56 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



SOME HINTS ON MAKING COLEUS BEDS. 

 By Miss L. M. Pope. 



The Pilgrims came to this country so thoroughly imbued with 

 ascetic principles that the love of things beautiful, even in nature, 

 seemed to them a snare to the soul, whose primary occupation was 

 fighting the pride and vanities of life. Then their constant struggles 

 with the deprivations and hardships of pioneer life left them little 

 time for the indulgence of aesthetic tastes, if their consciences would 

 have permitted such indulgence. 



There must have been a grim fitness in the diminutive log cabin, 

 with its scanty furnishings, surrounded onl}' b\' the growth of wild 

 plants indigenous to the soil. It certainl}- might prove interesting 

 and instructive to note the first beginnings and growth of a taste for 

 out-of-door decoration, had we the means of tracing it. 



We can imagine, as constant labor for bare existence became less 

 of a necessity, our grandmothers found time to look around and enjoy 

 the beauty bj- which the}' were surrounded, and, admiring some of 

 the wild flowers, may have transplanted them by the window to cheer 

 their hours of labor. Then, as the log house gave place to the simple 

 and still perfectly plain frame house with its increasing comforts, 

 possibly the grandfathers ma}- have begun to miss the shade trees 

 that the}' had sacrificed in their haste to make space to raise food for 

 their first pressing necessities. They found themselves obliged to 

 plant small trees to replace those grand old forest trees and wait a 

 good part of a lifetime for them to attain any considerable growth. 

 Their wives and daughters, lending their aid and taste, may have 

 planted the hollyhock, sweet william, jonquil, and possibly a few rose 

 bushes, in beds each side of the door. These floral pets must still 

 occup3' a place close to the house, as there was as yet no fence to 

 protect them, nor would they have looked well or flourished in the 

 weedy, untrimmed turf around the house. Then followed the big, 

 square, angular house, with its equally angular front yard, and the 

 fitting accompaniment of regular geometrical flower beds, ungraceful 

 in themselves, but preserving the harmony of the whole and the true 

 exponents of the characters and tastes of their originators. And as 

 neglect and slovenliness seem incompatible with straight lines and 

 square corners we may presume they were well kept and weeded. 



