82 
tries' S'tonxl BiaKinet tmi 3 .fteioriral Home iSompianion. 
ORNAMENTS FOR WINDOW-GARDENS. 
I want to tell the readers of the Cabinet about my 
window-garden, which is very beautiful. I think in 
the first place I took an old stand and took off the 
top, and put in its stead a deep box, deep enough to 
’ hold plenty of well-rotted manure and good, rich earth, 
well mixed. Then put in as many plants of different 
kinds as you may wish. It will hold a large number, 
and you will be surprised at the effect. A thing of 
beauty you will have, with very little trouble. You 
can have a box large enough, with legs and casters if 
you lik«, so as to move it easily, which is much more 
handy than so many pots and much more beautiful. 
Plants, to thrive, should and must be sprinkled with 
warm, weak soap-suds as often as once in two or 
three days, and they will never have those terrible 
green bugs on them and will thrive continually. 
Give plenty of light and plenty of warm suds; and in 
return you will have plenty Of beautiful foliage, be¬ 
sides very many beautiful buds and flowers. lean 
pick a bouquet most any time for my friends, which 
is a great recompense. Never be afraid to pick your 
flowers; because the more you pluck off the more 
you will have and the longer they will blossom. The 
proverb, you know, says the more you give the more 
receive. It can be wisely applied in this case, as I 
can testify. 
It is well to start your Madeira Vines, also a large 
number of Ivies, for verandah decoration. They are 
the most beautiful of all climbers, very easily propa¬ 
gated, and after frost in autumn can be transferred 
to the sitting room, and the balance put in the cellar, 
for future use. Any kind of slip of Ivy will grow if 
kept well watered, which is a very important consid¬ 
eration to most plants, especially if the sun strikes 
them the most part of the day. Most plants need 
plenty of warm water, and above all plenty of light, 
but not wind. That is death to most house-plants. I 
have a bay window where I keep mine (although a 
bay window is not absolutely necessary), and they 
thrive as if in summer, and even better. Don’t for¬ 
get to sprinkle freely with warm soap-suds, 
and you will not be troubled with insects of 
any kind or those terrible little wire-worms. I think 
this is my experience, and I always keep very many 
plants, also raise very, very many annuals. I wish 
some of the readers of the Cabinet could see my 
flower-garden this summer, presuming, of course, I 
shall be successful. Of course, I shall be successful. 
I always am with my flowers. I think those who 
love flowers and try to raise them will study their 
nature, their likes and dislikes; and, of course, will 
prosper with the majority of them. I always do all 
the weeding very early in the morning. You have 
double benefit. You have not only the pleasure of 
training your vines where you want them to run, 
watching the seeds springing up, and destroying 
weeds; but oh! the beauties of Nature when 
everything seems rejoicing and thanking its Creator. 
Those who are slow to rise lose the very sweetest 
part of the day. It signifies labor; but to me 
a labor of love. Rose-bushes in the yard should 
be thoroughly immersed in warm suds when you 
wash. It will pay you well to do so. I will try 
to tell the readers how to make a basket for dried 
grasses and everlastings. It can be made very easily 
in the following manner: Take cardboard, any color 
you may wish (mine is black), count off fifty holes 
each way, and cut in squares; make five of these; 
embroider each piece around the edge, any way you 
wish; then sew each corner together, one after the 
other, then take the fifth (which is not sewed with the 
rest) for the bottom, sewing the corners together, to 
the bottom piece. Bend the top corners over to 
make it flare like a basket. Sew tiny bows on each 
corner that is sewed together. Put dried moss in the 
opening at the bottom, then fill with dried grasses 
and everlastings. You can color your grasses by 
dipping first in gum Arabic water, then in any colored 
paint you wish. They are elegant. They are also 
very beautiful for vases. 
I make a pretty little ornament by taking an old glass 
globe, placing it on a large plate, putting inside the 
globe a small pot or tin can, putting earth in the can, 
then put Ivy and Creeping Charley in them. Around 
the globe and all over the plate put green moss. You 
can find plenty in the nearest swamp, and it is beau¬ 
tiful of itself. Wet the whole thoroughly, then 
sprinkle with grass seed. In a short time it will be a 
mat of velvet green and beautiful to look upon. 
Mbs. A. Vanaken. 
Hillsdale, Mich. 
CHINESE LILIES. 
Pbobably many readers of the Cabinet have seen 
an article going the rounds of the papers, taken from 
a Nevada newspaper, about the “ Chinaman’s beloved 
Lily.” In Nov., 1877, a floral friend near Yerona, Ill., 
sent me a generous supply of them, with these instruc¬ 
tions: “Take a dish (delf, glass, or china), place the 
bulb in the bottom and pile stones and shells around it 
and over it, and water enough to keep it moist.” Her’s 
were brought the previous year from San Francisco, 
and were said to have come directly from China. Her’s 
is in a fish-globe, which holds the long leaves together. 
She says: “ In less than three weeks from the time it 
was set it had over thirty florets, for they grow in 
clusters. White and yellow and are very fragrant.” 
