te Sftoral Eafimei hi&3 Suctorial Home ftompmiaii. 
vety maroon of the one contrasts most beautifully 
with the delicate silvery rose of the other. 
Paul Neyrou is the largest variety known, and 
although its size detracts from our notions of a re¬ 
fined ltose, it is nevertheless a noble sort for auy 
garden. 
Anne de Diesbach, a true carmine, has its rivals 
of the same shade, but her pure, lovely color has 
never yet been equalled by any of them. 
Madame Boll is almost worth growing for its large, 
lustrous foliage, but the blooms correspond in size 
and quality, only are too seldom seen after the June 
blossoming is over. 
Prince Camille de Eolian is a superb, very dark 
sort, very well known. 
Countess of Oxford (a splen¬ 
did carmine red, of the Victor 
Verdier type), like Frangois 
Miehelon, is rapidly becoming 
popular, its chief defect being 
a want of fragrance, which it 
lacks in common with all the 
Victor Verdier race, such as 
Captain Christy, Etienne Levet, 
Lyonnais, Madame George 
Schwartz, Madame Marie Fin¬ 
ger, Mile. Eugenie Verdier, 
President Thiers, etc. 
Caroline de Sansal is a well- 
known, justly popular sort. 
Madame Alfred de Bouge- 
mont and Coquette des Blanches 
are, all things considered, the 
best white perpetuals we have. 
Peach Blossom, a compara¬ 
tively new sort, seems to im¬ 
prove each year, and gives a 
new shade of color very desir¬ 
able. 
General Washington is one 
of the most widely disseminated 
varieties in this country, but it 
does not reach the maximum 
number of points in any quality. 
In color it is sometimes grand, 
but generally it has somewhat 
of a faded appearance, being *— 
quickly affected by the sun, and 
seldom is seen truly pure. The 
same may be said respecting 
form, sometimes superb, but generally seen with some 
defect, either a green centre or irregular and not 
symmetrical. Of fragrance it is almost entirely de¬ 
void. It ranks very high as a free bloomer, but, like 
La France, this is at the expense of growth. 
Marquise de Castellano does not always open well, 
but gives many large carmine-rose blooms of globu¬ 
lar shape that are truly superb. 
Baroness Bothschild has exquisite cup-shaped flow¬ 
ers entirely distinct from all others. It is, unfortu¬ 
nately, of stubby, short-jointed growth, and can only 
be propagated by budding or grafting. This will 
always tend to make it somewhat scarce. 
La Beine is another well-known old Bose which 
Etienne Levet, another of the newer sort, some¬ 
what resembling Countess of Oxford, is rapidly find¬ 
ing favor, and had it but fragrance would be assign¬ 
ed a higher position. 
Mile. Eugenie Verdier, the last of the list, is cer¬ 
tainly one of the most delicately beautiful colored 
varieties we have, but here again the lack of fra¬ 
grance deprives it of a higher position. 
FLOWERS IN A HOSPITAL. 
I must tell you about my Verbena mound. The 
invention was all my own, but as I never had it pat¬ 
ented you are welcome to it. I had four hexagon 
-£ J'v'ZxZo 
Group op New Cinerarias. 
frames made of plank a foot wide, of graduating sizes. 
The largest frame was three feet each side, the small¬ 
est not quite . a foot. The largest frame placed on 
the ground was filled with prepared soil. Then I 
took a piece of stove-pipe three feet long and punch¬ 
ed it full of holes (don’t laugh till I get through), and 
stuck it up in the centre of the bed. Then the frame 
next in size was placed on the fdled one, and secured 
from sagging by cross-pieces. This also was filled, 
and so with the next two; no soil, of course, being 
thrown into the pipe, the top of which came level 
with the top of the smallest frame, and was concealed 
by a large vase containing a scarlet Geranium. The 
frames were then painted green, and Verbenas set 
we cannot yet afford to discard, though now suv-1 out in the step-like beds. Every evening during the 
passed by so many finer varieties. 
summer I had several pails of water poured into the 
pipe, and how they did bloom ! hundreds of blossoms 
displaying themselves all summer to the best possible 
advantage. My long beds also gave me great satis¬ 
faction; the Balsams, Nasturtiums, Ageratum, Sweet 
Alyssum, Candytuft, and a host of others blossomed 
in profusion. My Phlox Drummondii and Pansies 
were more beautiful than ever, while in a special 
bed Zonale Geraniums, Fuchsias, Feverfew, -and 
Heliotrope held themselves in readiness to make more 
aristocratic contributions. Of Boses, too, I had quite 
a variety. What wonder was it that with such 
wealth about me I became ambitious of giving ; and 
many a basketful of buds and blossoms found its 
way to the Surgical Institute. 
How eager the welcome they 
received there! How warm flic 
appreciation! Never can I for¬ 
get the smile that lighted up the 
pale face of one sweet girl, who 
was not expected to recover, 
when I gave her a handful of 
Bosebuds and Pansies. She 
pressed them to her lips, then 
laid them on the pillow beside 
her, and turned her face toward 
them, as if in (heir mute loveli¬ 
ness she found sympathy and 
companionship. “ Oh! they do 
me so much good,” said another; 
“theyremind me of God’s love.” 
One young man, who had not 
been able to move for months, 
said: “You bring in your flow¬ 
ers all the sunshine I ever get.” 
Another poor fellow, who had 
just recovered his eye-sight 
through an operation, asked to 
have his bandage removed just 
a little that he might sec the 
flowers; “ for,” said he, “ I have 
not seen any for such a long 
time.” 
Always a great lover of flow¬ 
ers as I had been, never did I 
know their worth till that sum¬ 
mer. Never did I realize as then 
the fulness of enjoyment they 
could confer, or the truths of the 
greater blessedness of giving. 
My only trouble was that I never 
could quite supply the demand, although my daugh¬ 
ter and I distributed thirteen hundred bouquets, by 
actual count, during the summer. Since then, I am 
happy to say, a regular Flower Mission has been es¬ 
tablished in Indianapolis, and the blessed work is 
carried on in a systematic manner. And though I 
now live in a small place where there are no hospi¬ 
tals or surgical institutes to visit, yet I do not intend 
to allow myself to be shutoff entirely from all such 
loving deeds, and I have just received, in ansuei to 
a letter of enquiry, a most hearty response from the 
president of the Flower Mission in St. Louis stating 
how great their need of contributions there, and how 
much good could be done with the basket of flowers 
which I expect to send this summer every week. 
Mrs. M. L. Nutting. 
