1876.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
•423 
permanence that more than compensate for these 
defects. This was used in a number of the beds 
on the Centennial grounds, and we did not find a 
single failure. Being a biennial, it is raised from 
seeds; if these are sown early, and the plants kept on 
in pots, they may be had large enough to plant in 
the beds by the time the tender plants can be put out. 
It is quite hardy, and plants intended to furnish 
seeds may be left out all winter. They become 
ragged when allowed to run to flower, and are no 
longer fit for bedding purposes. 
The White Everlasting Pea. 
In January, 1874, we gave an engraving of the 
Everlasting Pea, Lathyrus latifolius, and described 
it as a capital perennial, producing its rose-colored 
flowers nearly all summer. What was said there 
in its praise, we here confirm. This year the white 
variety of this flowered with us for the fiust time, 
and nothing in the garden has given more pleasure. 
The white has larger flowers and in greater pro¬ 
fusion than the ordinary form. It is a favorite in 
England to plant upon a bank; its trailing stems 
spreading in all directions to a distance of six feet 
or more. Like the original rose-colored, this may 
be trained to a trellis, but we think they show bet¬ 
ter when prostrate, and they may be allowed to 
run directly upon the ground, or if some fine brush 
be laid to make a low mound, they will soon quite 
cover it. The clusters have often a dozen large 
pure white flowers, and are excellent for cutting, 
as we have had them remain unchanged for a week 
in midsummer. The variety seeds much less free¬ 
ly, and will always be scarcer than the ordinary 
form, but it may be propagated by division. 
1 ■ ■ ■ ■■ ■■■ i j»3i -— 
Ferneries or Plant Cases. 
As winter approaches we have, each year, a num¬ 
ber of letters asking about the building and man¬ 
agement of Ferneries or Plant Cases. Such a 
variety is included under these heads that it is diffi¬ 
cult to give directions for making them in a brief 
article. The simplest thing of the kind is a bell- 
glass, or glass shade of any kind, placed upon a 
plate or saucer, and they are to be found all the 
way from this up to a bay window, enclosed by 
glass doors and fitted for the reception of plants. 
At the stores, very handsome affairs, consisting of 
a terra-cotta pan, and a large glass shade, may be 
had of various sizes; these are generally called 
ferneries. Others, consisting of a square or rec¬ 
tangular ease, of black walnut or other wood, 
with glass sides, mounted upon a stand, and 
furnished with a zinc pan for holding earth, are 
generally known as Wardian or plant cases. The 
difference is only in form and size, their uses and 
management being the same. As a hint for others 
we may give our first experience with such a case. 
Having four small sashes, two were used for sides, 
and two for a pitched roof, the ends being made 
without glass. This was built upon a cheap table, 
furnished with a zinc pan from which a drainage 
tube, stopped by a cork, went through the table. 
We have had more costly cases since, but none that 
gave more satisfaction. Any contrivance in which 
plants can be grown, covered with glass to admit 
light, and at the same time keep the atmosphere 
within sufficiently moist, will answer the purpose. 
The soil best suited, is a mixture of leaf-mold from 
the woods, common garden soil, and clean sand. 
The plants may be expensive or not, as one wishes; 
a case may be filled with plants from the woods ; 
mosses and lycopodiums all do well; the few ever¬ 
green ferns, Trailing Arbutus ( Epigcea ), Twin-berry, 
(Mitchella ), Battle-snake Plantain ( Ooodyera , with 
beautiful!}' variegated leaves and an unpleasant 
name), the Princess Pines (ChimaphUa) and others, 
may be selected to make a charming little “ wood¬ 
sy ” garden. If one goes into exotics, there is a 
great variety of ferns, and selaginellas, the selection 
of which, by those not familiar with plants, may be 
left to the florist. Small Dracaenas and Marantas, 
are useful, some of the variegated Begonias do 
well, as do the Peperomias, and other showy-leaved 
plants. A few bulbs of Crocus may be planted to 
make a variety. The earth should be well watered 
at planting, and the case be kept in the shade until 
the plants are well established, and then be placed 
at a window where it will have a plenty of light. 
Watering with tepid water, will be required, usually 
about once a month, but depending upon tempera¬ 
ture ; once in two or three days the case may be 
opened for a half hour or so, to air, and all decayed 
leaves should be removed. A case filled with 
ordinary greenhouse plants will do well in the usu¬ 
al temperature of the living room, which should 
be 15° or 20° lower at night than in the day ; 
plants from the woods may be kept much cooler. 
Mixing Things.— The Journal of Horticulture 
(London) gave some weeks ago an engraving which 
was fortunately labeled Rhexia Virginica , or we 
should never have guessed it was intended for our 
beautiful little Rhexia , or Deer-grass. The writer 
says : “ Our fig.ure represents a small family of 
plants said to be indigenous to the great continent 
of North America,” and further along we read, 
that “they are a race of plants of great beauty,” 
etc. Making our poor little plant both a “family ” 
and a “race ” is something we should hardly look 
for in a paper edited by such able men as direct the 
“ Journal.” We are glad to see that the attention 
that was given to North American plants early in 
the century, is being again revived in England, and 
we hope that our own flower-growers, finding that 
they are popular abroad, may learn that native 
plants have their merits as well as the exotics. 
TrST" For other Household Items sec “ Basket ” pages. 
Home Topics. 
BY FAITH ROCHESTER. 
How much Clotliing is Necessary I 
One person cannot decide for another. The com¬ 
fort of the individual ought to settle the question. 