The bulbs looked precisely like Narcissus, the de¬ 
scription answered to it also, and I had decided it 
was Polyanthus Narcissus before the “California 
Lady’s ” letter appeared in the Cabinet. The bulbs 
were scarcely large enough to warrant blooming, so I 
was not disappointed at their not. The leaves in 
March were thirty-three inches long. The blooming 
of this class in water was altogether novel to me, and 
I am endeavoring to grow mine so as to insure their 
blooming next winter. If any reader of the Cabinet 
has large bulbs of this variety, I would suggest the 
experiment. I always put charcoal in the bottom of 
pots that have no drainage. It prevents all ill smells. 
I put it in bottles of water when rooting plants, and 
in vases to hold fresh flowers. It keeps the water pure. 
The charcoal I use was obtained in so peculiar a 
manner that I am tempted to chronicle the occur¬ 
rence. One night in the spring of 1877 we were 
startled from our slumbers by a terrific peal of thun¬ 
der, and in an instant the surrounding country was 
illuminated. Rushing to windows and doors, we be¬ 
held a cattle-shed some fifteen rods distant, that was 
covered with straw, on fire. The next morning re¬ 
vealed a singular freak of lightning. A post of a 
wire-fence was struck, shattering it to fragments; then 
followed the wire twenty rods west and thirty rods 
east (skipping the rotten posts and shivering the 
solid ones to pieces), until it reached a pig-pen, against 
the fence, which communicated with the shed by a 
covering of straw. It was raining all the time; but 
the flames ran up underneath the shed, and, seiz¬ 
ing on the dry straw, in a short time it was reduced 
to ashes. The posts and boards furnished me with 
charcoal ever since, and it is a scarce commodity on 
the prairie in a coal region. 
Mbs. Kate Shebman. 
Streatok, III, 
WINDOW PLANTS IN SPRING. 
Now, as the spring is approaching and the days 
are lengthening, we must try and stimulate our plan! s, 
to force them to bud and bloom. One of my rose¬ 
bushes, not more than a foot high, has sixteen buds 
and roses on it. My yellow one has three as large as 
a coffee cup. Oh! how beautiful! I hear repeated 
many times a day. Heliotropes, Verbenas, Gera¬ 
niums, Fuchsias, Roses—all treated in the same man¬ 
ner. 
Surely, there is nothing that will give us such pleas¬ 
ure and satisfaction as that we receive from our 
window-garden. Our flowers perfume the air, please 
the eye, and make us acquainted with Nature, and 
are something to care for and love. If they cannot 
love us in return, they do not annoy us. Every house 
is made beautiful with only one pot of flowers. Con¬ 
trast a room where the windows are filled with beau¬ 
tiful flowers, hanging baskets, vines twined around 
the pictures, with a room where not a green thing is 
visible, and mark the difference. The one attracting 
and inviting; the other, no matter how rich its sur 
roundings, has not the charm of the other. I take 
hen-manure about the size of an egg, dissolve in a 
gallon of hot water, letting it stand and cool long 
enough to use, watering my plants thoroughly once a 
week. Do not make too strong, as it will cause the 
leaves to fall; nor sprinkle them with the liquid. 
Flowers treated in this way will push forth most vig¬ 
orous growth, and amply repay us the extra care we 
bestow upon them. 
Mbs. E. L. Freeman. 
East Orleans, Mass. 
TROPICAL TREES AND PLANTS. 
The sweet-smelling Screw Pine (Pandanus odora- 
tissimus) bears a fruit that, when perfectly mature, 
resembles large, richly-colored pineapples and plays 
an important part in the household economy of the 
Coral Islanders of the South Sea. The inhabitants 
of the Mulgrave Archipelago, where the cocoanut is 
rare, live almost wholly on the juicy pulp and pleas- 
ent kernels of the fruit. The dried leaves thatch the 
native huts and are made into mats and raiment. 
The wood is hard and durable. The natives use the 
flowers for decorative garlands, and the red and yel¬ 
low nuts for ornaments. When the tree is full of 
blossoms the whole air is sweet with perfume. 
But, while enchanted with the colors and scents of 
foreign woods and flowers, let us not overlook or un¬ 
dervalue our own. Our Cedars, our Balsamic Firs 
and Spruces and Pines, and pungent Balm-of-Gileads, 
and fragrant Hackmatacks and Junipers can equal, if 
not surpass, the trees and perfumes of any country 
under the sun. 
M. J. Cummings. 
THE CEDARS OF LEBANON. 
The Cedars, which still bear their ancient name, 
stand mostly upon four small contiguous knolls, with¬ 
in a comparatively small compass. They form a thick 
growth, without underbrush. The older trees branch 
into several trunks, and thus spread themselves wide¬ 
ly abroad. The others are cone-like in form. Some 
of the trees stand out alone, exhibiting beautiful 
symmetry of outline. The older growth is much bro¬ 
ken and will ere long be destroyed. Travelers carry 
off sections as relics, and vandal hands of those who 
pass the season in these regions burn the limbs for 
fuel. Thus destruction goes slowly but surely on. 
The wood of the Lebanon Cedar is white, with a 
faint, pleasant odor; but in beauty and fragrance it 
is far inferior to the Red Cedar of America. 
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