DECEMBER. 
Although there is a proverbial uncertainty about 
the weather at all seasons, in few months can we calcu¬ 
late less upon its character than in December. Placed 
as it is between November and January it often par¬ 
takes of the character of both ; sometimes the beautiful 
“Indian Summer” of November lingers until the “New 
Year,” but more frequently rain and snow, frost and 
summer weather alternate daily before the season sets 
to work in good earnest. Some of our readers are 
favored with a climate that gives them continual 
bloom; others have long since bid good-by to autumn 
flowers, and are content with such as the window-gar¬ 
den affords. In this latitude we occasionally have a 
good show of Chrysanthemums until nearly Christmas, 
and occasionally Pansies and Verbenas in well-pro¬ 
tected borders. We once picked moderately good Rose¬ 
buds from the garden on Christmas; the same month 
there was but little, if any, frost, and there were many 
days that the air was as mild and balmy and the sun as 
brilliant as in spring. 
There is little, if any, work to be done in the flower- 
garden this month, consequently our remarks under 
this head will necessarily be very brief. Beds of 
bulbs, newly planted during the preceding month or 
two, will, if strong frost sets in, require to be slightly 
protected by a mulching of leaves; else, as not unfre- 
quently happens, the growth, already made, will be 
seriously injured if not altogether destroyed. Further 
than this, and the carefully tying up of shrubs and 
climbers, that they may not be broken down by ice and 
snow, is all that should remain to be done in the garden. 
House plants will require considerable attention this 
month. We are apt to expect too much from the win¬ 
dow-garden, particularly from plants taken from the 
open border, and which have not become well established 
in their new homes. The most formidable enemy house 
plants have is over-watering, and in managing them one 
simple and common rule will be almost of itself a suffi¬ 
cient guide; and that is, to give no more water than is 
really essential; such necessity being determined by 
each plant's appearance, or rather by the state of the 
soil in the pots. This should never get absolutely dusty; 
nor should the leaves of the plant ever droop. Short of 
these two circumstances, however, any proximity to 
them will be desirable. The reason for this is obvious. 
Plants as a rule make but little growth this month, 
consequently they have but little use for water, and the 
more food, of any kind, the plants have which they can¬ 
not consume, is a positive injury to them. Too much heat 
is equally injurious, as that has a tendency to stimulate 
growth, for which the other conditions of plant devel¬ 
opment are not fitted. The plant knows best what it 
wants, and will make its necessities known by the 
throwing out of new leaves and the bursting of buds. 
These indications are not to be mistaken, the plant has 
commenced its annual task, and wants material with 
which to work. Heat and moisture are among the 
agents the plant employs in the conversion of impure 
into pure gases; growth is the result. When the 
growth is rapid, the demand for moisture will be plainly 
shown by the condition of the leaves, and the plant 
will also show plainly by its substance and strength, if 
all other conditions are favorable for its development. 
The solid food the plant uses cannot be well given in too 
large quantities, as it will only take up what is actually 
required. Not so with heat and moisture; these can be 
given in such quantities as to weaken and destroy. 
Plants suffer from excesses precisely as animals do,, 
hence the necessity of carefully attending to their 
wants. 
It is not our intention at this time to say much about 
the culture of plants, but rather a few words about our¬ 
selves. We wish to thank our many subscribers for the 
kindly interest they have manifested in our welfare; 
our task is by no means an easy one, but our labors are 
lightened when we know and feel they are appreciated.. 
It has been our aim to supply the cultivator of flowers 
with the greatest possible number of hints—not specu¬ 
lative, but practical—to assist in making the garden 
what it should be. We have not done as well as we 
could have wished, or as we hope to do in the future. 
We have endeavored to show our readers or to point out 
to them a beauty in the flower that far surpasses that 
which is seen by the eye. The flower is but a pleasing 
incident in the life of the plant, it is the plant that is 
beautiful and interesting, it is that which should be our 
teacher. We urge the cultivation and development of 
plants, not because of their flowers, but because of 
themselves. What the plant does, its importance in the 
economy of Nature makes it far more interesting to 
those who have made the phenomenon of plant life a 
study, than the beauty that is to be seen in the flower or 
the fragrance it exhales. 
We do not by any means wish to underate the uses 
of the beautiful, and would advise, most earnestly, the 
cultivation of plants simply for the sake of their flowers; 
at the same time, while the eye is being gratified, we 
would like to see the imagination—the soul fed. We 
enjoy flowers in all their forms, the simplest as well as 
the most wonderful, we try to judge them impartially; 
to value them for their intrinsic worth, and at the same 
time we despise most heartily the dictates of fashion, 
which manifest themselves as plainly in the cultivation 
of flowers and the arrangements of our gardens and 
lawns, as it does upon the clothes we shall or shall not 
wear. A plant that has only “novelty” to recommend 
it finds no favor with us. We are called upon annually 
to give our opinion of some new comer, and we give it 
impartially, and shall continue to do so without the 
slightest regard for the opinions of others, particularly 
of those who may, perhaps, be interested in its distribu¬ 
tion. If we think a flower or plant is beautiful and will 
be liable to succeed fairly well, we shall say so, without 
stopping to enquire how many “ first-class certificates ” 
it has received. We do not value a plant simply for 
what can be made from it; our appreciation does not 
depend upon what it makes for us; rather what it 
makes of us. Its ability as a teacher* its power to ele¬ 
vate character, to ennoble thought, is what to us makes 
it beautiful and useful. We care not whether it be the 
