ii6 



THE Y SA Y. 



be worked in spring, and if planted at the same time with 

 parsley it will be fit for use before the parsley is well 

 over the ground. It is used for garnishing dishes, and 

 also in soups and stews. It is so much like parsley in 

 appearance that it would take an expert to distinguish 

 one from the other. 



Another quick-growing plant is pepper-grass, or gar- 

 den cress (Lepidiiun sativum). This may also be used 

 for garnishing and salads, and may be had in about two 

 weeks from the seed by growing it on a slight hot-bed. 

 To keep a succession of these substitutes through the 

 season it would be necessary to sow two or three times, 

 but the seeds are cheap and also ripen very freely in this 

 climate. — T. Bennett, N. J. 



Legend of the Chinese Lily [Narcissits oricntalis). — 

 There is a beautiful legend which accounts for the origin 

 of this beautiful species, if any legend can : ' ' Once upon 

 a time a father left his property to two sons with the 

 understanding that it should be equally divided, but the 

 elder brother seized all the tillable land and left the 

 younger brother nothing but an acre covered with rocks 

 and water. The younger son, unable to obtain justice, 

 sat down at the water's edge, bemoaning his misfortune. 

 A benevolent fairy appeared, and giving him three narcis- 

 sus bulbs told him to drop them in the water. Shortly after 

 their flowers appeared, and neighbors crowded around to 

 admire the fairy gift. In the course of a few years he 

 accumulated a fortune by the rapid increase and sale of 

 the bulbs. Then the older brother, envious of the 

 younger's prosperity, bought great numbers of the 

 bulbs — hoping to secure a monopoly by obtaining all of 

 them — at so heavy an expense that he was obliged to 

 mortgage his property to procure funds for the purchase. 

 He planted all his land with the bulbs. They soon 

 began to die, as they cannot live long out of water. He 

 was ruined, while his brother, who had bought the mort- 

 gage, foreclosed it and became possessed of the whole 

 estate in time to replant some of the dying bulbs in the 

 watery acre." 



A Great Opportunity. — The late Henry Shaw, a 

 millionaire of St. Louis, left some three million dollars 

 for the completion and maintenance of the gardens 

 which he developed during many years. The gardens 

 are to be known as the Missouri Botanic Gardens, and 

 in them is to be afforded instruction in all matters of 

 botany and horticulture. A novel feature is the organi- 

 zation of "garden scholarships," by means of which 

 diligent and promising young gardeners are enabled to 

 pursue scientific studies while serving an apprentice- 

 ship in gardening. Six of these scholarships are to be 

 filled this spring. These gardens are already well 

 known, and the director, Dr. Wm. Trelease, has won a 

 reputation in several fields of botanical inquiry. 



All conditions appear to be favorable at last for the 

 maintenance upon American soil of one of the greatest 

 botanical and horticulturul establishments upon the 

 face of the earth. With the possible exception of Kew, 

 no other institution of the kind can have such an in- 

 come. 



Kerosene as an Insecticide. — It was the second 

 year of the Early Rose potato excitement, when we paid 

 a dollar a pound for the seed. And it was the first ap- 

 pearance of the potato bug in Illinois. Determined to 

 save the potatoes, we hand-picked the bugs for several 

 weeks, but any one who saw the myriads of bugs that 

 swarmed everywhere, can judge what that job meant. 

 Driven to an extremity after trying experiment upon ex- 

 periment to no purpose, kerosene oil suggested itself. 

 How to use it was the question. Crude oil destroyed 

 everything it touched. Studying over it one day, a 

 cloud of dust suggested the way. I filled an old pail 

 with road dust and then poured oil into it until the mix- 

 ture was of the consistence of damp ashes — not wet, not 

 moist, but still permeated thoroughly. The first appli- 

 cation through a sifter started every bug. They flew 

 off or disappeared. By continuing the applications, I 

 harvested over a peck, of tubers from one small potato, 

 and from that peck planted again that season, I had 

 enough Early Rose to test on the table and plant all the 

 ground I could spare in a small garden the next year. 

 In one form or another I have used kerosene since. P'ill 

 a clam shell, or better, a tin spice box with oil, and place 

 it in the center of the cucumber or squash vines, and the 

 yellow striped bug will keep away. Try the dust I speak 

 of above, only be careful of making it too moist on the 

 leaves of plants. I know of nothing that , can stand 

 kerosene. Many housekeepers use it in washing clothes. 

 A gentleman now living in Connecticut told me that 

 when he lived in Pennsylvania where the crude oil could 

 readily be obtained, that he used it most successfully in 

 croup, giving it internally and applying it externally. — 

 Salts. 



Twenty Cents Worth of Window Plants. — Many 

 people would like flowering plants in the house, but do 

 not feel they can afford the expense of buying potted 

 plants. Besides the cost of such plants, it often hap- 

 pens that a plant transferred from a damp, warm green- 

 house to a dry and rather cold room seems to fail, and 

 in a week or two presents such a poor appearance that 

 the purchaser wishes it had never been bought. It may 

 interest you to know what I did with twenty cents in the 

 way of flowers in the window. In the fall of 1887 I 

 bought for twenty cents a big root of Astilbe Japoiiica, 

 and filling a soap-box with loam, I buried the root up to 

 the crown in the soil, and left box and all in a cool cor- 

 ner of the cellar. Late in January, 1888, I found it had 

 begun to grow, so I found an old flower-pot and managed 

 to crowd the root into it with some of the soil from the 

 soap-box. The pot was too small, but it was all I had, 

 and after giving the root a good showering, I placed it in 

 the parlor window on the 28th of January, Within a 

 week the brown curly shoots had begun to open, and from 

 that time on the plant grew magnificently, sending up 

 a dense mass of its feathery green foliage. In time the 

 delicate white flowers appeared, and made a beautiful 

 display for nearly three weeks. In May the plant was 

 placed in the garden, where it grew finely all summer. 

 Of course there were no flowers, as the crop had bloomed 



