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HOW A PRETTY ROOM WAS DECO¬ 
RATED. 
I must tell you about my birthday present. At 
the close of a ten months’ hard study at school, I was 
allowed the pleasure of making a visit to a friend’s 
house in a neighboring village, with the understand¬ 
ing that I was 10 return home on the 7th day of last 
August, which was my fourteenth birthday. After a 
pleasant time of a few weeks, a summons came for 
me to return to my home, and I was most agreeably 
surprised, upon entering a handsomely-furnished room, 
to be told that it was my birthday present. It had 
originally been my room, but so completely changed 
that one could have never recognized it as being the 
same. It had been repapered, painted and varnished, 
and furnished entirely new from one side to the other. 
The paper on the walls was sky-blue, with heavy 
buff bordering. The wood work of the room was 
painted in imitation of maple, to match the bordering. 
The carpets were composed of remnants of three-ply, 
purchased at the low price of eighty cents per yard, 
and so arranged as to appear to have been pieced by 
design. I have, you see, a new three-ply carpet for 
half price, which is greatly admired by all who see it. 
The wardrobe, bedstead and bureau are veneered with 
every grace and crowned by every virtue. As she 
grows in years so may she increase in wisdom,” to 
which was attached the autograph of my kind father. 
On each side of my stove is a pair of ottomans made 
of boxes covered with pieces of carpeting stuffed with 
moss and supplied with castors; they are cheap and 
convenient. On the wall is a haugiug basket made of 
hoop-skirt wire, tied with candle-wick and dipped in 
melted wax, composed of one part of beeswax to two 
parts of rosin, and colored with five ceuts’ worth of 
Vermillion to give it the appearance of coral. Fastened 
on the handle of the basket is a stuffed pigeon in the 
act of alighting, with a paper in its mouth, intending 
to represent a carrier-pigeon. In the basket are the 
numbers of this year’s Cabinet, to which my mamma 
says I am indebted for my present. If so, I hope that 
every mother in the laud will subscribe for it aud treat 
their little daughters as my mamma has me. Over 
one dozen pictures adorned the walls of my room, 
most of them with frames of rustic work made by my 
good mamma. Two are made of brown wrapping- 
paper, and resemble carved wood work, some of straw 
and others of pine cones. Lady M. Fowler. 
PLANTS FOR SHADY PLACES. 
I was much interested in Mr. Drew’s article in the 
September Cabinet, concerning plants for shady 
walnut; the lambrequins over the window are ruffled places. I have been obliged to pay especial attention 
and faced back with red oil-cloth calico, mounted and to that subject, having two shaded beds in the centre 
looped hack with red worsted cords and balls; the of my garden. One is much shadier than the other, 
cornice is composed of rustic work, straight at the there being two hard maples to cover it, and they 
bottom and scolloped at the top, the scollops at the ! make such a dense cover that even the dew hardly gets 
centre and at each corner being wider than those in under them. I find Fuchsias do the best there, either 
between. A basket formed from the globe of a broken sinking the pots, or, if old plants, setting them out, 
goblet, with red zephyr filled with grapes and flowers, ! hut they must he faithfully watered. The blue Day 
hung between the curtains just below the cornice. j Lily blooms nicely in the densest shade here, and so do 
Over the cornice hung the motto, “ Our Father shall Begonias, especially the grape variety. Larkspurs 
give His Angels Charge Over Thee,” embroidered in bloom prettily, too, hut they make rather straggling 
variegated red zephyr and framed with a rustic frame, plants. Toward the edge of the shaded portion, I find 
On each side of the window is hung a cornucopia 1 that the Centaurea Gymnocarpa and the variegated 
of rustic work filled with feather flowers and dry j Abutilon grow splendidly, and Coleus flourish also; 
grapes. Above this hang oil cromos in rustic frames j hut Geraniums don’t like this corner, 
to match the cornucopias, all hung with coarse worsted My other bed is shaded by but a single large tree— 
cord and tassels to match. The wash-stand is a dry ( a Balm of Gilead—which has a rather loose foliage; 
goods box of just the proper dimensions, with castors and the best is that not only do the plants look thrifty, 
to make it easily moveable; curtains to correspond hut they would not do as well anywhere else. At the 
edges I have Geraniums; then a white-flowered Bego¬ 
nia, with plain green foliage. I think it is called the 
Couchshell. It blooms all the time, and is a most 
beautifully shaped plant. Grouped round the tree 
care 
with the lambrequin tacked on all sides, and a white 
marble oil-cloth with a two-inch edging- crocheted 
with red zephyr for the top; a beautiful set of red and 
white mats for the wash-stand set; a screen at the 
hack, to correspond with the curtains, the full length 1 trunk, in pots, is Eupatorium and Libonia taking 
of the stand about eighteen inches wide. Above this | of themselves, except as to water, for the summer. A 
hangs a bracket with one drawer and two shelves. On Coleus leans against the trunk almost aud grows like 
these shelves are arranged various little articles of in- a weed, hut a broken bongh gives it the sun tor two 
terest; the whole arrangement, exclusive of the hours in the morning. Another pot holds a Farfugimn 
bracket, costing only seventy cents. On the stand Grande, whose yellow spotted leaves have been greatly 
was a beautiful chamber set, a present'from “big! admired this summer. I have owned it but a few 
brother.” Over the bed hung a rose-colored mosquito ! mouths, so I want some of the Cabinet authorities 
bar, with a cornice of rustic work around the top four j to tell me how to winter and how to propagate it. 
