THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
flowers will last three or four weeks in good condition- 
It can be grown either in a pot or basket, with ^ 
peat. In potting keep the crown of the plant above j 
rim of the pot, in order that the water shall not set e 
aroimd the crown, wliich would rot it. It is an nver 
gi-een plant, requiring but little rest, at which tiniei 
must be watered sparingly. Wliile growing, water 
freely and syringe often; keep in a temperature from 
60® to 70®. Liquid manure not desirable; water is the 
source through which it obtains all its food. Do not 
often separate the plant, but sliift into a larger pot, as 
often as its increase of growth would seem to reqiure it. 
Carpenter’s Square.— L. K. K. Lovington, HI. Local 
names usually puzzle, but this beats us, having never 
heard it before. Send us a piece of the plant, or 
other common name. 
Authurium .—Miss Lilia C. W., Sartoris ^ 
The Autlmriim Soherzeriaimm, is strictly a tro’ni 
plant, and requires a humid atmosphere in the 
house. It is a true epiphyte or “ Air plant,” althoulf 
generally grown in spagnum, in pots or baskets, it 
not do treated as a house plant. ' 
Palm Macrozamia.—Same. This species of Pahn als 
requhes a hot-house. There are several species of thi** 
uiteresting family that succeed well in the ordinary 
living-rooms; among them may be noticed iatain'as 
Arecas, Caryoia, Phcenix, Cocos, etc., etc. ’ 
WINIFRED’S CONSERVATORY. 
“ There’s only one thing wanting now, Arnold dear, 
to make our little house perfect,” said Winifred More- 
ton, as she clung coaxingly to her young husband’s arm, 
“and that is a conservatory—a wee conservatory to 
keep us in flowers aU the winter long. Look here, in 
this corner now, there are really tluee sides of it already 
built; we should only want a front and a roof, and that 
old door we took from between the lower rooms, and 
the shelves inside.” 
“And the apparatus to warm it and the plants to 
stock it,” added Arnold, vrith a smile. 
“ O, as for those, my friend, Mrs. Wodehouse, has 
promised to send me most of hers; she is going abroad 
shoi-tly. and doesn’t care about them, she says; and she 
appears ansious that I shoiild have them.” 
“So—so you are jealous of your dear friend’s con¬ 
servatory, is that it? You forget, little woman, that 
the Wodehouses are rich folk, while you have been 
foolish enough to many a poor young fellow in a Gov¬ 
ernment oflSce. However, ce que femme veut; have 
your conservatory, my Winnie, only don’t be extrava¬ 
gant about it.” 
A month later the conservatory is finished, and Win¬ 
nie is superintending the arrangement of a cargo of fine 
plants just sent by Mrs. Wodehouse. All have, as 
usual, a label affixed to a little peg at the side of the 
pot, on which the botanical name of the.flower is 
written: but she suddenly observes that this, in the 
case of the finest plant, is not a label merely, but a 
carefully-folded and sealed note directed to herself. 
She opens it, and her blue eyes grow first round with 
astonishment, then moist with pity as she reads. Finally 
she sits down among the flower-pots, and looks at them 
as they stand just where the men have left them, and 
there is a sort of superstitious awe depicted on her face 
M if she feara lest the arrival of these pots of flowers 
is also the arrival of a great misery in her home. All 
her pleasure, her almost infantine delight over the new 
conservatorv, is gone; it seems to have passed away as 
rapidly as the short exclamation of joy with which she 
had hailed the advent of these floral treasures. In her 
hand she still holds the note containing the cloud 
which, wreathing itself about her mind, is already be 
^^ng to dim the clear horizon of Winifred Moreton’s 
bright young life. She is reading it once again with 
much intentness, when she hears her husband open the 
outer door with a latch-key. She thrusts it into her 
pocket with hurried eagerness, and then strives, but 
rather vainly, to compose her face into an appearance 
of creditable tranquility. Tlie first secret has sprang 
up between her and Arnold, and the keeping it then 
and in the futui’e will prove a heavy tax on Winifred’s 
candid natui'e. 
He cannot avoid noticing that something is amiss, and 
exclaims— 
“ Why, little wife, how grave you look over your new 
toy ! You have got your conservatory; you have some 
lovely flowers to put in it—very kind of Mrs. Wode¬ 
house to send them—and still you look as if you had 
some heavy care on your mind. What is the matter, 
my dear Winnie?” 
“ Please, Arnold, let me send for old Rofley, the car¬ 
penter, to put up some shutters and a bar across here, 
and a couple of bolts to the door.” 
“Foolish Winnie, do you think your plants so very 
precious that all the burglar's in torvn ■will be after 
them? Ho-n'ever, have yoiu way. Send for that old 
carpenter with a face like a battered halfpenny, and 
make your floral treasures quite' secure. Meauwliile, 
perhaps you will ti'eat me to a smile and a kiss.” 
Days passed into weeks, and the conservatoi'y was 
never out of Winifred's thoughts, reminding one forci¬ 
bly of La Fontaine’s fable of “ Le Savetier et le Finan¬ 
cier 
Tout le jour, il avait I’oeil au guet; etla nuit. 
Si quelqiie chat faisait du bruit. 
Le chat prenait I'argent.” 
Alas, poor Winnie! her plaything had become her 
hHe noire, nor could all the care and solicitude of her 
husband, whom she loved to adoration, lay the ghost 
which seemed to be wandering about her heart. 
The Loudon season was over; she accompanied Ar¬ 
nold abroad for his holiday, but the preoccupation and 
listlessness of his little wife became a serious source of 
anxiety to him. Nothing seemed to amuse her; nothing 
seemed to have any place in her thoughts, save the one 
overwhelming desire to get home. Arriving at last iu 
the first week in October in the bijou house in South 
Kensington, she rushed instantly into the conservatory, 
looked carefully at all her plants, and counted them to 
see that the number was coiTect. Arnold had some 
thoughts of sending for a physician, as he positively 
was beginning to fear that Winifred had some mental 
