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THE V SA V. 



Cypripeduun acaiile in its native habitat varies in size 

 and quality very much. In pine barrens, so-called jack 

 plains, where even the white pine will not grow, it is a 

 little stunted thing. In the leaf-mould of the pine for- 

 est, partly shaded, it grows to finer size, and is quite beau- 

 tiful. It seems always to grow in sand, though it takes 

 kindly to garden treatment, and, like any of the family, 

 it is easily transplanted, The Cypripcditiiii parvifloritm 

 grows generally in clayey loam, or stiff clay. But I 

 never have found it so plentiful as at Powers, Michigan, 

 where it grows in the sphagnum moss and wet muck of 

 a tamarack swamp, associated with Cypripedinin specta- 

 bile. — C. L. Mann. 



The Cape Jessamine. — We have among our flowers 

 a cape jessamine that perhaps affords us as much satis- 

 faction, with as little trouble, as any plant in our col- 

 lection. We have had it at least twenty years, and it is 

 a stout well-grown bush at least five feet high. It stands 

 in an ordinary wooden tub in good common garden soil, 

 which, with plenty of water, seems to meet all its wants. 

 All summer long, and every summer, this bush bears 

 many pure white, exquisitely fragrant flowers, which 

 are a source of continual delight to us and to our friends. 

 City visitors especially are enraptured with its beauty 

 and seem to appreciate highly the opportunity of pro- 

 curing occasionally a blossom without money and with- 

 out price, for they have to pay dearly for them in the 

 cities. Now any one possessing an ordinary frost-proof 

 cellar to winter the plant in, as it grows too large for 

 window or sitting room accommodation, can enjoy this 

 charming shrub year in and year out at the cost of so 

 little trouble as to be scarce worth mentioning. The 

 greatest objection to it, with impatient people, is its slow 

 growth, but give it time and it will attain to a goodly 

 size and apparently live forever. 



In the fall when danger of frost seems imminent, we 

 have ours carried to the cellar, in which nothing ever 

 freezes. There it stays all winter without one ray of 

 light, for the cellar is perfectly dark. Every few weeks 

 I see if the soil is getting too dry ; if so, I give it a thor- 

 oughly good watering. There the plant stays until it is 

 convenient to take it out in the spring, and that is gen- 

 erally not until all danger of frost is past. It is then 

 carried at once to a partially shaded part of the yard 

 and left there for all the summer, as it is too heavy to 

 be moved easily. 



Another advantage of the cape jessamine is that it is 

 never troubled by insects. The polished green leaves 

 seem to resist all their attacks. As it is an evergreen, 

 of course it never sheds its leaves — at least ours never 

 did but once, when during its winter captivity it was 

 neglected and became nearly dust dry. Then every leaf 

 dried up and fell off. However it soon re-clothed itself 

 in a beautiful suit of fresh foliage, but did not bloom 

 that summer. 



Cuttings are easily rooted by taking a small branch 

 that has just dropped its bloom and putting it in a glass 

 jar or bottle of water. Only put the stem in the bottle, 

 of course, and leave the tufts of leaves standing out of 



the top. It can be placed anywhere. Change the water 

 occasionally, once a week or so. They may root in two 

 weeks and may not for two months. I started a dozen 

 or more this summer, setting the glasses containing them 

 in a north window where they were out of the way, and 

 they soon formed roots. During the flood of 1884, when 

 the cellar, and the house too, were full of water, our 

 plant was submerged for ten days or two weeks. When 

 the water subsided and the cellar could be pumped out, 

 the cape jessamine came forth looking very dejected in- 

 deed, but still alive. Of course this mode of treatment 

 is for such as are kept for "tub" or "cellar" plants ; but 

 it is as such that I wanted to recommend it, as so many 

 people seem entirely ignorant of its requirements, and 

 imagine it is very difficult to raise. — Westover. 



A New Dahlia. — I send you herewith a drawing of a 

 new seedling dahlia. It is one of a dozen or more plants 

 that are flowering this summer for the first time, having 

 been raised from seed last year. The bulbs the first 

 summer were, on an average, about two and one-half 

 to three inches long, and about three-quarters of an inch 

 thick, and consisted mainly of one bulb with little bulb- 

 lets attached to them, in some cases about the size of 



Seedling Dahlia. 



peanuts. This summer they have formed plants four 

 and five feet high, and all bear different flowers, some of 

 them as double as any dahlia in the market. In fact, 

 the one of which I send a drawing is the only single one 

 in the lot. I had always heard that seedlings from 

 double flowers mostly came single, so I was much sur- 

 prised to find most of these double. 



I found this experiment so interesting that I am 



