THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
215 
a professional florist originated it. Was it astonishing 
that scores of visitors came from far and near to see the 
beautiful flowers that were the talk of the county? In 
growing these flowers, she, assisted by bees and insects, 
slightly interfered with Nature’s workings. The pollen 
from one flower was carefully sifted upon the pistil of 
another, and by thus impregnating some of the flowers, 
rare, beautiful ones were produced that astonished her¬ 
self and friends—for a number of her hybrids were en¬ 
tirely new. When the double and single are fecundated 
in this manner, the result is a double or semi-double 
one. This is the only way by which seeds can be 
obtained from double varieties.” 
A friend who started in the nursery business with 
one aci'e of land, and now has 400 acres devoted to all 
manner of ornamental plants, said in a recent note to 
us: 
“If women, and men too, would spend more time 
in the open air, with a little light labor, there would be 
fewer doctor bills to pay. I should not have been here 
to-day had I led an indoor life. Of this I am well 
assured.”— Weekly Tribune. 
THE HOME IN AMERICA. 
Who does not remember the haughty query of Naa- 
man when told by the prophet Elisha to bathe in the 
Jordan—“Are not the waters of Damascus fairer than 
any of the rivers of Israel?” Perhaps the great Syrian 
had at first a lamentable want of faith in the power of 
Jehovah; but this preference which he expressed for the 
rivers of his native land is to be honored, I take it, 
rather than otherwise. It was the assertion of that sov¬ 
ereign respect for home which has been in all ages, and 
which is to-day, the chief preservative of nationality. 
The Abana might have run no purer, nor the Parphar 
sparkled more brightly, than the stream of the Jordan: 
but they were the rivers of his home, of his childhood, 
and his love centered there. The waters of the Jordan 
gurgled from the same secret places of Libanus, as did 
those which enshrined his Syrian home within their 
silvery meanderings; but they muddied as they flowed 
away from Damascus into the midst of unfamiliar scenes 
and a strange people. The Abana and the Parphar loved 
his own doorsteps, nourished his own country, and, 
swelling into the comely proportions of Syria’s “ Lake 
of the Meadow,” became the crowning gems of attrac¬ 
tion in that lovely oriental plain. Why should he not 
have loved them above the rivers of Israel ? 
We notice that the same spirit has existence in the 
breasts of nearly every people. The Hebrews thought 
Palestine the fairest land beneath the sun. The sacred 
writers grow eloquent in their praises of the land of 
milk and honey, the land of Sharon and of Jesrul, the 
land of all lands. “Beautiful for situation, the joy of 
the whole earth,” etc., saug the psalmist of Jerusalem. 
The old Roman could conceive of no city equal to his 
own, and the muddy Tiber in Iris imagination was the 
loveliest stream that flowed. There was no other land 
like Hellas to the Greek. Even the modern Lapp, in the 
midst of snows and arctic cold, is of the opinion that his 
own country is the most delightful in the world, and re¬ 
gards with a feeling akin to pity the people of other 
lands who enjoy luxuries which he, in his simple ignor¬ 
ance, never dreamed of. 
But what with Naaman, the Jew, the Greek, the 
Roman and the Lapp were very little more than regard 
for the natural scenery of their native land, has with us, 
happily become a veneration for more hallowed associa¬ 
tions. That dear phrase, “our native land,” and that 
dearer word, “home,” have a broader meaning here than 
any conception of patriarchal or mediaeval times put 
upon them. More particularly have the thousand re¬ 
finements of civilized society exalted everything per¬ 
taining to the latter name, practically making sacred 
temples of the American home. As our Mississippi and 
Hudson are better than the Thames or the Euphrates, 
our Alleglianies and Nevadas better than Alps or Hima¬ 
layas, our savannahs than Enna or Sharon, our valleys 
than Nile or Rhine, so is the American home the temple 
pur excellence among its cosmopolitan rivals. 
In Paris there is no home, nor is there any word for 
home in the French vocabulary. The house is simply 
the bed-ebamber, and people go there similarly as birds 
seek the boughs of trees for a resting place. The people 
make parlor and sitting-room of the street and cafe. 
Friends meet, and families cluster at the saloon—the 
very place to learn what is polite and forget what is 
loving, to foster amenities and untie affections, to guild 
hearts and pamper characters. Gav, sparkling, elegant 
Paris! she sits a queen in beauty and fashion. What is 
she in morals? Every true and ennobling character she 
lacks as society, for she has no home. 
The strength of the American Republic is the univer¬ 
sal desire to own a home. It is molding all the people, 
native and foreign born, into one homogeneous mass. 
The ownership of a home is something of which neither 
the Irish peasant nor the German laborer have in then- 
own country any conception, but it is here the goal of 
then hopes and desires. Education comes next; is a 
something the need of which is not felt until the adorn¬ 
ments of home are thought of. This desire to own the 
roof under which one sleeps is distinctly an American 
characteristic, and seems by nature adapted to the 
growth which is raising us in importance in the scale of 
nations. It is the link which connects the man with the 
government; it adds to his interest in the making and 
execution of the laws, and identifies him with the usages 
and customs of the people. It is this element which 
gives the people of Switzerland their unity and power, 
and the lack of it causes nine-tenths of the unrest and 
poverty in Ireland. No feeling is stronger than the 
attachments of home, and no nation whose people pos¬ 
sess this as a common sentiment can lose its liberties. 
Tiie American home is, in fact, the corner-stone of 
American institutions. It is the sanctuary of society, 
and the heads thereof are pastors. It is the bench of 
society, and the heads thereof are justicians. It is the 
sanctum of society, and the heads thereof are physic¬ 
ians. It is the luminary which diffuses its rays for all 
and through all. Whatever it shines upon is impreg- 
