THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
pleasure in their own hearts, as they stand in the beau¬ 
tiful presence, testifies yet more strongly to the truth. 
‘ ‘ Millions of dollars are spent in this country for edu¬ 
cation, not only because it is a help in getting bread, but 
because it is right that men should be educated. This 
education is directed to the development of other 
qualities than shrewdness merely—truth, reverence, 
taste; and to this end no plan is better than to show 
children that their teachers value all things for their 
intrinsic worth, for the power they have over the mind 
for good. What the child sees its teachers and parents 
love and cultivate, he will cherish and love. The pres¬ 
ence of purity and nobleness in the soul drives out im¬ 
purity and meanness, as water rejects oil. 
‘ ‘ If you wish the greatest return from your invest¬ 
ments, surround your children when at home with ob¬ 
jects and influences which will make their minds best 
able to enjoy and expand under the teachings of the 
public instructor. If they see you surround the home 
with beautiful things, because you love them, they will 
do so too. If they see your garden arranged for beauty 
as well as utility, while all over the homestead stern 
economy yields to a reverential love of nature, and to a 
sense that the gratification of the eye and the mind is 
quite as important as the gratification of the appetite, 
they will grow up with liberal, generous feelings and 
opinions, they will be men and women who have the 
best interest of the age at heart.” 
TUBEROUS-ROOTED BEGONIAS. 
People generally do not seem to know what fine bed¬ 
ders these Begonias are, when, in fact, they are fully as 
good as Geraniums—for they stand the rain very much 
better, and sun fully as well. I have picked fine 
blooms after a hard rain of two days, when the Gerani¬ 
ums were, without exception, spoiled and water-soaked. 
My bed of Begonias, the last season, was the source 
of great pleasure, both to myself and my friends. It 
was three feet wide and about twelve feet long, and 
contained forty tubers. I had grown them several 
years in pots, but hearing a good deal said about their 
being good bedders, determined to try it myself. 
I had a bed prepared as for Geraniums, where the sun 
lay about two-thirds of the day. The tubers were just 
started in a box of earth, where some of them had laid 
through the winter, and some were imported a short 
time before. 
They soon began to grow and bloom, for they bloom 
when quite small, and were the admiration of all who 
beheld them. All colors were represented; white, 
pink, scarlet, dark red, orange, yellow, single and 
double, all beautiful. Some of the blooms were very 
large, measuring fully three and a half inches in diam¬ 
eter, with thick waxy petals. To be sure they are not as 
showy as Geraniums at a distance, but nearly every one 
exclaimed, “How beautiful!” The foliage is as striking 
as the flowers, no two varieties seemed to have the same 
leaf. Some were almost round, others long and pointed. 
Some were dark, others light, and again shaded. Then 
there were some that had a metallic lustre. 
As I said, they are not as showy as Geraniums, but 
we want something beside Geraniums, and I have com¬ 
pared the two because Geraniums are so universally 
used as bedders, stand so much cold weather, and 
bloom so late, that it seemed as if the good qualities of 
these Begonias, by comparison with such a favorite, 
might be the better appreciated. We cannot afford to 
leave out such a valuable addition to the altogether too- 
small class of good-flowering bedders. 
The frosts this season were early and severe, but by 
covering the bed at night with newspapers, I had good 
blooms even in October. 
After the tops are cut down by hard frosts, take 
them up, put them in a box with earth around them, 
and set them away in some place, like under the bench 
in the greenhouse, until it is time to start them in the 
spring, and all they will require then is a little light 
and water. So you see they are even easier to keep 
than other bedding plants. What can we wish for 
more ? After my experience of the past season, I think 
with regret of time lost in trying to grow in pots what 
I might have grown so much more satisfactorily in the 
open ground. Even if grown in a large box of earth, 
they would do much better than in pots; for I remember 
several years ago having a window-garden filled with 
them, and they were a mass of bloom all the season. 
As I recall this I wonder I did not think of growing 
them in the open ground. Each year brings some im¬ 
provement, and there is no telling what the result of 
careful growers will bring us in the near future. 
Mrs. T. L. Nelson. 
FLOWERS IN WINTER 
Let us not be without flowers simply because winter 
has come and we are cosily seated around our fire-places, 
stoves or registers, while everything outside is covered 
with ice and snow. There may not be a sign of vegeta¬ 
tion anywhere, even the plants in our windows seem 
more dead than alive, yet we can have flowers, flowers 
in our hearts, where they must be before we can have 
them in our windows or in our gardens. Now is the 
time to make gardens, and the first step is to lay out 
our plans and have them ready for spring. How much 
money are we to have for seeds? how much for bulbs? 
how much for plants ? Ask these questions kindly of 
