Third Series. 



NEW YORK, JULY, 1881 



Vol. II.— No. 2. 



1© uerieu §ip1©i s 



A QUARTERLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL. 



Devoted to the Gardening Interests of America, 

 ONLY 25 CENTS A YEAR. 



SINGLE NUMBEE, 10 CENTS. 

 DR. F. M. H EX AM ER, : : : Editor. 



B. K. BUSS <fc SONS, Publishers, 



34 Barclay Street, New York, 



To whom all orders should be addressed. 



Entered at Post-Off ice at New York as second-class matter. 



CONTENTS OP 



The American Garden 



For July, 1881. 



Page Seventeen — Table of Contents — The Flower 

 Mission— Kind Words. 



Page Eighteen — The A'egktable Garden — Sea- 

 sonable Hints— Cauliflower, by P. T. Quinn — 

 The American Wonder Pea. 



Page Nineteen — Turnips, by Col. P. D. Curtis — 

 Potato Onions, by Dr. T. H. Hoskins — Lettuce 

 Mildew — Parsley. 



Page. Twenty— Th-e Fruit Garden— Seasonable 

 Hints— The Bidwell Strawberry, by E. P. Roe. 



Page Twenfii-ane — Raspberries on Sandy Soil, by 

 Win. Parry— Peach Yellows, by IT. K. Miller— In- 

 jurious Fungi, by Dr. Byron D. ITalsted — Seeding 

 Orchards, by Wra. Saunders— Profit in Peaches 

 — Raising New Strawberries. 



Page Twenty-two — The Flower Garden — The 

 Use of Flowers, a Poem, by Mary Howitt — The 

 Tuberose, by Albert Benz— Hardy Azaleas, by 

 E. Williams. 



Page Twenty-three— Chrysanthemums, by John 

 Thorpe — Larkspurs, by * * * — Pansies. 



Page Twenty-four— Lawn and Landscape— Man- 

 agement of Lawns — The Window Garden — 

 Pelargonium grandiHorum, by Damon. 



Page Twenty -Jim — House Plants in Summer — Hang- 

 ing Baskets and Vases— Foreign Scenery— 

 Palms at Home, by E. S. Rand, Jr. 



Page Twenty-six— Horticultural Societies— Progress 

 in Strawberry Culture, by Dr. F. M. He.xuuier, 

 continued from last number. 



Page Twenty-seven— The American Pomologieal 

 Society— The New York Horticultural Society— 

 Rural Life— Farm-house Summer Life, by 

 Clark W. Bryan— Foreign Gardening— Sparrow- 

 grass. 



Page Twenty-eight— -Books and Pamphlets received 



— Answers to correspondents. 

 Page Twenty-nine— Advertising Department. 



THE FLOWER MISSION, 



Among the many praiseworthy charitable 

 institutions of which New York City can 

 boast, there is none actuated by a sense of 

 more genuine benevolence and true kind- 

 heartedness than the " Flower Mission." 



Some people imagine it sentimental and 

 useless to carry flowers to hospital wards 

 and to the sick-beds of wretched tenement- 

 houses. It is true a bunch of flowers does 

 not give shelter to the homeless nor food to 

 the hungry ; but there is a large class of 

 unfortunates in this city whose bodily needs 

 have already been provided for by other pub- 

 lic institutions, and who still require aid. 

 Thousands of young and old, reared in cheer- 

 ful country homes, enticed by the treach- 

 erous allurements of city life, have sacrificed 

 everything to reach the coveted goal, only to 

 find themselves prostrated and helpless on 

 the hospital cot. Without money, without 

 friends, without hope, they pine away, long- 

 ing for the green meadows and shady woods 

 so familiar to childhood days. It is in such 

 cases that the unexpected gift of fresh flow- 

 ers and the tender smiles of a gentle woman 

 impart often a more efficacious stimulus to 

 recovery than druggists' medicines. The 

 powerful curative influences of cheering 

 mental impressions are admitted by all phy- 

 sicians. 



We have a beautiful custom of strewing 

 flowers upon the graves of our heroes and 

 those who have sacrificed their lives to save 

 their country. But, while thus honoring the 

 memory of the dead with living green and 

 brilliant flowers, let us not forget the suffer- 

 ings of the living, and if there are any whose 

 lives can be saved or whose last moments 

 can be made happy by a gift of flowers, by 

 all means let us tender them cheerfully. 



Those who have flower gardens can in no 

 easier and less expensive way gladden some 

 suffering fellow-beings than by offering a 

 sharo of their superfluity. All the express 

 companies entering the city deliver, free of 

 charge, baskets and packages directed to the 

 Flower Mission. Common and old-fashioned 

 as well as wild flowers are as welcome as 

 the rarest exotics. As soon as the flowers 

 are received, the ladies connected with the 

 Mission distribute them among the hospital 



patients and other sick people, and where- 

 ever they may do the most good. 



To bring a bunch of flowers to the friend- 

 less stranger, who, stricken down by sickness 

 and privation, passes many a tedious day 

 and weary night, in pain and despair, on his 

 solitary cot ; to let the lovely messengers 

 from garden and field shed a ray of light and 

 fragrance in the dingy cell, dispel its gloom, 

 and tell in their own language how much 

 beauty, love, and goodness there is in the 

 world ; and that, when liis sufferings are 

 ended by the endless sleep, his last glances 

 may rest upon bright, living flowers, bring- 

 ing back to his memory the happy days of 

 former years ; that the tender touch of the 

 noble woman's hand, who, in charity and 

 love, comes to ease and cheer his last mo- 

 ments, making them pass away, perhaps, 

 in the dream of that most unselfish, most 

 gentle, and most sacred love of which 

 even he has once been the recipient, — love 

 which never dies — the love of a mother, — 

 this is the aim of the Flower Mission. 



That with the cultivation asd care of 

 flowers we should also cultivate and improve 

 our own character and disposition ; that they 

 should teach us and that we should study the 

 wonders and greatness of nature ; that they 

 should beautify our earth, our grounds, our 

 rooms, our homes, and that their splendor 

 and sweetness should become reflected upon 

 our own minds and hearts, is the Mission of 

 Flowers. 



KIND WORDS. 



The AMERICAN GARDEN is certainly a treasure.— 

 P. L., Waverly, Ills. 



Your paper deserves to be in every home in Amer- 

 ica.— TT. A. C, Charleston, S. C. 



What I have learned from your paper was worth ten 

 times its value to ine.— (*. (?. D., Taunton, Mass. 



I value your little paper very much for its practical 

 notes on gardening.— C. H. P., Oconomevwc, Wis. 



The American Garden is just the paper people 

 need— practical and trustworthy.— -P. B. M.. Mamar- 

 oneck, N. Y. 



the American Garden is excellent, it seems to 

 be your aim to make each number a criterion of the 

 last.— Prof. W. K. L., Cornell University, A r . Y. 



The only fault I have to find with your paper is 

 that there is not enough of it, and that it does not 

 come oftener. liaise flic price t»$l, and sendit every 

 month.-iT. C. P., Elmira, N. Y. 



Copyright, 1881, by B. K. Bliss & Sons. Exchanges invited to make extracts, by giving credit. 



