156 
THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
leaves of this Silver-Fir are a dark-green, very soft and 
rich, a choice variety. 
Picea Gordoniana, from Japan. It resembles Picea 
firma, but the leaf is smaller, and with one more hardy, 
compact and pyramidal. A distinct and interesting 
tree. 
Abies Canadensis. —Abies Canadensis Macrophylla, a 
variety of our native Hemlock, the leaves of which are 
large, a lovely dark-green. A dwarf grower, very com¬ 
pact, picturesque and valuable. 
Abies Canadensis Sargentii. —This is a choice novelty. 
A dwarf permanent weeping habit like an Evergreen 
fountain. For the lawn this is one of the most interest¬ 
ing of Evergreens. 
Abies Mertensiano. —A Japan variety of Abies Can¬ 
adensis, very beautiful, but in this latitude tender, and 
quite worthless. There are many other varieties of 
Abies and Piceas, many of them sports from well- 
known Spruces, but not having tested them, I cannot 
estimate their value for ornamental planting. 
W. S. Carpenter. 
Harrison. N. Y. 
THE DEW-DROP AND THE ROSE. 
Rose in the moonshine lay quietly 
sleeping, 
Where zephyrs were timidly creep¬ 
ing, creeping; 
A dew-drop crept silently into its 
breast 
Without waking the Rose from its 
moonlight rest. 
When morning dawned, the Rose 
was waking, 
While glimmering leaves were 
shaking, shaking, 
And finding a dew-drop so near 
to her heart, 
She prayed he would ne'er from 
her bosom depart; 
She folded him close in the warmth 
of her love, 
As the wings of the mother fold 
round a young dove. 
The morning was dawning, the 
Rose was waking, 
And rustling leaves were shaking, 
shaking; 
The gleams of the sun came slyly glancing 
Where leaves on the branches were dancing, dancing; 
And on the green Moss where the Rose had been sleeping, 
The golden glances came peeping, peeping. 
The Rose felt a joy in her fragrant breast, 
When she saw her loved dew-drop still lying at rest. 
But while she was watching her loved one’s eye, 
He dissolved as a dream and soared up to the sky; 
The sorrowful Rose hung her head in weeping, 
While the dew-drop went upward creeping, creeping. 
So the morning of life may have blessings to cheer it. 
And love, like the dew, gem the blossoming heart; 
Though the joy of a life may be gathering near it, 
That joy, like the dew-drop, soon, soon, must depart. 
But still ’tis for ever a sweet consolation, 
If that which we cherish pertains to the sky; 
For the fond hope is left in our gloomy probation, 
That the dew-drop we cherished still sparkles on high. 
There are gardens above where the spirits we love 
Will be taken like dews from the Roses of this; 
Where naught can destroy, they wake in their joy. 
To dwell peacefully ever in regions of bliss. 
So to heavenly hopes we may gladly be waking, 
Though the heart, in its sorrow, is breaking, breaking. 
— Amateur's Rose Book. 
FERNS IN THE GARDEN. 
Ferns grow splendidly at the base of a north-facing 
wall or fence, though a cool, somewhat shaded, spot 
anywhere else in the garden will do for them. A clump 
of them may be made under the thin shade of trees. 
They delight in loose, open soil, particularly near the 
surface. Old chip dirt, leaf-mold, wood soil, or decom¬ 
posed peaty stuff, in fact most anything through which 
their roots can wander easily, will do for them. 
Ferns are not only pretty in themselves, but very useful 
in affording “greens” for bouquets. Asplenium au- 
gustifolium, the Hart’s-tongue Fern ( Scolopendrium ), the 
Woodsias, Maiden-hair ( Adiantum pedatum), Aspidium 
acrostichoides (the best of all especially for winter *use), 
and the common polypody are among the most useful 
for cutting Fern. But if a mass of Ferns is the object 
in view there is a host of others that will grow faster, 
spread further, and make a bigger show. For instance 
Aspidium goldianum and the varieties of spinulosum 
and cristatum, and the lesser, but more wandering 
Thelypteris and noveboracense; the Ostrich-Fern ( Struth- 
iopteris), one of the largest and handsomest that grows; 
the Flowering-Ferns ( Osmunda); the Lady-Fern, the 
Chain-Ferns and the pretty little Beech-Ferns. 
As the greater Ferns are apt to extend and spread 
over and smother the lesser ones, they should be planted 
in the back ground or next the wall and kept there by 
rooting up and cutting off every encroaching sprout. 
So ‘troublesome are the Ostrich-Ferns, Asplenium nov¬ 
eboracense, Dicksonia punctilobula and some others in 
spreading “ all over,” that it may be desirable to grow 
