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Even more conspicuous is the Poinsettia, whose great flowering 

 bracts have lately taken on the most vivid scarlet tints and now 

 fairly dazzle the eye. The La n I ana hushes are still covered with 

 yellow and orange bloom and chrysanthemums are plenty. But 

 the roses, ah, the roses! Truly the rose is queen of flowers and 

 reigns here undisputed. Such flowers as scent the air even in 

 small gardens can he found in the North only in the most favored 

 greenhouses. So long as one may stroll among such blossoms 

 there is no need to sigh for the departure of Summer. 



THE WANDERINGS OF ALFALFA. 

 Talk about blue blood ; that would be a proud member of the 

 Four Hundred who could trace his lineage back as far as can a 

 certain cousin to the clovers that may occasionally be picked on 

 our lawns and vacant lots and by the roadside. This scion of an 

 ancient race is alfalfa, which is clover-like in foliage and flower, 

 but the blossoms are blue. Twenty-five centuries and more ago, 

 when Athens was the hub of the universe and all the outer world 

 was considered barbarian by the Greeks, alfalfa dwelt unostenta- 

 tiously in the valleys of that part of Western Asia inhabited by 

 the Medes and Persians. When the wars arose between those 

 people and the Grecians, and Darius made his famous expeditions 

 into Greece, our little plant appears to have gone along. Perhaps 

 its seeds were transported by accident in the camp baggage of the 

 Persian hordes, or possibly some enterprising Greek prisoner 

 escaping from Media, brought seeds home witli him and es- 

 tablished the culture of the plant in his native country. At any 

 rate, into Greece it came about five centuries before Christ, and 

 doubtless helped to make Alexander's charger Bucephalus the 

 horse he was. When Greece became absorbed into the Roman 

 Empire, alfalfa won t lie favor of the conquerors, who cultivated 

 it extensively for fodder, for their army horses, and introduced 

 i + s culture into Italy. 'Die poet Virgil mentions the plant in the 

 Georgies under the name of Medica — a word which in spite of 



