BUDS, BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



225 



knowledge of all kinds relating to botany, and has ensured 

 the cultivation and dispersal of economic plants of all 

 kinds. Great things have been effected for humanity, 

 entirely or very largely through the medium of Kew. 

 Commercial men and practical statesmen are not very 

 likely to feel much enthusiasm about botany as a science 

 — they look upon it, if at all, as a harmless pastime ; but 

 when they see — as they may at Kew — what it is capable 

 of, and what it has done for the benefit of mankind, they 

 naturally look upon the gardens as an institution worthy 

 of their support. The cultivation of cinchona, tea. 

 India-rubber, Liberian coffee, represents only a few of 

 the industries which have been established and fostered 

 in India and elsewhere, chiefly through the agency of 

 Kew." 



A National Emblem. — The national-flower craze has 

 broken out in a new form. A "Star Pansy Union" is 

 being formed, having for its purpose the gaining of re- 

 cognition for the pansy as a national flower, and pro- 

 posing to secure "a more graceful, elastic and emblem- 

 atic union for the United States flag," by placing the 

 cluster of stars representing the states in the form of pet- 

 als in a conventionalized pansy. For the head of the 

 staff an acorn is to be used — " the emblem of greatness 

 in littleness, of strength in weakness, of life in death." 

 An attempt will be made to secure the adoption by Con- 

 gress of this design in 1893. 



Narrow Pots for Roses. — The makers of the Neponset 

 paper flower-pots are desirous of knowing whether a tall 

 narrow pot, 6 inches high by 2^ inches at the top, about 

 which a customer inquires, would be a useful form for 

 growing small roses. The writer has had considerable 

 experience in raising young roses in pots. He has found 

 that inasmuch as young roses do not run as quickly to 

 leaf as do many other pot-plants, it is an advantage in 

 economizing space to grow the young plants along in 

 narrower pots than would be suitable for plants like 

 geraniums, coleus and heliotropes. What have our flor- 

 ists to say about it ? 



A Respectable Onion Crop.— Last season I dabbled 

 a little in the new onion-culture, using White Victoria 

 and Mammoth Pompeii onions. Seed was sown in the 

 hothouse, and the plants set in open ground when of the 

 size of rye-straw. The plants being so small, I set them 

 rather too close, three by eight inches, and the tops cov- 

 ered the ground so I had to thin. Still, some of the 

 bulbs measured ^% inches in diameter, and I got a yield 

 of 1,350 bushels to the acre. Will try about one-half 

 acre this year. — A. P. Mabi, loiua. 



Too Tempting. — There is a story that "out west" a 

 man hung himself because, after repeated efforts, he 

 failed to raise fruit and vegetables that came anywhere 

 near the pictured varieties in the catalogues. A more or 

 less gorgeous pamphlet is now almost daily left by the 

 postman. And the amateur almost gives up in despair, 

 saying : " It's no use my trying to keep up with the pro- 

 cession ; I must take a back seat, or give up entirely " 

 I've been there, and know whereof I speak. I shall no 

 more be discouraged, even if my manettia-vine, instead 



of being so covered with blooms, as in the picture, that 

 no leaves were visible, only had five flowers at a time. 

 But it was so pretty, with the five scarlet tipped-with- 

 yellow blossoms, that I didn't miss the other thousand or 

 two. But I was disappointed in my wax-beans ! In the 

 picture the bean-pods were so close together that one 

 small branch looked like a paper of pins. Being fond of 

 wax-beans I invested, and had just one full meal of the 

 beans and a few scattering pods besides. But I love the 

 bright catalogues just the same, and carefully store them 

 away. When the baby is teething I can keep him 

 amused and happy for hours, showing him the gaily col- 

 ored pictures. And sometimes in the latter part of the 

 winter, when tired out and waiting for spring, and per- 

 haps threatened with la grippe, I look at the bright pic- 

 tures of roses and delicious strawberries and take heart 

 again. — Sister Gracious. 



A Cellar Hotbed. — My neighbor's house is heated by 

 a furnace, consequently the cellar is always warm. He 

 uses the south end for a workshop in the winter. A few 

 years ago he wanted more light than the small ordinary 

 cellar-window afforded, so he enlarged the window, at 

 the same time making a 

 place for keeping plants 

 over winter and start- 

 ing seeds in the spring. 

 The opening in the cel- 

 lar-wall was enlarged to 

 about four feet long, 

 and down a little deeper 

 than the level of the 

 ground outside. A space 

 two feet wide and the 

 length of the opening 

 was furnished with 

 good garden soil. Then 

 a hotbed sash was made 

 the length of the open- 

 ing, and of a width suffi- 

 cient to reach from the 

 top of the opening to 



the outside edge of the prepared soil. The triangular 

 ends were also enclosed with glass. This arrangement 

 gave a space of four by two feet of good garden soil, 

 warmed by the furnace within and the sun without. 

 House-plants were kept there in winter and seeds started 

 in early spring the same as in a hotbed. This contriv- 

 ance has continued to give satisfaction and is much less 

 trouble than a hotbed. The drawing shows cross-section 

 of the arrangement. — Subscriber. 



Home Experiment-Grounds.— Pleasure and profit 

 may be derived from a plat of ground set apart for ex- 

 perimenting. Strawberry-seeds may be sown in green- 

 house as soon as the berries are ripe — the plants set into 

 the open ground, put back into house in fall, and made to 

 ripen fruit before next regular crop is ripe the following 

 summer. Grape-seeds sown in sandy soil in autumn will 

 make a growth of two or three feet the following season. 

 Many new varieties of raspberries, blackberries and 



