

3C 



happy manner. Mr, Peter Henderson spoke on "The 

 progress of Horticulture in this country and Europe;" 

 Mr. John Gad ness on "The history of Botanical Science;" 

 Mr. Walter Reed on "The Gardeners of the past;" Mr. 

 Wm. Bennett on "The Gardens of the past;" Mr. Foulis 

 on "Plants and their peculiarities;" and Mr. J. Laird 

 Wilson spoke very happily in answer to the Toast of "The 

 Press." The evening was enlivened with songs, and al- 

 together it was a most enjoyable reunion. 



«- ■*-*•>— — ■ — ■ j — — • 



Plant Catalogues.— We have just received Peter 

 Henderson & Co.'s combined seed and plant catalogue for 

 $iis year, happily entitled "Everything for the GardenV' 

 It includes some very interesting and desirable novelties in 

 plants, including the new zebra striped grass Fulalia, and 

 the White Hydrangea, both introduced from Japan by Mr. 

 Thos. Hogg. Mr. Henderson also gives an extract on 

 planting laions and flower beds from his new work "Garden- 

 ing for Pleasure," introducing several plants which will be 

 of great service to many. The catalogue is carefully com- 

 piled, and is valuable as a book of reference. 



— B. K. Bliss & Sons also send their abridged seed cata- 

 logue and illustrated Gardener's Almanac, offering in ad- 

 dition to their usual full assortment some good novelties in 

 flower seeds, and some three new varieties of Potatoes 

 which we doubt not will prove to be all they claim, and 

 add to their high reputation for carefulness in recommend- 

 ing only good things. 



, — , -&»»■ 



Tins Chinese Primrose. — Among all the numerous 

 varieties of winter-blossoming plants there are few which 

 give more constant satisfaction than the Chinese Prim- 

 roses, for they bloom often from eight to ten months in 

 the year, and are rarely troubled by insects. Since they 

 were first introduced from China in 1820, their flowers 

 have been decidedly improved. Originally they were of 

 a dull lilac hue, not attractive either in color, shape or 

 size, but the skill of the florist has combined to produce a 

 rarely beautiful flower in every shade of color, from purest 

 white to the richest crimson tint; variegated, striped and 

 spotted varieties are also offered for our selections, while 

 others have petals with well defined margins of colors with 

 large white eyes like the Phlox, and still others are seen 

 with edges deeply tinted with royal purple, or deepest 

 crimson hues, and the remainder of the petals arc of the 

 purest white. 



. JMot contented with all these charming varieties, the 

 florists have succeeded in producing double primroses, 

 which are exceedingly beautiful, and now no stand of 

 plants is considered complete which does not contain one 

 or more of these lovely plants. 



The White Queen has a double pure white flower, very 

 large, while its petals are deeply serrated or fringed. 



The Queen of England has very large, double flowers, 

 which at first are of snowy whiteness, and theu assume a 

 lilac tint. 



The Double Red Primrose is also a very attractive 

 flower, but not as lovely 'as the white varieties in my eyes. 



The primrose is a perennial, growing easily from seed, 

 or from off shoots from the roots. A moderately warmed 

 room is better for its health than hot house heat, and it re- 

 quires good air— needs to have the room well ventilated 

 d,aily. 



Its soil should be of a rich but sandy loam; it will not 

 grow well in a heavy, soggy compost, but it should be 

 well lightened with gritty sand. 



In watering, be sure to have the water quite warm to the 

 hand, and do not let any of it remain m the saucer over 

 fifteen minutes. A cup of boiling water given in the 

 saucer every morning stimulates its growth; but give only 

 enough to be sucked up directly by the roots. 



After the buds show themselves, a weekly watering with 

 weak manure-water, made either with horse, cow, hen 

 manure or guano, will give a brighter hue to the flowers, 

 and increase their size. 



These plants do not require as much sunlight as either 

 roses or geraniums — yet tuey must have the direct rays of 

 the sun some time during the day. We have found a 

 southwest window very suitable to their needs. Prim- 

 roses can be purchased for a small sum. Twenty-five 

 eents will buy a fine plant. Daisy Eyebright- 



' * . -»<-*- • 



—One of the important outgrowths of this club is the 

 Alden factory here, one of the largest in Michigan. It has 

 this fall done more for the farmers of this vicinity than any 

 other like institution in the county, oi perhaps the State. 

