Pelunia, 
Petunia argentea. Narurar Orper: Solanacee— Nightshade Family. 
; ELONGING to the same order of plants as the tobacco, the 
Petunia is a native of South America, and derives its name 
from petun, a name for tobacco among the aborigines of 
that quarter. Of late years foreign florists have taken infinite 
Q, pains to improve it by hybridizing, and have succeeded in 
producing some that are most exquisite in color, being plain, 
AS "blotched, or striped, and nearly as double as a rose. This has 
@. only been accomplished after numerous discouragements. As the double 
ones rarely produce seeds, and should they do so would seldom yield 
double flowers in return, the mode of procedure has been to take the 
pollen of the double flower and apply it to the stigma of the never- 
failing single flower, having previously removed the pollen of the latter. 
The plants must then be grown and allowed to ripen under cover, to be sure 
that no bee or truant insect, searching for hidden sweets, shall shake off from its 
tiny legs any of the pollen that may have adhered while wantoning over single 
blossoms. 
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Keep Your Promises. 
Y deeds and speeches, sir, 
Are lines drawn from one center; what I promise 
To do, I'll do. —Daniel, 
HE man that is not in the enemies’ pow’r, | ceaaree creature! bright Astrea’s daughter! 
Nor fetter’d by rhisfortune, and breaks promises, How shall I honor thee for this success? 
Degrades himself; he never can pretend Thy promises are like Adonis’s gardens, 
To honor more. That one day bloom’d, and fruitful were the next 
— Sir Robert Stapleton. — Shakespeare. 
ies! not thy tongue too often bind thy will, For hearts once lighten’d by a promise giv’n, 
To render deeds unto thy foe or friend, May sink too low for rescue shouldst thou fail, 
For words once utter’d thou must erst fulfill, As ships reach not the port for which they’ve striv’n 
Lest sweetest friendship have inglorious end Except a favoring wind their sails prevail. 
f ; —C.H. T. 
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