Part 2

The sand martin is a most curious member of the swallow tribe. It appears in the spring a week or two before the common swallow, and it is fond of skimming swiftly over the surface of the water. This bird makes a hole in a sand bank, sometimes two feet deep, at the extremity of which it constructs a loose nest of fine grass and feathers, in which it rears its young brood. The beak of the sand martin is like a sharp little awl, very hard, and tapering, suddenly to a point.

The tailor bird is not the least interesting of the bird family; it has a curious bill which it uses like a needle, and it forms its nest by sewing the materials together instead of weaving.

“The tailor bird,” says Darwin, “will not build its nest to the extremity of a tender twig, but makes one more advance to safety by fixing it to the leaf itself. It picks up a dead leaf and sews it to the side of a living one, its slender bill serving as a needle, and its thread some fine fibers; the lining consists of feathers, gossamer and down; its eggs are white; the color of the bird light yellow; its length three inches; its weight three-sixteenths of an ounce; so that the materials of the nest and the weight of the bird are not likely to draw down a habitation so slightly suspended.”

The different methods of nest building evidently result from the peculiarities of the birds themselves combined with their surroundings. Will these styles of architecture be changed or further developed?

HENRY COYLE.

VICK’S FLOWERS.

What radiance do I see? What color-wave outflows, Making the wilderness rejoice And blossom like the rose?

From sea to sea it pours, From east to western strands, Softening the stern Atlantic shores, Brightening Pacific sands.

The South-land grows more sweet; By broad blue Northern lakes, Fair as auroral flushes fleet The fragrant flower-tide breaks.

Our fertile vales make room For this benignant grace; The prairie’s wealth of native bloom Gladly to this gives place.

O, lovely enterprise, Refining where it goes, Making the wilderness rejoice And blossom as the rose!

—VIRGINIA WESTWOOD.

* * * * *

“Only the Scars Remain,”

Says HENRY HUDSON, of the James Smith Woolen Machinery Co., Philadelphia, Pa., who certifies as follows:

“Among the many testimonials which I see in regard to certain medicines performing cures, cleansing the blood, etc., none impress me more than =my own case=. Twenty years ago, at the age of 18 years, I had swellings come on my legs, which broke and became =running sores=. Our family physician could do me no good, and it was feared that the bones would be affected. At last, my good old

Mother urged me

to try =Ayer’s= Sarsaparilla. I took three bottles, the sores healed, and I have not been troubled since. =Only the Scars remain, and the memory of the past, to remind me of the good Ayer’s Sarsaparilla has done me.= I now weigh two hundred and twenty pounds, and am in the best of health. I have been on the road for the past twelve years, have noticed =Ayer’s= Sarsaparilla advertised in all parts of the United States, and always take pleasure in telling what good it did for me.”

Ayer’s Sarsaparilla

Prepared by Dr. J. C. Ayer & Co., Lowell, Mass.

Cures others, will cure you.

LINES TO A SKUNK CABBAGE.

Oh, life grotesque! How, whence did spring The thought that gave thee blossoming? How comes thy strange offensive bloom Near knolls that give sweet violets room? Sweet violets, which fill the air With perfumed incense of a prayer That, floating to the world above Calls blessings from the soul of Love. But thou, mephitic bloom! thou hast A thought in thee of ages past, When songs of love were all unknown, Ere earth had into beauty grown, Ere rippling brook and soughing pine Had turned her prose hills into rhyme; When all was dark, and cold, and bare, Thou hadst, perhaps, a mission there; And that is why, ’neath spring-time snows Thy curious spathe so early grows. Hast thou no mission now, strange flower, Happier to make spring’s early hour? Hark! from thy close-wrapped heart doth come The working bee’s glad, soundful hum, Where loads of pollen he doth find His waxen honey cells to bind. So, thou hast place in fields of use, And vain are now words of abuse— Giving the best thy heart doth hold To help the workers of the world. And giving thus, with patient grace, Doth baser qualities efface, And in a better, higher sphere Thine inner beauty doth appear, And thy developed soul shall be Violet-sweet eternally.

—BETH MAX.

These lines were suggested by a spathe of the skunk cabbage sent me by my brother, W. S. Ripley, of Wakefield, Mass., who mentioned in his letter to me when the specimen was sent that he stopped “to watch the bees go in at the aperture on one side of the spathe, and listened to their loud humming inside, as they laid on their load of pollen.” In Thoreau’s “Early Spring in Massachusetts,” page 172, in writing of this plant he says: “All along under that bank I heard the hum of honey bees in the air, attracted by this flower. Especially the hum of one within a spathe sounds deep and loud.”

THE NEW FRENCH CANNAS.

I do not know of any class of plants that have attracted so much attention or have been so much admired during the past season as the new large flowering French cannas. And for effectiveness on lawns in large beds or masses, or as single specimens in the mixed border, nothing can be more tropical and impressive. They are really plants for everybody as they are entirely free from insect pests, and require but little care and attention to grow them to perfection. They succeed well in all kinds of weather, wet or dry, and are not injured in the least by the severe storms of wind and rain that we so often experience during the summer season.

They bloom without intermission from June until they are destroyed by frost; the spikes of large flowers somewhat resemble gladiolus but are really more effective and showy as their brilliant colors show so grandly against their tropical foliage. Most, if not all, of the varieties grow on an average about three feet in height, and the flowers range in color from deep crimson to pure yellow, including all the intermediate shades, many being so beautifully marked that they are frequently compared to orchid flowers.

