DEBUTAN : E FOR THE COMING WIJMTER. 



plants, the peerless fancy-leaved caladiums, their pedi- 

 gree shown by heraldic markings upon the leaves. 



Here are great quantities of caladiums, musas and 

 yuccas,- the ferocious look of a house full of Spanish 

 daggers being modified by the stately stems of drooping, 

 creamy bells crowning their spiky trunks ; and last, but 

 far removed from least in interest and beauty, are two 

 varieties of solanum, one with great tufts of light green 

 foliage, against which the second forms a fret-work 

 screen of deeply-cut, dark green leaves. Back of all 

 these plants rises a mass of the broad, richly-colored 

 leaves of the great Abyssinian banana. The whole as- 

 semblage, with the sunlight filtering through it, makes a 

 feast of color and form for all eyes that can see. 



THE BLOSSOMING OF A WORLD'S FAIR NIGHT-BLOOMING 

 CEREUS. 



"Figs from thistles" would seem a fitting chapter- 

 head for the event, for surely it would have been hard to 

 imagine a plant apparently less likely to furnish such an 

 array of beauty than this ungiinly, thorny cereus-plant. 

 The time for the crowning effort of that odd plant-life 

 was approaching, and the god-father of the coming flow- 

 ers was on the qui vive ; and small wonder, for to stand 

 sponsor to 45 children at one time must be looked upon 

 as an event, particularly when, as in this case, they are 

 all girls — they must have been girls, for they were all 

 " fair blossoms," and such titles are not for mere boys. 



The queer-looking plant kept us long waiting ; it did 

 not like the touch of fall frosts in the night air, and de- 



layed unfolding those precious petals as long as possible. 

 However, the evening came when its trembling buds, 

 instinct with the life furnished through the unpromising 

 stems, began to open before our eyes ; first one, then 

 another, then in pairs, and in trios, until the whole plant 

 was starred with magnificent blossoms from the base to 

 the plant's fitting crown of three great flowers, one 

 measuring nearly 15 inches in diameter. The perfume 

 spilled by them over the few witnesses present steeped our 

 senses, and the flash-light photographs we came to per- 

 petrate were almost forgotton, or the operators, feeling 

 the pity of it, longed to stay their hands. Truly, at the 

 {ime such obtrusiveness seemed almost a sacrilege, and 

 one fancied hearing a soft murmur of dissent from the 

 flowers themselves, as if one should say : ' ' Just see these 

 mundane creatures flashing their nineteenth - century- 

 lights into the inmost recesses of the blossom of a night, 

 thinking, perhaps, to learn its way of making perfume, 

 much as their writers are said to try to throw flash-lights 

 into the secret souls of mortals, the better to trace and 

 describe the convolutions of their thoughts." 



The mortals present felt the silent rebuke, and after 

 we had folded our tripods and silently stolen a<vay, glad 

 in our hearts that the moon-beams were not very bright, 

 there rose a still, small rustling, and from the sylvan 

 island, from the water-lilies on the lagoon, over the 

 lawns and yellow sands, flocked the World's Fair fairies, 

 to dance about that wonderful spectral monument of 

 fast-fading flowers, the creatures of the hour. 



Fanny Copley Seavey. 



A DEBUTANTE FOR THE COMING WINTER. 



CENTROSEMA GRANDIFLORA, INTRODUCED BY A. BLANC. 



■EW FLOWERS, like new faces, quickly 

 catch the eye, on account of their 

 novelty. If they happen to be beau- 

 tiful and readily adaptable to cul- 

 ture, they add fresh zest and pleas- 

 ure to the life of every whole-souled 

 gardener. If the dear, old-fashioned 

 plants are valued because of associa- 

 tions, the new ones, as strangers, have 

 a strong claim upon our hospitality. Many old and neg- 

 lected plants are really valuable, and prove eminently 

 satisfactory; but, after all, it cannot be denied that one 

 which is absolutely new to cultivation, and at the same 

 time one of the very best in actual merit, is decidedly 



more desirable. During the last few seasons I have had 

 the opportunity of watching the growth and development 

 of a new ornamental climber of rare and exquisite beauty. 

 This plant, Ceulrosema graiidiflora , is a protege of A. 

 Blanc, of Philadelphia, and is to be offered for sale for 

 the first time the coming winter. It is a hardy peren- 

 nial, but from seeds sown in April plants grow off 

 rapidly, and bloom freely early in June. 



The flowers are inversely pea-shaped, and are quite 

 large, many of them being two and a half inches in 

 diameter. In color they run through all shades from 

 rosy violet to a reddish purple. Through the center of 

 each flower runs a broad, feathered band of white, and 

 the large buds and outside surface of the flowers be- 



