186 
THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
quite unlike tlie earlier blooms. Gerani- 
uuis, too, look very untid3^ when, the 
flower stalks are left on them, and mig- 
nonette soon runs up long seedheads un- 
less it is picked and kept making new 
growth too fast to think of seeding. 
Water 5^our garden thoroughly early in 
the morning and after sundown. Look 
•out for insects in the early morning when 
you go your rounds. Soapsuds on rose- 
bushes and verbenas will help keep off 
insects ; the florist uses wdiale-oil soap. 
You will have to use a syringe to get at 
the under side of the leaves. To destroy 
the little black flea which eats up sweet 
alyssum, sweet pea, etc., soon after they 
€ome up, dust the plants over with soot. 
See how one thing leads to another. Do 
you not begin to feel by this time how 
much use you could make of a micro- 
scope, a work on entomology, or one on 
botany ? 
I have thought that there might be 
people in the city who got " left behind " 
this spring with their window gardeniug 
through being occupied with the horrors 
of " moving," or because the changeable 
spring weather misled them, and summer 
was upon them before they knew it. They 
have thus lost the pleasure of raising 
tbeir plants from seed, but can still, with 
the florists' aid, make their windows gay, 
and keep them so by their own skill and 
care. If you mean to have a window-box, 
get lobelia, nierembergia, tropoelum 
(major and minor), mignonette, coleus, 
heliotrope, verbenas, and (if there is any 
room left) geraniums and sweet alyssum. 
These all like a hot sun. If you can raise 
a trellis, or have some sort of arched 
handle arrangement on your box, plant 
maurandia to grow over it; nothing is 
prettier or grows more rapidly. Maderia 
vine or German ivy will grow well in a 
sunny exposure, and the lysimachia or 
common moneywort makes a pretty 
fringe for a box. 
Have a fine-nosed watering-pot for your 
window garden, and keep your plants as 
free from dust as possible. Water twice a 
day in sunny weather, and let your morn- 
ing watering be done early, before the sun 
is hot. 
As for old plants of geranium, fuchsia, 
or roses that bloomed for you last winter, 
if you cut them back a month of so ago, 
and withheld water from them for awhile, 
they may begin to grow again now. Wash 
and scald their pots thoroughly, scrub- 
bing off all the green mold. It is some- 
times a good plan to crumble off a little 
of the old soil and mix in fresh, instead of 
potting in larger pots. Do not expect 
blossoms off them, but pick off any flowers 
that appear ; then if the . plants make a 
good strong growth, in July or August 
you will be able to make cuttings from 
them which will give you fine plants for 
next winter. 
Have you ever tried to make a living 
screen ? Fix castors on a box the length 
of the window you wish to screen, and at 
the ends place uprights of the height you 
desire ; then place a bar or stretch a wire 
across the top, and at the bottom a few 
inches above the box, connecting the up- 
rights; from one to the other of these 
stretch strings or wires ; then plant Ger- 
man ivy, Madeira vine, smilax, or mau- 
randia on each side of them, and train up 
the strings. 
This screen can be turned occasionally 
to give both sides the benefit of the sun- 
shine, 
A screen of maurandia, showing a mass 
of green and pink or green and puri)le, 
according to the variety you have planted, 
and with its outreacliing sprays forming a 
thousand graceful curves round the edge 
of the frame, and throwing the loveliest 
shadows, is a pleasant object in a city 
house. Small screens, that you may roll 
between you and the sun which shines in 
your eyes while writing or reading, may 
be made the same way, by fixing flower 
frames of suitable shape and size in small 
boxes on castors. The vines having once 
grown will i^reserve their beauty for a 
long time. 
Who knows what brilliant fancies you 
may not have the honor of originating ! 
This is but one of a thousand "dainty 
devices " which an acquaintance with the 
flowers will prompt you to. 
As Edward Youl says twice over in his 
lovely spring poem, " Friendship with the 
flowers some noble thoughts begets!" 
Ellen M. Hooper. 