 The immense crops of apples could find no market at any 

 price except at this factory . There has been bought by 

 this company upward of 25,000 bushels of apples. The 

 price paid had been from 15 cents to 30 cents per bushel . 

 It has employed since the last week in August 50 girls and 

 from six to ten men, paying out on an average fully $100 

 per day to the farmers for apples and to their daughters 

 for their labor. This large amount of money has been dis- 

 tributed within a small territory near the factory. The 

 company has shipped 20,000 pounds of the preserved ap- 

 ples to fill the orders of the United States Government, and 

 have surely to ship by the 1st of January 120,000 more. 

 The cores and peelings of this large amount of apples have 

 been yielding a great quantity of cider, which is made into 

 pure cider vinegar, and they estimate about 500 casks as 

 this fall's product. Thi3 institution is a farmer's institu- 

 tion, owned and managed by practical farmers, and is 

 called " The Farmers' Fruit Preserving Company."— Lena- 

 wee Junction Farmers' (J tub Report. 



— For hanging baskets or for similar purposes Fragaria 

 indica. may be recommended. It is not often seen, but 

 might be advantageously used for variety sake. Its long 

 thread-like runners are elegant, the flowers are yellow, 

 surrounded by a broad-leaved calyx, and succeeded by a 

 globose bright transparent coral red berry, which, if not 

 eatable, is at least vcy ornamental.— Gardener* 1 Chronicle^ 

 London. 



Farewell to the Potato Bug. —The Colorado potato 

 beetle, or potato bug, as we generally call it, has at last 

 found its match in the shape of a mite parasite. Prof. 

 Riley, at a meeting of the St. Louis Academy of Science, 

 exhibited a potato bug which was so completely covered 

 with a mite parasite that the point of a needle could not 

 be placed on any part of the beetle's body without touch- 

 ing one of the parasites. He estimated the. number of 



mites at eight hundred. The bug had been attacked by 

 these enemies and killed. The potato bug seems tcThave a 

 number of natural enemies, such as the toad, the crow, the 

 rose-breasted grossbeak and domestic fowls. There are 

 no less than twenty-three insect enemies that attack and 

 kill it. The bug has also been migrating eastward across 

 the continent for several years, until it has now reached 

 the Alantic ocean. We hope it may find a watery grave, 

 and let the waves sing its requiem. — Rocky Mountain Mews. 

 — ■ ■ -♦♦*. — — — . — 



— At St. Augustine, Florida, ice formed almost nightly 

 during the week ending Jan. 6th. 



wmm n 



SEA-SICKNESS. 



\ A GREAT many cures have been discovered for sea- 

 lV. sickness, of varying degrees of absurdity. We 

 give the palm to a writer in the English Mechanic. He 

 states that many years ago he had occasion to frequently 

 cross the Irish Channel, and was invariably sick on there 

 being the least motion of the water. Once, however, when 

 it was very rough, and the wind blowing a hurricane he 

 hit upon an expedient which proved an effectual preventive, 

 that is, he made his respiration coincide punctually with 

 the heave and fall of the vessel. Occasionally he fell 

 asleep, and as his breathing did not then keep time to the 

 vessel's motion, the sickness came back, and required one 

 or two harmonious breaths to dispel it. We would not be 

 guilty of discourteously doubting the writer's word, but 

 we trust that since publishing his cure he has tried its ef- 

 fectiveness on a voyage across the Atlantic. A man might, 

 no doubt, resort to less harmless amusement for eight or 

 nine days than the regulation of his lung action. We can 

 imagine him standing on deck watching the vessel's move- 

 ment. As she rises up some one of the mountain waves of 

 which sailors tell, our friend is slowly and deliberately in- 

 flating himself. The internal cavity is filled with the salt sea 

 air as a balloon with gas, but still the vessel rises up the 

 long slope. He contains himself with difficulty and the 

 oppressive sensation approaches agony as the vessel quivers 

 on the summit. His fine sense of harmony, however, de- 

 mands and compels a reciprocal quiver from his bursting 

 frame. But O the relief as the good ship glides swiftly 

 downward into the trough, and he once more feels free to 

 let out the pent-up breath. We can picture him at meals 

 gulping down his food with earnest anxiety that the regu- 

 larity of his breathing be not interfered with by anything 

 as gross as victuals. It is air that he wishes to take regu- 

 larly, or victuals would be useless. We can even picture 

 him in a choppy sea with a long "ground swell," endeavor- 

 ing by a series of sniffs and puffs to suit the fidgety action 

 of the ship. And at night — but we leave him to get out 

 of the dilemma as he can. If he sleeps he is sick, if he 

 does not sleep he is sick, and before reaching his destina- 

 tion would be mad — assuming his sanity when starting. 