But sometimes the individual has become so demor¬ 
alized in his or her instincts with regard to heat and 
cold, that the sensations at any hour are not a suf¬ 
ficient guide. When girls wore low-necked and 
short-sleeved dresses all winter, twenty years ago, 
they protested frequently, in the presence of broth¬ 
ers dressed in flannel and broadcloth, that they 
were quite warm enough. They would rather die 
than complain of their dainty shoes and be con¬ 
demned to thicker soles. And die they did. 
We must use common sense in the matter, and 
that bids us dress according to the weather—thin¬ 
ner in summer, thicker in winter, with varying de¬ 
grees of thickness or thinness between. It bids us 
clothe our bodies somewhat equably throughout,not 
piling too much in one place and leaving other parts 
without sufficient protection. A chilly condition 
of the body is always attended with danger. If the 
surface of the body is unduly exposed to cold, the 
internal organs—lungs, liver, bowels, or some other 
organ or organs, upon whose action health depends 
—suffer in consequence. “T.” complains of not 
feeling well, thinks his liver is out of order, and 
wonders why, as His eating has been pretty regular, 
and not especially unwholesome. “ J.” thinks the 
dispensation not very mysterious, for “T.” dresses 
without much regard to the weather. In a hot 
spell he gets on just one thin unlined suit, and 
when the weather changes and fires are necessary 
at morning and at night, he still goes out to do his 
early work, adding only a coat, if anything, and 
leaving his lower limbs covered with only one 
thickness of cotton or linen. He is chilled, but lie 
“ can stand it.” He is not going to “baby "him¬ 
self. Because it may, perhaps, be hot for a few 
hours at noonday, he dresses himself for hot 
weather. The blood is chilled, and the vital force 
impaired. Sudden exposures to severe cold arc not 
more dangerous to health than long-continued chil¬ 
liness, which thoughtless persons consider not 
worth minding. 
There is about as much danger in excess of cloth¬ 
ing as in a deficiency. Too much warmth debili¬ 
tates the system. Children should not be kept in 
a perspiration ; this enfeebles the skin, and makes 
a person “easy to take cold.” The circulation is 
quicker in children than in adults, and they can 
keep warm more easily. If they persist in throw¬ 
ing off the bed-clothes at night, probably they are 
covered too warm, though grown persons sleeping 
with them may not suffer in the same way. Little 
children need more clothiug in the daytime than in 
the night, (as compared with grown people,) be¬ 
cause they are nearer the floor, often sitting upon 
it, or upon low seats, while their beds are usually 
as high as any others. The thermometer shows 
a great difference between the temperature of a 
room at the floor and at three or four or.more feet 
from it, as warm air rises, and cold air sinks. 
Cutting Patcliworlt. 
Bed quilts are not yet out of fashion, and I think 
it will be a long time before women will like to give 
them up entirely. For a person of leisure there is 
considerable pleasure in making a large and useful 
bed-spread out of bits of cloth which seem too 
small to be of use, though strong and pretty. There 
is no good excuse, however, for buying new cloth 
for the purpose of cutting it into bits, to be sewed 
together again as a bed-quilt. Patchwork has no 
good right in the world, unless it comes to save the 
pieces which would otherwise be wasted, or for the 
sake of saving precious little scraps which we would 
like to put into some durable form. I hear of a 
grandmamma who is at work upon a bed-quilt 
which is to contain pieces of all the little dresses 
her first grandchild had worn “ up to date,”—to be 
a present to the child, and one which will be a kind 
of family treasure, no doubt. 
I had grown to have a kind of contempt for these 
parti-colored bed quilts, as monuments of the folly 
of women who do not know the value of time; but 
my own little ones have such a lively interest in 
the different kinds of calico in the old bed-quilts, 
and so much pleasure in making “blocks” of 
pretty calico worn by friends aud acquaintances, 
that my “ growing contempt” is already out-grown, 
l like the patch-work better than most kinds of 
fancy work after all, and I can sympathize with 
any one’s enthusiasm over a bed or cradle quilt 
made of tiny scraps of silk, each with a history, 
provided the quilt has been pieced as a rest or re¬ 
creation to a mind engaged in fatiguing studies, 
and not as an engrossing business. 
Patch-work is always legitimate work for chil¬ 
dren, invalids, and grandmothers. Little fingers 
leam to sew more easily on the short seams of a 
block, than on ordinary garments. But I started 
with the intention of suggesting that patch-work 
should be cut by a tin or stiff pasteboard pattern, 
and not by one of thin paper, or by placing one 
block by another. 
Cliickciis Pit to Eat. 
Don’t imagine that it makes no difference how 
your Thanksgiviug chickens have been brought up. 
Don’t suppose that they will be good anyhow. 
Chickens have been carefully dressed, deliciously 
stuffed, assiduously basted, and tenderly roasted, 
and yet they were not lit to eat. There was a fla¬ 
vor about them that no soda rinsings could cleanse 
and no seasonings conceal. These were chickens 
that had picked up their living around pig-sties and 
other unclean places. 
A chicken may be spoiled in dressing it to cook. 
If killed with a full crop, and allowed to lie for 
hours before it is “drawn,” (or relieved of its inter¬ 
nal organs), it gets an unpleasant flavor. Fowls 
should be caught and shut up without food for 
twelve hours or more before they are beheaded. 
Then the crop and intestines will be empty, and the 
task of picking and dressing it will be greatly les¬ 
sened. Old fowls are not necessarily tough—only 
cook them long enough. They are more tender 
twenty-four hours after they arc killed, than if 
eaten immediately. 
Graham Custard Pie.— Funny and good. One 
quart of milk, two eggs, half a cup of sugar, half a 
cup of graham flour. Beat the eggs and stir all to¬ 
gether. The graham flour sinks to the bottom of 
