42 
THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
most effective plants for large be<ls and borders that has 
ever been introduced.” 
In our climate the variegation will be more marked 
the first season than is shown in England; the plants, too, 
in the open border, will require greater protection dur¬ 
ing the Winter, In England, but little is required; 
here the young plants should be protected by a 
mulch of newly-fallen leaves, or any other convenient 
coveringthat will protect the plants from cold and 
moisture. 
VEGETATION. 
What infinite wonderfulness there is in this vegeta¬ 
tion, considered, as indeed it is, the means by which 
the earth becomes the companion of man—his friend 
and Ins teacher! In the conditions which we have 
traced in its rocks, there could only be seen preparation 
for his existence ; the characters which enable him to 
live on it safety, and to work with it easily—in all these 
it has been inanimate and passive ; bnt vegetation is to 
it as an imperfect soul, given to meet the soul of man. 
The earth in its depths must remain dead and cold, in¬ 
capable except of slow crystalline change: but at its 
surface, which human beings look upon and deal with, 
it m i nis ters to them through a veil of strange interme¬ 
diate being : which breathes, but has no voice : moves, 
but cannot leave its appointed place: passes through 
life without consciousness, to death without bitterness ; 
wears the beauty of youth, without its passion : and de¬ 
clines to the weakness of age, without its regrets. And 
in this mystery of intermediate being, entirely subordi¬ 
nate to us, with which we can deal as we choose, having 
just the greater power as we have the less responsibility 
for our treatment of the unsuffering creature, most of 
the pleasures which we need from the external world 
are gathered, and most of the lessons we need are writ¬ 
ten, all ki nds of precious grace and teaching being 
united in this link between the Earth and 5Ian ; wonder¬ 
ful in universal adaptation to his need, desire, and disci¬ 
pline ; God’s daily preparation of the earth for him. 
with beautiful means of life. Fust, a carpet to make it 
soft for him; then, a colored fantasy of embroidery 
thereon ; then, tall spreading of foliage to shade him 
from sun-heat, and shade also the fallen rain, that it 
may not dry quickly back into the clouds, but stay to 
nourish the springs among the moss. Stout wood to 
bear this leafage : easily to be cut, yet tough and light, 
to make houses for him, or instruments (lance-shaft, or 
plough-handle, according to his temper); useless it had 
been, if harder: useless, if less fibrous; useless, if less 
elastic. Winter comes, and the shade of leafage falls 
away, to let the sun warm the earth: the strong boughs 
remain, breaking the strength of winter winds. The 
seeds which are to prolong the race, innumerable ac¬ 
cording to the need, are made beautiful and palatable, 
varied into infinitude of appeal to the fancy of man, or 
provision for his service: cold juice, or glowing spice, 
or balm, or incense, softening oil, preserving resin, 
medicine of styptic, febrifuge, or lulling charm : and all 
these presented in forms of endless change. Fragility 
or force, softness and strength, in all degrees and as¬ 
pects ; unerring uprightness, as of temple pillars, or 
undivided wandering of feeble tendrils on the ground : 
mighty resistance of rigid arm and limb to the storms of 
ages, or wavings to and fro with faintest pulse of sum¬ 
mer streamlet. Roots cleaving the strength of rock, or 
binding the transience of the sand: crests basking in 
sunshine of the desert, or hiding by dripping spring and 
lightless cave ; foliage far tossing in entangled fields be¬ 
neath every wave of ocean—clothing with variegated, 
everlasting films, the peaks of the trackless mountains, 
or ministering at cottage doors to every gentlest passion 
and simplest joy of humanity. Being thus prepared for 
us in all ways, and made beautiful, and good for food, 
and for building, and for instruments of our hands, this 
race of plants, deserving boundless affection and admi¬ 
ration from us, become, in proportion to their obtaining 
it, a nearly perfect test of our being in right temper of 
mind and way of life ; so that no one can be far wrong 
in either who loves the trees enough, and every one is 
assuredly wrong in both, who does not love them, if his 
life has brought them in his way .—Modern Painter. 
LANTANAS. 
The genus Lantana is composed of several species and 
a number of varieties of useful bedding and decorative 
plants, with brilliantly-colored flowers which change in 
color from yellow to deep orange, or from yellow to a 
rich rose, and which in some varieties are higldy fra¬ 
grant. The Lantana belongs to the Natural Order 
Verbenace®, and the greater portion of the varieties 
enumerated in the catalogues at the present time are 
hybrids of the different species that were introduced 
from the different countries ©f South America many 
years ago. 
With the exception of a few varieties, the Lantanas 
are plants of upright vigorous growth, but of late the 
florists have given us some new varieties which are 
great improvements on the older sorts, in being of dwarf 
bushy habit in growth, greater freedom of bloom, as 
well as in the size and colors of their flowers. 
As bedding plants the Lantanas are unequaled on ac¬ 
count of the ease of their culture, their free-flowering 
qualities, as well as their possessing the capability of re¬ 
sisting drought, growing well and flowering freely when 
most other plants are suffering from want of moisture. 
In bedding Lantanas it is well, to remember the fact 
that the plants will bloom more profusely if retained in 
their pots, and plunged where they are intended to 
bloom. 
Where larger specimens are desired, ythe can be 
cultivated in large pots, boxes, or tubs somewhat after 