 The choice is neither great nor attractive. It strikes us 

 that the better plan would be to let the sickness come and 

 run its course, and then eat, drink, sleep and breathe to 

 suit ourselves, but at the same time the experience of a 

 traveler who has crossed the. Irish channel is entitled to 

 some respect. 



The Journal du Havre gives what is said to be a real 

 remedy. The formula varies with the state of the water, 

 the constitution of the individual, and the more or less 

 liability to suffer from that distressing malady. The fol- 

 lowing is the recipe for very rough weather: Chloral, three 

 grammes; distilled water, fifty grammes; currant syrup, 

 sixty grammes; French essence of mint, two drops. Half 

 the mixture to be taken on embarking. The latter clause 

 makes us suspicious. Let us suppose that the weather has 

 not revealed itself — and we never heard that it did six or 

 seven days beforehand — thatjve are not very sure about 

 our constitutions, that we are about to make our first voy- 

 age and know nothing about our liability to "that distress- 

 ing malady," what then about the formula for the mixture 

 on embarking? 



Upon the whole there seems to us more common-sense 

 in the Irishman's action, who, when about to emigrate to 

 this country, took his wife out with him every day in a 

 row-boat, "to practice the say-sickness." So to our lady 

 friends who would like to join yachting parties, but are 

 afraid of the malady, we would give the simple advice, 

 "practice it." 



«*»4» • 



The Duel. — When two men make up their miods to 

 seek at the sword's point or pistol mouth a "satisfaction" 

 which they cannot otherwise obtain, it is quite right that 

 we should hold them up to public view as law breakers, 

 and invite the law to aseert its offended majesty. It would, 

 however, be a very narrow view which would take cogni- 

 zance of the merely legal aspects of the affair. The prin- 

 cipals may no doubt be interested in the result, both of the 

 meeting and the subsequent criminal proceedings, but there 

 is no necessity for concentrating one's vision upon them as 

 though they were the only parties affected by the quarrel. 

 In such an age as our's summoning an enemy to the 

 field is one of the most selfish luxuries in which a man 

 can indulge. He summons at the same time many 

 spirits from the vasty deep of society which had better 

 have been allowed to lie in becoming rest. 



When all the thousand tongues of scandal have been set 

 a-wagging; when the cause of quarrel has been unearthed; 

 when the peace of families has been broken, and relations 

 of the most sacred kind have become subjects of bar-room 

 discussion, a man's personal satisfaction is dwarfed by the 



multitudinous wrongs to innocent individuals his search 

 after it involves. The man who commits an assault is, for 

 the time being, a "lower" animal. He belongs no longer 

 to reasonable humanity. The physical pain he inflicts does 

 not cure the pfin within himself which led him to such 

 folly, and revenge of that kind is puerile. He is chal- 

 lenged, and two men lower themselves to the level of rams 

 butting each other for something which instinct scarcely 

 recognizes. They meet and butt and — nothing more. Ad- 

 mitting that in the olden time dueling had a salutary effect 

 in teaching men self' restraint, society now furnishes the 

 means of obtaining all the satisfaction a duellist could de- 

 sire. We leave the law entirely out of the case. We also 

 lay aside all the arguments of the kind which tend to show 

 that the duel is a blunder, since it is very poor recompense 

 to the aggrieved to be shot by the aggressor. What we wish 

 to point out is that society has in its own hands the right- 

 ing of all wrongs not recognized by tlie law, or to the 

 righting of which the law is not summoned. The "cuts" 

 of society are sharper than those of the sword, and the 

 shaft of its contemptuous sarcasm are worse than the sting 

 of the bullet. 



But let us suppose that a lady is the cause of quarrel. 

 He who would resent by blows a wrong to her r doubles it. 

