6 
The Floral Instructor. 
few tools needed for ladies gardening 
operations, is just sufficient to set the 
blood into proper activity, and in every 
instance that I have reccommended it I 
have been told that it worked wonders. 
A few years ago it was considered un¬ 
healthy to have plants in the house, but 
it has been proved by the most positive 
demonstration that such is not the case. 
I do not mean to be understood to say 
that plants do not give off some offens¬ 
ive matter, for the perfume of the Tube¬ 
rose to me is sickening, vet many people 
are in ecstasies over it, but rather that 
the gases which they do give off are so 
very minute that no one may fear to 
have plants in their living rooms or 
sleeping apartments either. I know 
some will not agree with me here, but I 
have over and over again, when attend¬ 
ing fires on winter nights, snatched an 
hour or two of sleep in the greenhouse 
with the plants in the full vigor of 
growth, and yet I do not know that I 
ever suffered in any way for making the 
greenhouse my sleeping room. The air 
in a greenhouse must be moist, and to 
get that condition the florist throws 
water on the walks, benches, plants, 
pots, and in fact everywhere. Once I 
laid down upon the damp floor and 
slept three hours, the result of which 
was a rheumatic affection which set¬ 
tled in my shoulder bones and there re¬ 
mains, but that was caused by my care¬ 
lessness and not from any deleterious 
gases given off by plants. 
One more argument for the universal 
cultivation of flowers consists in their 
usefulness. How eagerly they are 
sought after by the young people at 
commencement times; the bride dotes 
on being married under a fl >ral bell ; 
and when the earthly pilgrimage is over, 
then we honor our beloved dead with 
wreaths or other designs of flowers laid 
upon'their coffins. They are associated 
with all that is bright and beautiful on 
earth. They have a language, and they 
speak to us of nature and of nature’s 
Grod. The following beautiful lines so 
thoroughly echo my feelings that I feel 
safe in advising all to make use of the 
sentiments conveyed in them : 
“ Make your home beautiful—bring to it flowers, 
Plant them around you to bud and to bloom; 
Let them give light to your loneliest hours— 
Let them give light to enliven your gloom; 
If you can do so, O make it an Eden 
Of beauty and gladness almost divine; 
’Twill teach you to long for that home you are 
needing, 
The earth robed in beauty beyond this dark 
clime.” 
- ^ - 
LITERARY NOTICES. 
The Western Agriculturist , the oldest 
and best farm monthly in the west, has 
the most practical premium that we 
have ever seen—something that every 
farmer wants—a farm account book 
sent free and post paid to every sub¬ 
scriber. Read the prospectus. It pays. 
We have arranged to club the Agricul¬ 
turist with our paper, and will send both 
papers and the premium for $1.10. 
The December number of that most 
excellent monthly, The Housekeeper, is 
the best yet issued. It has been en¬ 
larged by adding a beautiful cover, and 
its typographical appearance is hand¬ 
some. Its columns contain single arti¬ 
cles worth many times the subscription 
price. In the present number are cap¬ 
ital chapters on bread making, floral 
correspondence, “ Our Girls at Home,” 
and a new feature, “Facts About 
Women,” giving the latest news about 
eminent women in all parts of the 
world. Price 75c per year, or clubbed 
with the Instructor for the same 
money when subscriptions are sent to 
us. 
The Cottage Hearth , published at 
Boston, contains more reading of prac¬ 
tical domestic worth, and positive home 
interest, than any other magazine of its 
