ET CETEKA. 109 



hanging-basket made of a turnip, by scooping out the in- 

 side so as to leave walls an inch thick, filling the cavity 

 with soil, and sowing any quickly germinating seeds the 

 sprouts from both turnip and seeds combining to make 

 the greenery. 



For Lizzie, a glass goblet nearly filled with water con- 

 taining a bit of charcoal to keep it sweet coarse lace 

 fastened across the top and covered with peas touching 

 the water or a disk of cotton-batting or thick flannel of 

 the diameter of the glass laid on the surface of the water 

 and sown with any fine seed, grass, mustard, flax-seed, 

 or water-cress to be kept in a warm dark place until 

 the roots enter the water, and then brought to light for 

 the growth of the green. 



For the "little five-year-old/' an acorn or a chestnut 

 suspended by a thread over a cup of water, or loosely set 

 in the neck of a well-filled vial, barely in contact with 

 the water making in its growth a greenery which is very 

 small, but very full of interest, even to older heads. It 

 affords constant opportunity to watch the process of ger- 

 mination, without the trouble of uncovering beans in the 

 garden-beds. 



The common pine-cone experiment will be more satis- 

 factory if you fill the spaces behind the scales with 

 fine soil before sowing the seed, and then keep the cones 

 in wet sand or moss. Half a dozen such cones having 

 each a distinct variety of grass, and grouped together in 

 a vase filled with sand, will make an ornament not un- 

 worthy of either nursery or parlor. 



The Madeira Vine, Sweet Potato, and other tubers 

 may be grown in "glasses" like the Hyacinth, and 

 should have precisely the same treatment. [See Chap. 

 VI., Winter Bloom.] It is altogether a mistake to set 

 the tubers "half in the water at the bottom of a vase," 

 according to some printed directions. My first experi- 

 ment "followed the book," and issued in an odor quite 



