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By Henry T, Williams. 
NEW YORK, MAY, 1879. 
No. 89. Price 12 Cents. 
THE FROST FLOWERS OF RUSSIA. 
A correspondent describes an extraordinary 
frost flower of Russia, which has been produced, it is 
said, in Boston in a temperature of artificial cold. 
This wonderful plant, or rather flower, is found only 
on the northern boundaries of Siberia, where the 
snow is eternal. It was discovered in 1863 by Count 
Swinoskoff, the eminent Russian botanist, who was 
ennobled by the czar for his discovery. Bursting 
from the frozen snow on the first day of the year, it 
grows to the height of three feet, and flowers on the 
third day, remains in flower twenty-four hours, and 
then dissolves itself into its original element—stem, 
leaves, and flowers being of the finest snow. 
Mantel Shell Flower-Stand. 
The stalk is one inch in diameter; the leaves— 
three in number—in the broadest part are one inch 
and a half in width, and are covered with infinitesi¬ 
mal cones of snow; they grow only on one side of 
the stalk, to the north, curving gracefully in the 
same direction. The flower, when fully expanded, 
is in shape a perfect star; the petals are three inches 
in length, halt an inch wide in the broadest parts, 
and tapering sharply to the point. These are also 
interlaced one with the other in a beautiful manner, 
forming the most delicate basket of frost-work, the 
most wonderful. The anthers are five in number, 
an d on the third day after the birth of the flower of snow 
are to be seen on the extremities thereof, trembling 
and glittering like diamonds, the seeds of this won¬ 
derful flower, about as large as a pin’s head 
on beholding this wonderful phenomenon of snow— 
to see this flower springing from the snowy desert, 
born of its own composite atoms. I touched the stem of 
one lightly, but it fell at my touch, and a morsel of 
snow only remained in my hand.” Gathering some 
flowers in snow in order to preserve the little diamond¬ 
like seeds, he hied to St. Petersburg with, to him, the 
greatest prize of his life-time. All through the year 
they were kept in snow, and on the first day of the 
year following the court of St. Petersburg were de¬ 
lighted with the bursting forth of the wonderful frost 
flower. 
A DRY PATH FOR GARDENS. 
A good dry path may be made in the following 
Parlor Aquarium. 
The old botanist says, when he first beheld the 
flower, “ I was dumb with astonishment; filled with 
wonderment, which gave way to joy the most ecstatic 
Shell Flower-Stand for Mantel. 
manner,” says a recent writer : “ After removing 
three or four inches ol the surface soil put in a layer 
of broken stones or bricks, road-metal size, and fill 
in the interstices with smaller stones and sand mixed 
with as much coal-tar as will moisten it and no more. 
It should then be rolled. In three or four days give 
a coating, one-eighth of an inch thick, of sand and 
coal-tar, made as dry as possible, and roll again, 
first sprinkling the surface with dry sand to prevent 
the mixture from adhering to the roller. In ten days 
it will be fit for use.” 
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