BUDS, BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



558 



to be true. They do not need a front seat in the window 

 —give that to the blooming plants, and place these in the 

 background, or at some east or northeast window where 

 blooming plants will not flourish. Maiden-hair ferns, 

 their common clay pots hidden by the pretty jardinieres 

 now so much in use, make beautiful table ornaments, and 

 develop into symmetrical, globular masses of airy, filmy 

 foliage in many blending shades of green. The sword- 

 ferns (nephrolepis), large and small varieties, may be 

 used in the same way on little tables or stands. They 

 have a certain gracefulness and character of their own, 

 which makes them great favorites. Polypodium aureum, 

 a native of the West Indies, is a large, splendid fern, fine 

 for house-culture. I have used it now for mmy years. 



It will thrive well in shade, with plenty ol water at the 

 roots. A very beautiful and interesting fern is the 

 Aspleniuni hulbifcrnm, a native of New Zealand. It 

 has pretty feathery fronds, on the upper surface of which 

 grow little leafy bulbs When one of these is mature 

 enough to start out on a life of its own it can be gently 

 detached from the parent frond and planted carefully in 

 a small pot. But the better way is to cut the frond off 

 from the plant, just beneath where the little bulb has 

 formed, and plant it, the earth just covering the tiny 

 bulb, which will soon throw out little rootlets. When 

 leaf-growth has well began, the old frond can be cut 

 away, and the new plant, if well watered and kept in the 

 shade or in a sunless window, will thrive well. The 

 parent plant, bearing here and there these little baby 

 ferns, secure in their little brown cradles, is curious and 

 beautiful. 



The tropical-looking palms have proved to be most 

 useful and durable parlor-plants. They need a well- 

 drained soil, composed of rich loam and well-decayed 

 manure, with a little sand and some peat added. Palms 

 which have served for decoration in winter should be 

 put out in the open air in summer, and given a shady 

 place. If well watered, they will keep strong and healthy 

 for many years. Of course, it will be necessary to repot 

 them as they increase in size. The cocos is an elegant 

 small palm for table decoration. The large, fan-shaped 

 Latania Borbonica is very showy, and kentias, or 

 " curly palms," and filif eras are graceful and useful for 

 housi-culture. Several kinds of palms grow slowly, and 

 tl.us sirve as decorations many years before they get too 

 large and difficult to manage. — M.'VY M.-^ckenzie. 



The Common Cedar. — That "familiarity breeds con- 

 tempt" is especially true of our local native trees and 



shrubs. I sent to Michigan for a juniper, only to find 

 that it did not differ essentially from our upland cedar, 

 which grew in abundance within 100 feet of my place. I 

 also sent for some Norway maples, but have found that 

 the common swamp-maple is quite as vigorous and hand- 

 some a tree. Profiting by such experiences I shouldered 

 my spade recently and wandered off in the woods and 

 swamps, seeking for game that should be perpetuated, 

 not destroyed. The first specimen found was a beautiful 

 young maple, and next a number of fine shrubs, but best 

 of all I soon found some beautiful common cedars [Jiuii- 

 pei-tis Virginiayia). This plebian tree I have learned 

 to love, and I wish to give a few of my reasons for trans- 

 planting so many specimens to my grounds. First, then, 

 it can be set out without excavating a big hole— one or 

 two spade-fulls of earth is all that need be removed ; the 

 chances are that the soil in which it is set will suit it quite 

 as well as that of its former forest or hedge-home. Sec- 

 ond, it i3 usually a very bright evergreen, having a warm, 

 cheerful appearance in winter and a cool look in summer. 

 Third, it is spicy and fragrant. There may not be as 

 much ozone in the cedar as there is in the pine-forests, 

 but there is a much more agreeable odor. Fourth, it 

 makes an efficient windbreak, and, if pinched back, 

 forms an excellent hedge or a beautiful specimen tree. 

 Fifth, it is a valuable timber-tree along the Atlantic sea- 

 board. Next to locust, cedar is the most durable of wood 

 for outdoor use. There is a growing demand for the 

 wood for various manufacturing purposes, though it is 

 of slow growth. Sixth, it is not at all fastidious as to 

 soil or locality ; it will grow almost anywhere, doing the 

 best it can under almost any conditions, under other trees 

 or grown in open ground. Seventh, its close, compact 

 growth and rather forbidding foliage make it an excel- 

 lent retreat for our delicate song-birds. This tree, how- 

 ever, is not perfect. Birds carry its seeds to hedges and 

 neglected meadows, but it is of too slow growth to do any 

 barm on cultivated land. In hedges it is apt to grow 

 crooked and straggly. This is usually because of its 

 good nature ; it gives way for other trees, and becomes 

 dwarfed in consequence. I do not claim that this cedar 

 ranks high as a fine lawn-tree for purely ornamental 

 purposes in the foreground of landscapes, where rarer 

 and more expensive trees are obtainable, but there are 

 thousands of places which might be improved and beau- 

 tified at a trifling expense by the judicious use of the com- 

 mon and often-despised juniper. — J H Griffith, L. I. 



Hardy Edging Plants. — In one of our gardening 

 exchanges we find favorable mention of the use of a 

 dwarf creeping phlox as an edging to a passage-way in 

 a fine garden. In another, mention is made of a drive 

 edged with the plantain-lily [Funkia subcordata), and 

 its beauty is commented upon. Now as the gardeners in 

 both these cases are excellent florists, who have at their 

 command any quantity of greenhouse-plants, one of them, 

 in fact, making floriculture his business, these instances 

 show growing appreciation of the beauty and value of 

 hardy perennial flowers, iu our own garden we want 

 both tender and hardy flowers, as well as annuals and 



