HOUSEKEEPING. 
Lemon Cake. 
One cup of butter; two cups and a half of sugar; five 
eggs; one cup of milk in which is dissolved a scant half- 
teaspoon of soda; and four cups of flour. Stir butter 
and sugar to a cream. Then add the yolks thoroughly 
beaten, and then the milk. The flour should be sifted 
twice and stirred in slowly. Then add the juice and 
grated rind of a fresh lemon, and last, the whites of the 
eggs beaten to a stiff froth. It will be observed that 
there is no cream tartar in this cake, the lemon furnish¬ 
ing all the acid required. It makes a most delicious 
cake; the half cup of sugar can be omitted if desired less 
sweet. 
Coffee Cake. 
One cup of butter; one of sugar; one of molasses; one 
of strong coffee, clear and cold; three eggs; one teaspoon 
of soda; five cups of flour; one pound of raisins; one 
teaspoon of cinnamon; one of allspice and half a nut¬ 
meg. Beat the butter to a cream, then stir in the sugar. 
Sift the soda in the molasses and add next, then put in 
the spices, and the eggs thoroughly beaten with an egg- 
beater, and last the flour. The raisins should be cut in 
halves and stoned unless they are large, when it is bet¬ 
ter to chop them. They should be stirred in the cake 
just before it goes into the oven. 
Escalloped Potatoes. 
Pare the potatoes and cut them in slices a little 
thicker than for Saratoga potatoes. Butter an earthen 
or granite-iron pudding-dish, and put in a layer of the 
sliced potatoes. Sprinkle lightly with pepper and salt, 
and put little pieces of butter over, as in escalloped 
oysters. Then put in another layer of potatoes and 
season as before; proceed in this way until the dish is 
nearly full. On the top put a layer of bread crumbs 
with bits of butter, and over all pour a cup of rich milk. 
Cover tightly with an old tin, and bake in a hot oven 
from one hour and a half to two hours. If it does not 
brown, remove the tin and set the dish on the upper 
grate for a few moments before they are done. 
Mock Canvas-back Duck'. 
Lard a calf's liver. With a small knife make little 
holes at short distances apart entirely through the liver. 
Then take strips of fat salt-pork about the size of a 
match, and draw them into the holes, add what salt 
and pepper will be needed to sufficiently season it, roll 
and tie it. Cut two onions in thin slices and lay them 
in the bottom of a small earthen crock. Put over the 
onions two thin slices of fat salt pork and lay the liver 
on them. Sprinkle a little more salt and pepper over, 
and add a little vinegar and salad oil, and set in a cool 
place for twenty-four hours. Three hours and a half 
before dinner, put the liver only into a kettle with a little 
water and stew slowly until done. A sauce can be made 
of the water in which the liver is cooked. 
Mrs. C. G. Herbert. 
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
The Plant Trade. Millions of greenhouse and bed¬ 
ding plants, roses, trees, ornamental shrubs, etc., etc., 
are sold by auction, in the spring and fall, at the hor¬ 
ticultural warerooms of Young & Elliot, 18 Nassau 
Street, New York, and never, in the history of the plant 
trade,has the market been as dull as at the present time. 
Good plants will usually bring something ; if not their 
full value, they will approximate it. Not so now. But 
a few days since we attended one of the sales, and noted 
the following prices: A general assortment of the newer 
sorts of Tea Roses, including Catharine Mermet, Perle 
des Jardins, Niphetos, and others equally good, in five- 
inch pots, plants well set with bud, were knocked down at 
two cents each, and could not find buyers at that price. 
Rare collections of Chrysanthemum plants, two feet 
high, stocky and well furnished with bud, sold for $1.00 
per 100, and not buyers enough at that. Bouvardias, 
Geranium, Fuchsias, Crotens, Palms, in fact all on the 
list brought equally low prices. This shows, if it shows 
anything, that the market is overdone. Men of wealth, 
without practical knowledge or experience, have in¬ 
vested largely in the business, partly, if not chiefly, to 
make a great show of aesthetic taste, and, at the same 
time, to make their love (?) of the beautiful pay. The 
result is, production is greater than consumption ; hence 
low prices for plants and cut-flowers. 
* 
* * 
The Torch Lily is a new popular name for that well- 
known and useful plant the Tritoma. We rather ad¬ 
mire popular names for plants, not so much on our own 
account as for our friends, many of whom stumble 
terribly over any thing of a scientific character, even 
though the correct names are more simple than the 
popular ones. If we are to recognize popular names, 
let them, by all means, be significant, which the above 
truly is, and which is a decided improvement over Red 
Hot Poker, the name so commonly used. No name 
could be more appropriate than Torch Lily for the 
Tritoma this season, which has been particularly favor¬ 
able for it. The wet weather of July and August gave 
the plants a prodigious growth, and the excessive heat 
of September was very favorable for the development 
of the flower. At the Garden City (Long Island) bulb 
farm there is now in bloom several thousand of the 
grandiflora variety, which is decidedly the most effec¬ 
tive for large masses. A grander sight we have never 
beheld, each plant has from one to three spikes of 
flowers, four feet high, and as regular in habit as the 
