THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
11 
by the ravages of the Rose slug. Yet it is not at all a diffi¬ 
cult matter to arrest the career of this voracious pest, 
and that, too, without having recourse to expensive 
compounds or horticultural nostrums. For instance, 
we may take four ounces of powdered Hellebore, cost¬ 
ing, say six cents—provided your druggist has a con¬ 
science. We place the Hellebore in a common wooden 
or any other kind of a pail which will hold about 
twelve quarts, then pour in two quarts boiling water, 
let this stand ten or fifteen minutes, then fill up the pail 
with cold water. With this quantity of the decoction, 
from thirty to forty Rose bushes may be thoroughly gone 
over, and the result will be the sudden and complete 
destruction of the slugs. The most economical and 
effectual manner in which to apply the preparation is 
to use for the purpose a small whisk broom. It is much 
preferable to a watering-pot, for the reason that we can 
apply the remedy to the under surface of the leaves, a 
piece of strategy not to to be neglected if we wish to 
rout the enemy all along the line. One such sprinkling 
is often sufficient for the season, while never more than 
two are required. 
Another trial common to all amateurs of ordinary 
experience is caused by that insidious foe, mildew. 
Sulphur and lime water, weak brine and all the other 
“ infallible remedies,” often fail to arrest its destructive 
march. Though some particular varieties are more 
subject to mildew than others, yet in a wet season it 
distributes its attacks with great impartiality. I have 
succeeded in battling against it on several occasions, 
when the plants were small, by simply rubbing it off 
with the thumb and finger immediately on its first and 
subsequent appearance. By patient persistence an 
eventual victory may be scored, but when the mass of 
foliage is considerable of course this system would in¬ 
volve too much labor. Solid happiness, superlative in 
degree and boundless in extent, can be secured by any 
amateur of Roses (and even by ordinary mortals, for 
that matter) who may choose to straightway procure 
those hybrid Remontants known to fame as Baron de 
Bonstetten and Baroness Rothschild. The “too, too 
utter ” and unutterable magnificence of color displayed 
by the gorgeous Baron forms an admirable foil to set 
off the exquisitely transparent purity of shade which 
distinguishes the entrancing Baroness. As to the Baron, 
when you get him make haste to enjoy his beauty while 
you may, for, in common with all dark Roses, he pos¬ 
sesses in the impetuous sun an admirer, before whose 
beaming ardor and fiery glances the beauty which so 
charms us quickly fades away, leaving to “point the 
moral and adorn the tale” a wreck of crisped and 
shrivelled petals. Seen in the morning, its rich and 
striking loveliness would throw the staidest Quaker 
into gushing ecstacies. F. Lance. 
THE AGERATUM. 
The Ageratums are a class of greenhouse perennial 
or garden half-hardy annual plants of Mexican origin, 
belonging to the Natural Order Composites. They are, 
as a class, plants of erect, bushy habit, with opposite, 
mostly cordate bright-green leaves, producing their 
brush-like blue or white flowers in terminal corymbs 
in the greatest profusion from July until frost, and 
when grown as greenhouse plants from October until 
April. They are indeed old garden favorites, and can 
be used for bedding or massing purposes as well as for 
forming blue or white ribbon lines, while their cut 
flowers can be used to good advantage at all seasons of 
the year, for with a little care and attention they will 
last for a week or more, and it may be well to mention 
that their blue flowers change to a beautiful mauve 
when seen by candle-light. The Ageratums are popu¬ 
lar plants with our florists on account of the ease with 
which they can be cultivated, the immense quantities 
of flowers which they produce, and the length of time 
the flowers remain in perfection after they have been 
gathered. 
When grown in the flower-border or for ribbon-lines, 
massing or bedding they should be given a well-en¬ 
riched, deep soil, and copious waterings during seasons 
of drought; pinch back the leading shoots if necessary 
to keep the plants in shape, and if possible remove all 
flowers as soon as they commence to fade. In the 
greenhouse they should be planted out on the benches 
in ordinary potting soil. Water should be liberally 
supplied, and the young plants frequently syringed in 
order to prevent the attacks of the red spider, to which 
pest it is unfortunately very subject when grown under 
glass. A weekly watering of liquid manure is also 
very beneficial. Propagation is effected by seeds 
and cuttings, the latter being the best method of 
perpetuating the several named varieties. The seed 
can be sown about the first' of April in a shallow 
box of light, rich soil placed in a gentle hot-bed; 
sow thinly, and cover with a mere dusting of light soil. 
Keep close and moist until the young plants are strong 
enough to handle, when they should be transferred 
into other boxes similarly prepared, placing the plants 
two or three inches apart each way. Or they can be 
potted off into two or three-inch pots. Keep close and 
moist until well established, then gradually expose to 
the open air, and plant out when all danger of frost is 
over, which in this vicinity is about the 10th of May. 
Or the seed can be sown in a cold frame after the mid¬ 
dle of April, and the young plants treated as above ad¬ 
vised, but they will not flower as early. Or cuttings of 
the half-ripened wood can be placed in sand in gentle 
heat about the 10th, of April, and when rooted treated 
as advised for those raised from seed. If the plants 
are wanted for the green-house for winter flowering, a 
few of the most promising should be selected and 
planted in a situation where they can be properly cared 
for during the summer season. Keep them well 
pinched in, and all flowering shoots removed, until 
they are wanted for the house. About the first of 
September they can be removed to their winter quar¬ 
ters, planted out on the bench of the green-house, or 
else potted into pots of a suitable size. If pots are 
used, however, they will not flower so freely. Of late 
considerable attention has been given to the improve¬ 
ment of the Ageratum, and the result is that we have 
quite a number of different and distinct (so-called) 
