SEPTEMBER 
Usually finds the flower-garden in its greatest beauty 
and splendor, taking it for granted its possessor has 
given it the proper care and attention. We need not 
say here that it is such that we always have in our mind 
when we write. A piece of ground that is dug over in 
spring, planted by hired hands instead of loving ones, 
then left to take care of itself, is not a garden: it is one 
of flora’s cemeteries, bearing no more relation to a gar¬ 
den, in the proper sense of the term, than does a house- 
full of neglected children with a drunken father bear 
to home and its endearing associations. In the garden, 
' Nature repeats herself. Each year is a repetition of its 
predecessor, and each month but a further development 
of the plans and processes of the last. The seeds and 
bulbs that we planted in confidence and hope in spring¬ 
time have rewarded our industry by luxuriant growth 
and abundance of blossoms. It is true, we have bought 
some very old. neglected plants, long since discarded, 
under very new names and descriptions that must have 
taxed to the utmost the ingenuity of the florist: yet 
these little disappointments do not detract from the true 
pleasures the garden affords. On the contrary, they 
only stimulate us to a knowledge of plants that will, in 
future, enable us to buy with caution, if not under¬ 
standing. 
The Verbenas and Petunias, planted in the Tulip and 
Hyacinth beds, have long since hidden from view the 
dying forms of the latter, and are now a mass of bloom, 
besides forming a cool mulch, an excellent protection to 
the bulbs during summer, preserving them, in the most 
perfect and natural condition. The Salvias, Geraniums, 
Heliotropes and other bedding plants have now attained 
their perfection. The a nnuals and perennials that glad¬ 
dened the early months are gone, but they are not 
missed, for their places are filled with the luxuriant 
growths of the plants we have just named, besides the 
Gladiolus, planted among the shrubbery and in every 
available place, are now as gay as an army with banners 
on dress parade. No month in the year gives such ten¬ 
der pleasure to the lover of the flower-garden. In it all 
the beauty of the spring and summer seem to concen¬ 
trate, and to be intensified by apprehensions of early 
frosts, which s hall turn color to blackness and delight¬ 
ful fragrance to sickening decay. Many of our hopes 
have not ripened to fruition, for we had expected im¬ 
possibilities, discounted expectations, and they have 
gone to protest. We have, however, learned many a 
valuable lesson, and, in future, will be content with the 
plants that are congenial to the places wehave for them. 
As the evenings grow cooler we are reminded of im¬ 
portant trusts that are in our keeping; we must not 
neglect our house-plants which have, in most cases, bet n 
kept back in order to have them in proper condition for 
winter bloom and beauty. And now our trouble com¬ 
mences. What shall we take up? What shall we leave? 
We have heart-room for every Geranium in the garden, 
but house-room for very few. As we walk through the 
garden our plants seem to read our thoughts, and know¬ 
ing full well that their “pale horse,”frost, is near, they, 
with one voice, cry out, “ Take me, take me; put me any¬ 
where, only don’t let me die.” We cannot turn a deaf 
ear to the appeals, neither can wo accommodate one- 
half there is around 115 . One of tho greatest causes of 
failure in the management of house-plants, especially 
through the winter, is in crowding them too much to¬ 
gether by growing, or trying to grow two or threo 
where there is scarcely room for one, thus spoiling the 
whole. Wo know it requires a strong resolution to 
throw a quantity of nice-looking and healthy plants 
away in autumn, but it is better to do so at that 
time than to keep them to spoil the whole by tho spriug; 
for plants that are drawn up, weak and spiudling are 
nearly worthless; even for flower-garden purposes, they 
are uot so useful as neat dwarf, bushy plants. We need 
not say this is one of the greatest errors that can be 
committed, as, either for house decoration or for plant* 
ing out in the garden, one good plant is worth a dozen 
drawn and indifferent ones. It is, therefore, indispen¬ 
sable in selecting plants for the house, to choose such 
only as are really worth the space they will occupy, and 
to reject all others; better, by far to throw them into the 
rubbish heap at once, than to have them disfigure the 
whole lot, only to be cast away in the spring. We make 
these remarks at this time to encourage our amateur 
friends to act wisely, to cultivate no more plants than 
they have proper accommodation for, and to grow a 
few nice plants, rather than a quantity of ill-grown and 
unsightly things. Though house-plants are mainly 
grown for their flowers, they, even without flowers, if 
properly managed, may be made to present a very sightly 
and iuterestingappearance; indeed, a person who grows 
plants purely from a love of them, will derive as much 
pleasure from their daily and healthy progress as from 
their flowers. A man who can only admire a plant when 
in full bloom has no love for them; his taste, relatively, 
is low and vulgar, and does not emanate from a refined 
and cultivated understanding. Such persons are pleased 
by the tawdry only, and cannot appreciate the refined 
and elevating study of the entire plant. To watch a 
plant from its first formation in the seed vessel through 
all its changes and vicissitudes, to its ultimate and com¬ 
plete formation as the monarch of a forest, or the more 
humble occupant of a garden pot, is an occupation 
worthy of the highly educated, and such as the most 
humble cannot pursue without becoming wiser and better 
men. The plant, as a teacher, like all other teachers, 
should be well developed, perfect in all its forms; it 
should teach us plainly the duty it has to perform in the 
economy of Nature; it cannot do this in a starved, sickly, 
undeveloped condition." From the seed form, through 
all its conditions of life, until it has ripened seeds for 
the perpetuation of its species, it should show nothing 
but health and vigor. Therefore, what is worth growing 
in the garden or in the house, is worth growing well, 
and we should advise our readers not to stoop to medi¬ 
ocrity in anything. It is not expected, or at least it 
should not be, that all plants can be grown equally well 
under all circumstances. The conditions under which 
plants are grown have all to do with their perfect devel¬ 
opment. Light, air, heat and moisture, contain the ele¬ 
ments that sustain plant life; where there is not suffi¬ 
cient of all these, plants will not thrive. Some will do in 
