ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Ferns and their Arrangement.— Mrs. F. H., Wil¬ 
mington, Del .—You ask of us information difficult to 
impart. The arrangement of ferns, like that of all other 
plants, depends upon circumstances, mainly upon the 
situation you have for them. “ A corner near a win¬ 
dow ” can be made to look very beautiful with ferns 
alone, and their arrangement is a simple affair. All that 
it requires is a series of shelves at the proper distance 
apart to hold the plants, and just sufficient to hold them 
so that neither pots nor shelves can be seen. To pro¬ 
duce this result well-grown, large plants will be needed. 
The variety will depend much on your taste. We should 
use Adiantums in variety alone. If your “corner” is 
surrounded with casings, so that light ornamental brack¬ 
ets could- be put up, no better arrangement could be 
made. We do not keep plants of any kind, but would 
refer you to our advertisers for a supply. 
Callas.— Sa?ne. —Do not separate your callas now, 
but wait until the plants are at rest; then separate and 
pot singly. The largest offsets will frequently bloom the 
first season. All will bloom the second. 
Night■ Blooming Jessamine.— Mrs. A. L. C. —The 
night-blooming jessamine is not hardy, and will stand 
but little frost; it is readily propagated by cuttings in 
spring, if you have a suitable house. Away from the 
greenhouse it would be much more difficult to manage. 
It succeeds well in a pot filled with good rich loam—but 
use a small pot; in a large one it will soon grow so as 
to become unmanageable. 
Ice Plant.— Old Subscriber .—The ice plant grows as 
any garden vegetable, with the same treatment; it re¬ 
quires a good strong soil. 
Wax Plant.— Same. — The chief requisite to make 
wax plants bloom well is age. They grow readily as 
pot-plants, succeeding well in an ordinary living-room. 
When growing, water freely, but withhold it almost 
entirely when they are at rest, which is only a small 
portion of the time. 
Crocus.— Same .—One reason why the crocus does not 
thrive with you is your long season of dry, hot weather. 
They usually bloom well the first year after planting, pro¬ 
viding you get good bulbs. These cannot be obtained if 
you defer purchasing after the first of October. They 
should be planted as soon as possible after they arrive 
from Holland. Keeping them dry after the first of Octo¬ 
ber is a great injury, and after the first of November an 
almost fatal one. 
Wintering Canna Roots.— J. D. Locke. —You can 
take them up and store in a cellar or outhouse, away 
from frost or under a greenhouse bench. In either case 
keep them from getting wet, and it will be well to cover 
them with sand to prevent drying up. You can also 
allow them to remain in the beds where they are now 
growing, without any danger of losing them, if you pre¬ 
fer to do so. The beds must be covered with some 
kind of protection to prevent the frost getting to them. 
Almost any material that is convenient will answer for 
this purpose. Long litter, corn-stalks or newly-fallen 
leaves are all good, but we prefer by all means the latter. 
Lay them on the bed a foot or fifteen inches in depth, 
and cover with soil sufficient to keep the leaves in place. 
If you leave the roots in the ground covered in this way, 
you will be perfectly astonished at the growth they will 
make next season. 
Resurrection Plant.— Mrs. H. H. Von Glahn .—The 
true resurrection plant, or “ Rose of Jericho,” Ana- 
statica hierochuntina, is an annual belonging to the 
Nat. Ord. Cruciferae, and a native of the Egyptian des¬ 
erts and the wastes of Arabia, Barbary and the Holy 
Land. Its generic name is derived from anastasis, 
“ resurrection,” in reference to the property it possesses, 
no matter how dry it may be, of recovering its original 
form and green, healthy appearance if immersed in water. 
It is a dwarf-growing, bushy-habited plant, resembling 
when in a fresh, green state, a large tuft or patch of 
green moss, but when deprived of moisture it curls up 
and resembles a bunch of dried Jcedar twigs about four 
or five inches in diameter. In its native habitat this 
singular plant grows with remarkable vigor during the 
rainy season, but as soon as the dry weather sets in and 
the heat of the sun begins to dry up the supply of mois¬ 
ture the plant dries up, too, the roots detach themselves 
from mother earth, and the plant is then blown about at 
the mercy of the wind until the return of a few congenia 
showers. As soon as the roots receive a little moisture 
they suck it up, the plants unfold in a few hours and 
spread out in flat tufts of the most emerald brightness 
and grow with renewed vigor. With the return of dry 
weather the plants again dry up as before, unless they 
have had time to flower and perfect their seed ; of course, 
when this happens they perish like all other plants of 
annual duration. 
Begonias.— Atnateur .—It is impossible to tell you 
what to do with the begonias without knowing to which 
class they belong. If they belong to the ornamental¬ 
leaved section they must be kept quite dry until about 
February i, in a light position, entirely away from frost. 
If they belong to the section grown for their flowers, and 
have tuberous roots, dry them off and place them in a 
dry store-room where frost cannot touch them ; it is bet¬ 
ter to leave them in the pots. Those having no tuberous 
roots and grown for their flowers require to be kept 
rather dry and in a warm temperature. It will be diffi¬ 
cult to keep them safely during the winter in the sit¬ 
ting-room ; besides, they are unsightly objects when at 
rest. 
