HOUSE AND GARDEN 
321 
sharp sand. The begonias will do best in 
a window that affords all the available 
sunlight, and they need a higher tempera¬ 
ture than the plants we have thus far con¬ 
sidered. Care is necessary in watering, 
for water on the foliage will cause the 
leaves to blister when the sun strikes them. 
The flowers, usually of a pinkish shade, 
are borne abundantly. Gloire de Lorraine 
is one of the best among a long list of 
good ones, and when in flower presents 
literally a mass of bloom. 
The plants herein discussed do not com¬ 
prise all the flowering plants available for 
indoor culture; in fact, the above make up 
only a small part thereof. They are, how¬ 
ever, easily the best when ease of culture, 
abundance of bloom and length of flower¬ 
ing period is taken into consideration. 
Now, in conclusion, I desire to add a few 
more general directions such as I have 
found to be of real service to the amateur 
in his floriculture. If the leaves of your 
plant turn yellow and have a sickly look, 
it may be due to excessive watering, in 
which case the remedy is obvious. On the 
other hand, this may also be due to in¬ 
sufficient food or to a lack of pot room, in 
both of which cases repotting in alto¬ 
gether new soil will be necessary. In re¬ 
potting it is nearly always well to remove 
as much of the old soil as possible without 
undue injury to the roots, to cut back the 
root system slightly so as to induce the 
formation of new roots and to work the 
new soil carefully around the roots again. 
Never permit moss to gather on your 
flowerpot; it is not only slovenly but in¬ 
dicates excessive watering and lack of 
proper ventilation, all of which a plant will 
resent most emphatically in the only man¬ 
ner it is capable of, by simply ceasing to 
grow. A moss grown pot should be 
scrubbed. Never permit a pot to fit tight¬ 
ly into a jardiniere, and furthermore place 
sphagnum moss in the bottom of your 
jardiniere so that the pot may stand about 
an inch deep. This will keep the bottom 
of the pot moist without interfering with 
ventilation. If you have reason to think 
that the soil is sour get some blue litmus 
paper at any drugstore and press it firmly 
upon the moistened soil; if after a time 
this becomes red you may be sure that the 
soil is sour and needs to be replaced. 
The Planting and Care of Hedges 
(Continued from page 300) 
set closely and cultivated on either side of 
the row the first two summers. In setting 
the California privet many prefer a double 
row, but if the plants are set one foot 
apart and cut back to twelve inches, they 
will make a satisfactory hedge. If set a 
little lower than in the nursery they will 
sprout up from the root, increasing the 
density of the hedge. 
_ Late March or early April is the proper 
time to set the hawthorn and the purple¬ 
leaved beech. Where beeches are used 
A Proverb of Bell Service 
Once upon a time there dwelt on 
the banks of the holy river Ganges a 
great sage, by name Vishnu-sarman. 
When King Sudarsana appealed to 
the wise men to instruct his wayward 
sons, Vishnu-sarman undertook the 
task, teaching the princes by means 
of fables and proverbs. 
Among his philosophical sayings 
was this: 
“To one whose foot is covered with 
a shoe, the earth appears all carpeted 
with leather. ” 
This parable of sixteen hundred 
years ago, which applied to walking, 
applies today to talking. It explains 
the necessity of one telephone system. 
For one man to bring seven million 
persons together so that he could talk 
with whom he chose would be al¬ 
most as difficult as to carpet the 
whole earth with leather. He would 
be hampered by the multitude. There 
would not be elbow room for anybody. 
For one man to visit and talk with 
a comparatively small number of dis¬ 
tant persons would be a tedious, dis¬ 
couraging and almost impossible task. 
But with the Bell System provid¬ 
ing Universal Service the old proverb 
may be changed to read: 
To one who has a Bell Telephone 
at his lips, the whole nation is within 
speaking distance. 
American Telephone and Telegraph Company 
And Associated Companies 
Every Bell Telephone is the Center of the System. 
The Practical WbrRmanT 
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