40 



BUDS, BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



La France. 



With heavy heart and grief profound 



I saw a rose, with humble grace, 

 Blooming over a lowly mound 



Like the smile of a winsome face. 



I said, "Ah, rose, I trust to you. 



Let perfume and tint discover 

 To morning mist and twilight dew 



We still remember and love her. 



" Marble letters are white and cold ; 



Little they of her story tell. 

 Leaf and blossom do thou unfold— 



Standing here as her sentinel. 



" Speak, with a language all thine own : 

 Tell that we hold her near and dear— 



As wejourney a space alone, 

 She translated, while we are here." 



" List," said the rose, "She, too, would speak. 



Hearing your step as it passes ; 

 Love can not die nor faith grow weak 



Under the weeds and the grasses. 



" I hear her call, 'O rose, give speech 

 To my old-time smiles and blushes ; 



My heart to hers can upward reach 

 In thy warm tints and flushes.' " 



Bending over the rose La France 



I kissed the blossom, believing. 

 Under the sod and mold, perchance. 



My dear one could feel my grieving.— L. G. P. 



Mistletoe in California. — We have several varie- 

 ties of the mistletoe, the " kissing-tree, " in California. 

 One is Phnradendron Jlavi'scens, the little berries of which 

 are translucent white, tinted with salmon color, plump 

 with the tenacious substance known as "bird-lime," 

 covering the two-celled green seed. The leaves are 

 yellowish-green, orbicular and spatulate. It seems a 

 most thrifty parasite, sending its roots or stroma along 

 the oak-boughs, and filling the air with delicious fra- 

 grance when it is in blossom during July — as I can tes. 

 tify. The pistillate-jointed flower-spikes are opposite 

 the staminate ones, the small green flowers arranged in 

 four or five rows all around. I have seen four bunches, 

 each as large as a water-bucket, on one branch of an 

 oak tree here, and the tree seemed very happy in its at- 

 tachment.— Mrs. K. P. S. Boyd, California. 



The Calla Edible — " It's a Lie!"— When a leading 

 journal like the New York Coin}nercial Advertiser prints 

 a statement that the well-known calla tuber is edible, 

 how proud we can be, in the name of American horti- 

 culture, that there are those ready to test the matter 

 for the truth's sake ! Such a statement was printed, 

 and who should first accept the challenge to prove its 

 falseness, but our interesting friend, "Caldwell the 

 Woodsman," who supplies the Florists'' Exchange vi'xVa 

 interesting news-matter from the south. He found the 

 flesh of the bulb to resemble in appearance the flesh 

 of the sweet-potato, but with a greater number of 

 tough, fibrous strings running through it ; it was dry 

 and mealy, and smelled good. ' ' Taking a big mouthful, " 

 says he, "I masticated it thoroughly and swallowed 

 it. ' How does it taste, Caldwell?' chorused my guests. 



' Why, it does n't taste of anything ; it is absolutely taste- 

 less,' I answered. Just then I felt a suspicious tingle 

 on the tip of my tongue, which I knew too well." His 

 next impression was so bad that he wanted to whip the 

 Advertiser man, but he resorted to the butter-dish at 

 once. Another public-spirited gentleman, who likewise 

 had seen the statement and looked upon it as a chal- 

 lenge, says to the Exchange: " My curiosity got ahead 

 of caution, and when lifting some from the garden I 

 peeled a tuber, cut off a liberal chunk, and chewed it. 

 I will never do it again, I can assure you. It was an 

 experience never to be forgotten ; my mouth, throat 

 and the passages down into the stomach were inflamed 

 for 24 hours, and nothing I took would assuage it." 



Useful Gardening is pleasure-gardening also. Can 

 one doubt that the amateur (a true instance) who by 

 high culture grew two long rows of Haverland straw- 

 berries in his garden last year, and from which for 

 days, he gathered two bushels of fruit per day, netting 

 him $3.20 per bushel, obtained pleasure without stint 

 from the experience ? His receipts from the two rows, 

 exactly acre, were upwards of $60, or at the rate 

 of a full $1,000 per acre. What returns in pleasure 

 and profit good gardening does yield! We have no 

 hesitation in saying that there are 50,000 people in 

 this country, each one of whom could repeat the expe- 

 rience cited, in all particulars, selling their choice fresh 

 product to their twenty nearest neighbors, with scarce- 

 ly a particle of trouble, and with the greatest possible 

 pleasure and satisfaction all around. Such efforts at 

 high gardening, in a small way, are to be encouraged. 

 And then, how it would add to the pocket-money of the 

 people! This is an occupation for spare hours for any 

 intelligent boy, girl, woman or man. Our only caution 

 is. Don't start in on a scale beyond ^cre ; half that 

 area might be better. If any reader of American 

 Gardening will favor the Editor with some past ex- 

 perience of his own in such lines, it will be gladly 

 received. Let us talk up the matter in these columns. 



Brazilian Morning-glories. — During a recent visit 

 in the country I saw these flowers in all their glory. 

 Seeds are being raised for an eastern florist. Though 

 it was only the last of June, the vines had climbed to 

 the tops of high cedar trees, and every available place 

 was covered with them ; old fences, dead trees, etc., 

 were all overrun with the odd-looking woolly vines and 

 foliage. In the morning when the large rosy-purple 

 flowers were opening, it was a sight to behold. Here 

 they are also raising seed of Talinum patens, a lovely 

 plant with pink flowers and red seed-capsules. Eu- 

 phorbia heterophylla is also being grown. The indus- 

 try of seed-raising will, in time, be of more profit than 

 cotton, as it is light, pleasant work, and women and 

 children take to it quite naturally. I know one lady 

 here who last year sent off ^5150 worth of seed. You 

 would never dream of the calls there are for southern- 

 grown seeds and plants, and you would never think what 

 "just a woman" can do when she has a mind to. — 

 Margaret Campbell, Louisiana. 



