WIND FALLS. 



Sister Gracious' Conservatory. — When the new 

 house was built, a small glass room, thirteen feet long 

 and six feet wide was added to the family sitting-room, 

 the opening into it being a wide arched door, and another 

 glass door led out onto a piazza. There were double 

 glass windows put in at the side and top, and the large 

 base-burner in the sitting-room gave the heat required, 

 except when the mark was below zero, and then a large 

 kerosene lamp was added, and I never lost a plant by 

 frost. As this small conservatory was a part of the 

 plan of the house, the added expense was very small. 

 Two long shelves by the windows, plant-stands and 

 brackets, made room for about two hundred pots, and 

 here I spent two delightful hours every day among my 

 pets, and I don't find time to consider the question, " Is 

 life worth living ?" And 

 it gives me such delightful 

 opportunities for giving. 

 The dainty young girls 

 want a flower to wear, for 

 Jack, or Harry, or Char- 

 ley "is coming to-night." 

 An invalid is made happy 

 by a pot of mignonette or 

 a young girl that I send 

 visiting to the bedside, and 

 at Easter, the church in 

 m y neighborhood sends 

 around an express wagon 

 and wants "Sister Gra- 

 cious to send what plants 

 she can spare." And 

 there are birth-days, and 

 holy days when my plants 

 are put upon the table, or 

 perchance a dead baby 

 may hold some of the 

 sweet blossoms in its 

 hands. I wish every new 

 home when planned, 

 would add a plant room, 

 as well as a library, or a 

 kitchen or a sewing-room. 

 Every member of the family would find it an education 

 and delight, not only in caring for the plants, but in get- 

 ting new specimens, and reading the excellent floral 

 magazines that are now published. Last winter I suc- 

 ceeded with my callas — they gave me royal looking 

 flowers from November till May. Abutilons, red and 

 yellow, are good amateur plants. So are petunias, nas- 

 turtiums, ageratum and geraniums. All through Feb- 

 ruary and March the bulbs were in blossom — hyacinths, 

 freesias and jonquils. A palm and pteris gave a 

 tropical look to my winter garden, and a pine apple 

 growing was a constant interest. I had a small, strong 

 step-ladder, and when not on duty, it held the white 

 hyacinths. I found a little girl one day seated on the 

 floor at the front of the ladder gazing up at the flowers 

 with such a sweet spiritual expression that I asked her 



315 



"What she was thinking about." She said, "This is 

 Jacob's ladder," and pointing to the white hyacinths, 

 "These are the angels going up and down." At the 

 top, close to the windows in the roof, is an illuminated 

 text in large letters, "We are workers together with 

 Him." It puts such sweet thoughts into my heart when 

 I am working among the plants. Some one asked me 

 the other day, seeing how much labor was needed to 

 keep my small conservatory in order, "Does it pay?" 

 I answer "Yes, indeed ! ! " Not in money, but in added 

 health, in wider interests, in reading and in extended 

 opportunities in doing good. — Sister Gracious. 



Experience with a Passiflora. — In the summer of 

 1889, a friend gave me a slip of the new variety of pas- 

 siflora, Constance Elliott. Putting it in a wide mouthed 



bottle of water, I hung it 

 in a sunny window where 

 it rooted rapidly, then 

 carefully transferred it to 

 the soil where, in time, it 

 became a beautiful plant- 

 Last summer it grew lux- 

 uriantly, shading part of 

 the veranda, and was 

 only checked in its growth 

 by lack of support in the 

 way of wire netting. The 

 delicately cut-foliage and 

 exquisitecream white flow- 

 ers were greatly admired. 

 When the vine was being 

 lifted in the fall, the stem 

 most unfortunately was 

 split at least an inch down- 

 ward toward the root — the 

 division of the stem into 

 three parts at the collar, 

 or a little above, made this 

 possible. Binding it to- 

 gether with cord, the vine 

 was finally planted in the 

 box prepared for it, the 

 soil heaped high around 

 the injury, though with grave misgivings as to the 

 result. After a sojourn of six weeks in the cellar, it 

 was removed to a warm, sunny room, in the forlorn 

 hope that the heat might stimulate some latent germs to 

 growth. The passiflora was, indeed, a sorry spectacle; 

 three stout stems, four yards long without a leaf on 

 them ! The only hopeful thing about it was the green- 

 ness of the stems, which, so far as we could see, gave no 

 sign of withering. About a month ago, to our great sur- 

 prise, a tiny green shoot appeared near the top of one of 

 the branches, which has since been followed by others, 

 until at present writing, February 12, every joint is 

 breaking forth in leaf. I have examined the stem where 

 it was broken, and found it strong and close as though i* 

 had not been injured, while right beside the wounded 

 spot a strong young shoot is pushing out. — M. D. B. , Pa. 



Sister Gracious' Conservatory. 



