THE LADIES' FLOBAL CABINET. 
235 
she passed it for her thimble, the baby’s toys were put 
in order as she stooped to pat him, and the disarranged 
ornaments of the mantel found their proper place by a 
move or two of her hand. This constant care is the 
foundation of good housekeeping. George Eliot, whose 
views on some points were a good deal unsettled, yet 
struck a vein of good sense when she said, “ It is better 
to know how to make home happy to your husband 
than to read Greek to him ; and even music and sing¬ 
ing, though very attractive to family visitors, cease to 
be a substitute for the commoner virtues after a time. 
Good cookery is a most valuable accomplishment in a 
wife’s education after the first delusion of the honey¬ 
moon is over.” 
CURRENT NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
The late financial disturbance in Wall Street and the 
adjoining gambling districts, had a disastrous effect on 
the cut-flower trade in this city. Prices were scarcely 
known, from the fact that for several days there were 
absolutely no sale for choice flowers—such as the Wall 
Street professionals are in the habit of buying. The 
best Paul Neyrons, and other equally good Roses, were 
consigned to the rubbish heap. One wholesale dealer 
conceived a noble idea, and put it into practice, viz., to 
send a few thousand of the best Roses to Bellevue Hos¬ 
pital, where, it is needless to say, they were as minis¬ 
tering angels. Why the gamblers should be the florists’ 
best customers we never could understand. But the 
beautiful and good, the evil and the false, are always 
strangely blended in this world of ours. 
* 
* * 
The New York Horticultural Society passed the usual 
June exhibition of Strawberries and Roses, much to the 
regret of many exhibitors, who have for the past year 
been making preparations for an unusually fine exhibit, 
and to the thousands of visitors who look forward to 
this exhibition as one of the most enjoyable feasts of 
the year. As far as we have been able to learn, there 
was no good reason for this move ; the want of money 
to pay the premiums was made an excuse ; but that, 
in reality, was a slim one, as a number of the members 
stood ready to contribute the amount necessary for that 
purpose. The true facts of the case are, the head of 
the Society has no heart in its genuine prosperity, and 
those next in authority, in name, but in reality the 
managers of the society, have not sufficient courage to 
pilot the ship against adverse winds. This course of 
management may possibly be the best for a Horticultu¬ 
ral Society, but we think it would be the ruination of 
any other business enterprise, and we fear the commu¬ 
nity at large will regard this as any other corporation 
that passes a dividend, as in a weak, if not in a 
bankrupt, condition. 
* 
* * 
The value of Pansies as bedding plants is fully illus¬ 
trated in the Public Gardens at Boston, where they are 
planted in sufficient quantity to be effective. We have 
never before seen as many and in greater variety. 
They are planted In beds about 4x20 feet and, mostly, 
with but one variety in each bed. Wherever this rule 
was departed from, the result was, in a measure, a 
failure. A bed of mixed Pansies is always a pleasing 
sight, but a bed of seifs, say white, yellow, or lavender, 
with an occasional plant of purple intermixed, is spoiled 
by the contrast. This was the case in the Boston gar¬ 
dens, and it made us feel like offering our services to 
help weed out the intruders. As a whole, the display 
was remarkably fine; in some of the beds were the best 
flowers we have ever seen in the open border, although 
as a whole the flowers were not as fine as we often see, 
in collections in the New York markets. 
* 
* *• 
The following method of storing Dahlias during the 
winter is so novel, at the same time so sensible, we 
quote it, and shall the coming season store a large por¬ 
tion of our tubers in this way: 
“ Dahlias are very often stored in inconvenient places, 
and not always without some risk. Especially is this 
the case when they are stored in dry-rooms and cellars, 
. for when the time comes to bring them out again they 
are frequently found shrivelled up so much as to be com¬ 
paratively worthless. Of late years I have adopted a 
very different plan, for it one day struck me that as 
they sometimes lived through a mild winter in the open 
ground they might do so with some protection through 
a severe one. Now, as the tubers are taken up, I place 
them at once in a pit, the same as we would potatoes.. 
But, instead of the bottom of the pit for potatoes being 
on a level with the surrounding surface, I dig out a 
place about nine inches deep, sufficiently large to hold 
all my stock one layer thick. I place a layer of dry 
straw in the bottom, and another layer on the top of 
the roots. On this I place all the earth that came out 
of the trench, adding more to it, so as to form a little 
mound over them to assist in carrying away some of the 
rain. In this way I find they will keep sound and 
plump through the severest winter, and instead of hav¬ 
ing—as I used to do when stored away in a cellar—the 
tubers much dried and half of them dead, they come 
out in the month of March as fresh and plump as they 
were when lifted in the autumn. 
* 
■x- * 
The marked attention paid foreigners is sometimes 
quite surprising, when we take into consideration their 
importance at home. This is no less remarkable with 
the family of plants than with the family of man. 
Familiarity with both makes them common ; it causes 
us to overlook their virtues, and magnify their faults.. 
In fact, there is but very little that we can appreciate 
until it is taken from us. Our attention was called to 
this fact in reading the following notice in an English 
magazine, of the Callecarpa Purpurea, a very beautiful 
shrub, but so common here as to be generally considered 
a native, and often confounded with our native species, 
C. Americana. It is here perfectly hardy, and is, 
withal entitled to more attention than it receives : 
“The attractiveness of the bright purplish-blueber¬ 
ries of this shrub is generally acknowledged, and no 
reference need be made to the fact. But it is not so 
well known, as it should be, that the berries retain their 
