth repeating 

 here : A well-made wheel will endure constant 

 wear from 10 to 25 years, if care is taken to use the 

 right kind and amount of grease ; this not attended 

 to. it may be used up in 5 yeai-s. Lard is not 

 good wagon grease ; it wfll penetrate the hub, 

 and work its way out around the tenons of the 

 spokes, thus spoiling the wheel. Tallow is the best 

 lubricator for wooden axle-trees, and castor oil for 

 iron ones, but many of' the patent axle greases are 

 also excellent, and have the merit of being cheaper 

 and more convenient to handle. Just gi'ease 

 enough should be applied to the spindle of a wagon 

 to give it a slight coating. This is better than 

 more, for the surplus put on will work out at the 

 ends, and be forced by the shoulder bands and nut 

 washer into the hub around the outside of the 

 boxes. To oil an iron axle-tree, first wipe the 

 spindle clean with a cloth wet with spirits of turpen- 

 tine, and then apply a few drops of castor oil near 

 the shoulder and end. One teaspoonful is sufficient 

 for the axle of each wheel. 