 He is, indeed, rather gratifying his own feeling of, it may 

 be, just resentment, than applying any balm to her wounds 

 or erecting any defense between her and wrong. What has 

 she done that the state of her feelings should be discussed, 

 and her name be in the mouths of all men? What have 

 the families done to merit such treatment, that their pri- 

 vate affairs should form the burden of a chorus which 

 every goose in the land is cackling with more or less dis- 

 cordancy? We would remind assaulters and challengers 

 that there are other feelings to be considered than their 

 own. No one has a right, by inviting the public gaze to 

 household privacy, to break through the sanctity which 



ought to surround Home. 



_ -*♦+* 



Discriminating Charity. — A story with an excellent 

 moral reaches us from Providence. It is to the effect that 

 a Newport lady was one day very much outraged and 

 shocked by the profanity of a tatterdemalion, and that open- 

 ing her window she bribed him by the gift of a quarter, to 

 desist and depart! The result was, in view of the depravity 

 of human nature, perfectly natural. The boy left in satis- 

 faction and silence. On the following morning a horde of 

 boys and men were under the lady's window blaspheming 

 in chorus, and occasionally demanding a price for quietude 

 and absence. The lady had unwittingly set a premium on 

 profanity. The practice of offering premiums is carried to 

 an alarming extent. An emploj^ei offers a servant a starv- 

 ation salary, and chuckles over the reduction of his expen- 

 ses. The time comes when the till is robbed, or the clerk 

 is an absconder with several .thousand dollars. The em- 

 ployer had virtually set a premium on dishonesty. A beg- 

 gar is met on the street. His romance is pitiful, and his 

 appearance gives it the stamp of reality. Assistance is 

 given, and under the name of charity a premium is set upon 

 laziness. It is a hard matter, but a fact, that one of the best 

 traits of man's character — that which enables him to feel 

 the beauty of charity — should have been the means of inflict- 

 ing endless wrong upon society. It has been ingeniously 

 said that to indulge it tends to preserve a man's tenderness. 

 In other words, it is better, for the sake of one's own feel- 

 ings, to relieve a case of apparent distress, than to turn 

 away on the gronnd of the impossibility of distinguishing 

 the bogus from the real. This is the merest selfishness un- 

 der the flimsiest of disguises. The feelings of the giver do 

 not enter in any way into the question. All that ought to 

 be considered is the necessity of the receiver. Every case 

 in which charity is bestowed upon the undeserving, carries 

 with it the prolongation of a curse— that of constitutional 

 indolence— which ought to be removed. 



THE RETICULE. 



Every woman who lately offered herself as candidate 



for election to the London School Board has been triumph- 

 antly returned. 



—Miss Kinglake, niece of the Crimean historian, has 

 just made an aristocratic marriage. The bridgroom is the 

 son of Earl Fitzwilliam. 



—Poetry is the flour of literature— prose is the corn, po- 

 tatoes and meat; satire is the aquafortis; wit is the spice 

 and pepper; love letters are the noney and sugar; and let- 

 ters containing remittances are the apple dumplings. 



LITERARY, DRAMATIC, ARTISTIC AND MUSICAL. 



—A long and important poem by Mr. Swinburne, enti- 

 tled "The Sailing of the Swallow," will appear in the 

 March number of the Gentlemen's Magazine. It is in heroic 

 measure, and is intended to form a portion of Mr. Swin- 

 burne's "Tristan and Yseult." 



—Bruce had recourse to the sword, Tell to a bow and 

 arrow, and Washington appealed to the God of battles, but 

 when a woman strikes for liberty, she uses anything she 

 can lay her hands on, 



—A bashful young man, while out driving with the dear- 

 est girl in the world, the other day, had to get out and 

 buckle the crupper, and hesitatingly explained that the 

 "animal's bustle hau come loose." _ 



—Madame Patti's recent benefit at Moscow is stated to 

 have been a great success, Signor Campana's "Esmeralda 

 being the opera chosen. There weie sixty calls for the 

 beneficiaire during the performance, and more than o00 

 bouquets were showered upon her, besides which she was 

 presented with a beautiful pair of diamond and sapphire 

 earrings. 



—The Frankfort Gazette announces that a general con- 

 gress of German women, which is to last some . days, has 

 recently been opened in tnat town. There are not less 

 than eight reports to be discussed; the principal subjects 



