MEU.ANTMUS GLOBOSUS FISTUBOSUS. 
Too Too. 
BY SMILAX. 
lr' the people of the United States had 
docked into the folds of the new order of 
4 ‘aesthetics” what a business could have been 
done in the cultivation of the “utterly too 
too” sunflower! As you may know, the di- 
s r ine and supremely beautiful Oscar, who 
Inis come over to our shores with the “wild ’ 
idea that fully one half of our people will 
fall down and worship him, believes that 
there is nothing so beautiful as the sun¬ 
flower. To live on a long lingering look 
at a sunflower, disdaining all such solid 
food as }>ork arid beans, is an aesthetic’s de¬ 
light. 
Oscar has come, has taken a glimpse ot 
things, but he has not conquered worth a 
rent. Veui and vidi were all right but irici 
lie cannot utter. True a number of people 
have lionized him and we find disciples of 
aestheticism in all parts ot tin* country, hut 
not in sufficient number to make the culti¬ 
vation of the sunflower an industry. Last 
summer I was at Atlantic City, a noted 
watering place, and saw as high as fifty 
cents paid for a sunflower, but alas, they 
were soon quoted at a cent. The supply 
was greater than aesthetics, it is so at the 
present time. ^Esthetics can get all the 
sunflowers they want at a small cost. But 
if the people in the United States, 
should become aesthetics in large numbers 
what an amount of money could be realized 
from the sale of these flowers. Just think 
of Jay Gould, or Keene, getting up a cor¬ 
ner on sun-flowers! Just think of the sup¬ 
ply of sunflowers running short and fanat¬ 
ical aesthetics running around offering ten 
dollars apiece for them? 
When you are through thinking of these 
questions recollect the fact that aesthetics 
are not increasing very fast and instead of 
going into the cultivation of sunflowers on 
an extensive scale you had better plant 
“taters,” “inions,” or some other truck 
which appeals to people’s stomachs and 
therefore will meet with a better sale. 
White Water Lily. 
If our readers knew how easily the white 
water lily (Nympliia Odorata) could be cul¬ 
tivated we believe that very many of them 
would be quite as proud of their lily gar¬ 
dens as of any other portion of their prem¬ 
ises. The roots having been procured in 
the fall were kept damp during the ensuing 
winter, in flower pots. In the spring a tub 
was made by sawing a large substantial 
barrel in two, and this, only painted green, 
was set on brick, put in the garden, and 
one-third filled with a mixture of garden 
soil, sand and well rotted manure. The 
roots were set in this mixture, water was 
added in small quantities, and at intervals 
of a day or two, and so gently as not to 
disturb the earth, until the tub was filled. 
Very soon the handsome round leaves, four 
or five inches in diameter, made their ap¬ 
pearance and filled the tub. The loss of 
water by evaporation was made good from 
time to time, and ere long the blossoms 
appeared and delighted every one with 
their beauty. 
When cold weather approached, the 
water was allowed to dry off almost entire¬ 
ly. and when it was thus nearly gone, the 
tub with its contents was placed in the cel¬ 
lar. and watered at long intervals through 
the winter. In the spring the roots were 
separated, and about half the increase re¬ 
turned to the same tub, in a fresh mixture 
of earth, and they are now‘brought out 
earlier than before, about April 1st, and 
blossom vet more profusely. The pure 
white flowers were as perfect as the ca¬ 
mellia. and delightfully fragrant, closing in 
the night and re-opening in the morning as 
is the wont of water lilies. The blooms 
were about; two inches in diameter, not 
quite so large as some of the specimens in 
the pond whence these roots were first 
taken, but not less beautiful nor less fra¬ 
grant .—Flower Garden. 