inches in width; on the bed was a pair of beautiful; Being a bulb, I should think it ought to be dried off. 
pillow-cases embroidered in red and a beautiful pattern 1 A Curcuma variegated also lives near, and I don’t know 
for the bureau. There was also a beautiful set of | what to do with it either. The tuber came from the 
mats and a toilet given me by my little sister, and a Brazilian department of the Centennial Exposition, 
handsome comb aud brush given me by a schoolmate; and was not potted until some time in June, and is 
also, various other little articles, presents from friends, now about ten inches high, not variegated in the least. 
In the centre of the room was a handsome work-stand, I was delighted to have Mr. Drew recommend Candy- 
a present from my father, and on it were two hound tuft for shaded places. Never having raised a re- 
volumes of the Floral Cabinet and an autograph spectable piece of that indispensable flower, it gives 
album, with this written on the first page: “A happy me courage to try again. Speaking of Marigolds, I 
birthday for my little daughter, and as this day returns , hope that charming little plant, the Tagetes Signata 
in each'succeeding year, may it find her adorned by 1 (Pumila), is in every garden that the Cabinet visits. 
It is by far the best of the family, the Fern-like foliage 
being excellent for bouquets. These trees of mine, 
though for a long time a trouble, I now consider the 
greatest treasure in my garden, for they give me a bed 
to the north of them, shaded from the sun, yet fully 
exposed to the light and air, in which my Geraniums 
luxuriate, growing and blooming marvellously. I 
never see such tine plants anywhere else, and I ascribe 
their extra beauty to the location mainly, assisted by 
liquid manure and soapsuds, applied once a week. I 
hope to hear about the Farfugimn and Curcuma very 
soon. Mrs. J. H. B. 
Dyer, Ind. 
NYMPHJEA ODORATA. 
I have tried the plant two years in succession, but 
on account of much bothering with it the first year, 
my experience has been rather “ checkered with good 
and evil,” and my Lilies finally came to naught alto¬ 
gether, in this wise: 
I had at first a molasses hogshead, and having win¬ 
tered the roots in an old tin oil can, I planted them in 
the hogshead, being puzzled whether to lay them fiat 
in the dirt or to set them up on the end. I, however, 
decided to do the latter, and they did well for a while, 
until I noticed the water gradually turning blacker 
and blacker, and the plants not doing quite so well, 
which I think was on account of too much manure. 
I next planted them in a barrel, hut at last went hack 
to the hogshead, in which the plants grew until the 
vessel “ bursted all to smash,” letting out the water, 
when I was done, and gave it up in disgust for that 
year. During all this had treatment my Lilies kept 
on growing, and Mr. J. E. S. Crandall, of whom I had 
purchased the roots, very kindly also kept on answer¬ 
ing my letters of inquiry. 
My experience this year, however, lias been very 
different. I purchased four more roots from Mr. Cran¬ 
dall, prepared a whiskey barrel by sawing it in two 
above the hoop next to the middle, and did exactly as 
directed by Mr. Crandall, laying the roots fiat in the 
dirt, which is garden soil without any manure what¬ 
ever, filling the tub with rain-water and letting it 
alone, sitting in a sunny place. 
And right here I would remark that I think a whis¬ 
key barrel preferable to a molasses barrel, on account 
of the molasses retained in the wood, forming an acid 
in the water, which is the contrary of what we need 
for the health and growth of plants. This is, however, 
only a surmise of mine, and may he incorrect. 
All of the four roots bloomed and otherwise did 
well. The blooms open early in the morning and 
close toward evening, each single one lasting three or 
four days. They are of marvellous beauty, rivalled 
by nothing I have seen yet in the shape of a white 
flower, except the u Koenigin der Nacht.” 
I shall, however, try the hogshead tub again the 
next year, as I think the water surface of a barrel too 
small, thereby greatly cramping the leaves and spoil¬ 
ing the appearance of the plant. I also think it ne¬ 
cessary to keep the water in the tub to the depth of 
two feet, as I had occasion 1o visit a section of South 
Carolina where they grow wild, during the past sum¬ 
mer, and saw the Nymphsea grow in mere puddles, 
and bloom well. Altogether, the Nymphsea is to be 
recommended for the following reasons : 
It does not drown in wet weather, nor parch up dur¬ 
ing a dry season, and needs no other work except 
keeping the tub fall of water, of which any kind will 
do, though rain or brook water is preferable. 
The Man That Loves Flowers. 
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