BUDS. BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



363 



ing to me how women in the country can stay in the 

 house when they have all out-doors right around their 

 houses. And what a prejudice they have against letting 

 outside air into their homes at night ! Brother and I 

 rode through our village about eleven o'clock the other 

 evening, and we did not see one bed-room window open 

 for even an inch. Many of the barns had breathing 

 places, and folks are more wise regarding their dumb 

 beasts than for themselves. There are hundreds of 

 " fads," wise or otherwise, in these days. Why shouldn't 

 we try the outdoor fad and see if we can't live to be a 

 hundred or over ? — Sister Gr.\cious. 



Bird-of-Paradise Flower. — This flower, of which 

 an engraving is annexed, is not so often seen in green- 



Bird-of-Paradise Flowers \Strclit^ici ^cgnur). 



houses as in former years, although we cannot under- 

 stand why its popularity should decrease. Botanically 



it is known as Si relit -ia Rciriucc, having been named 

 in honor of the wife of George III., Charlotte of Meck- 

 lenburg-Strelitz. The flowers show a combination of 

 orange and purple in their coloring, are large, abundantly 

 produced, and bear a fancied resemblance to a bird of 

 bright plumage. The plant (shown at the bottom of the en- 

 graving) is easily cultivated as a pot or tub plant. A 

 soil consisting of light fibrous loam and a small part of 

 manure and sand suits it well. It requires a good deal 

 of water during the summer, but very little need be 

 given in winter. It is chiefly propagated by divisions of 

 old plants 



Homes, not Houses. — It was a queer business for a 

 woman, and yet she was doing very well, and every year 

 laid by a comfortable sum. She would buy a cheap lot 

 in the growing part of the city, and have built a small 

 pretty house with one feature to please the women of a 

 family — plenty of closets. Her houses were sold soon 

 after finishing, and she said it was because she spent 

 fifty dollars or more in fixing up the front yard. She 

 had it turfed, laid out a small flower-bed, and planted it, 

 too, with a few things like bleeding-heart, lilacs, stevias, 

 etc., with a Virginia creeper fastened to the little porch 

 in front. A nice apple, pear or cherry tree was also 

 planted in the yard. She told me it paid every time to 

 spend money in this way. "Why!" said she, "first 

 looks are everything. A man or woman seeing my dear 

 little house, with the new. crude look taken off by the 

 turf, the flower-bed, the vine and the trees, see a home 

 in it right away, and I rarely have difficulty in selling. 

 I notice, too, that after buying, the habit of working out- 

 doors is kept up, and in a few years the garden is very 

 beautiful. I generally begin in the fall, build my house 

 to sell, and take real pleasure in fixing the outside in the 

 spring ; and it pays too !" — S. G. 



Size of Tuberose-Bulbs not Material. — I have 

 been for two seasons past a close and interested observer 

 of the tuberose. Growing the bulbs as a field-crop for 

 wholesale trade, it behooves me to note closely, and to 

 remember facts pertaining thereto. Two years ago I 

 failed to get my bulbs grown to the size demanded by 

 trade (from four to seven inches in circumference), losing 

 thus my entire profit on the crop. I wrote to several 

 kind friends asking about them. One friend wrote me 

 that the size of bulbs was of no great consequence if we 

 could only get buyers to credit the fact ; and that in his 

 experience, "small, well-cured bulbs bloomed just as 

 well as the large ones." This was corroborated by 

 my last year's experience. I had thousands of small 

 bulbs, too small to sell, but in my eyes too valuable to 

 throw away. One kind adviser said, " plant your small 

 bulbs deep, and get grand ones for next season's sales. " I 

 tried the experiment, though sparingly, only planting 

 about two thousand. Nearly the entire planting has 

 flowered abundantly, but strange to say, the original 

 bulbs planted have increased very little in size. This 

 convinces me that, with our long seasons south, it is need- 

 less to cultivate the bulbs for more than one season. I 

 feared to trust these small bulbs for my own pleasure- 