To grow these cannas to perfection as well as to enable them to properly develop themselves, they should be given a very deep heavily enriched soil, and as soon as hot, dry weather sets in mulched to the depth of at least two inches with good stable manure, and if the opportunity offers, water copiously during seasons of drought. With this treatment a single tuber will make a clump three or four feet in diameter in a single season; this will give one some idea of the immense amount of foliage and flowers a single specimen will produce.

The plants should not be planted outside until the weather becomes warm and settled, which in this vicinity is about the tenth of May, and as soon as the foliage has been destroyed by the frost it should be cut off, and the tubers dug and stored underneath the greenhouse stage, or in some other situation, where a temperature of 55° is maintained, until the time arrives for planting them outside again.

Or the plants can be lifted on the approach of cold weather, divided, potted up, and grown on for decorative purposes in either the greenhouse or window garden. This is a very safe way to winter over the large flowering cannas or any other variety of which one’s stock is limited.

When grown as pot plants for winter decoration the cannas should be given a compost consisting of two-thirds turfy loam, one-third well decayed manure and a good sprinkling of bone dust, mix well and use the compost rough. The plants should be given as light and sunny a situation as possible and a temperature of 55° to 60°. They should also be freely watered both overhead and at the roots, and as soon as the pots become well filled with roots a little liquid ammonia can be given occasionally or else they must be shifted into larger pots.

Propagation is effected by a careful division of the clumps, and where the plants are to be kept in a state of rest the operation should be performed when they are being planted out in May. In dividing leave two or three eyes or shoots to each plant.

Of the many varieties now listed in catalogues the following are the most desirable and distinct:

Alphonse Bouvier is the grandest deep red variety known, both truss and flowers being very large, and the plant makes a most luxuriant growth of deep red foliage. In color the flowers are of a rich velvety red.

Capt. P. de Suzzini has handsome light green foliage and is the most beautiful of all the spotted varieties. Its flowers are of a rich shade of canary yellow beautifully spotted and dashed with red.

Francois Crozy has bright green foliage and very large flowers which are of a bright orange bordered with a narrow edge of gold—a very rare and desirable color in cannas.

Madame Crozy grows about three and a half feet in height and has broad bright green foliage. The flowers, which are produced in massive spikes, are of a bright crimson scarlet beautifully bordered with gold. The plant commences to bloom when about one foot in height.

Nellie Bowden, in all respects this is identical with Madame Crozy except in the color of its flowers which are of a rich golden yellow. One of the most distinct and beautiful of cannas.

Paul Marquant has dark green foliage and very large handsome flowers of a bright salmon scarlet. A very showy variety.

Star of 1891 is so well and favorably known as to require no description. It is the best of all for pot culture, as it is of dwarf growth and very free-flowering. The flowers are of a bright orange scarlet occasionally edged with yellow.

_Floral Park, N. Y._

CHAS. E. PARNELL.

THE DIFFERENCE.

It makes all the difference between nice thrifty plants or scraggly looking ones whether we read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest a floral magazine. In walking on the street, the appearance of the windows or front yards tells you whether the postman leaves a floral weekly or monthly. Six weeks ago I saw a row of empty pots right in the sun, and often an old man was poking up the soil with his penknife to see if his bulbs had started. You see he didn’t read up about hyacinths, but potted them and put them right in the sun. I can imagine his saying to his wife, “It’s money thrown away to buy bulbs; they probably are too old to grow and I’ve been cheated.” So the poor seedsman gets the blame, and not his own ignorance. Here is a window with leggy looking geraniums in it, just a few leaves on top of the long stems. Now a little reading in a floral magazine would have shown her, after blooming all summer, the place for them is the cellar. Ah! here is a window that shows intelligence. The hyacinths and jonquils are showing their buds, moved to the window from the dark corners where they have been for weeks forming vigorous roots. Here are primroses in bloom, and oxalis, and a scarlet nasturtium makes the room bright on a cloudy day, and in a corner I can see the Palm Latania. She takes the magazines and knows what are good winter plants for amateurs.

In summer one can pick out the magazine lawns and gardens. Here is one where the man has two shapely maple trees in front, and has pruned his “Jac” rose so that it is loaded with blossoms, and in a circular bed he has put a caladium in the center, and this shows off the gladiolus in every shade around it. But the next front yard is enough to set one’s teeth on edge. Actually, here is a large square bed with a tall candidum lily in each corner and, inside, petunias, zinnias, asters and marigolds in one blaze of color. The whole effect is like a crazy quilt thrown over an old fashioned four-posted bedstead. One sees the roses eaten of worms and bugs, or planted by the sunflowers and looking ashamed at their surroundings; whereas the magazines tell us again and again that roses need to be watched continually and sprayed to keep off the insects, and to plant by themselves. Now for the moral. Let us all show, and lend our florals, and urge the people to subscribe.

ANNA LYMAN.

* * * * *

“WORTH A GUINEA A BOX.”

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Covered with a Tasteless & Soluble Coating.

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A COTTAGE LOT.

When a tradesman can indulge in a suburban home or a summer cottage it will often happen that he will desire to keep a family horse. If he doesn’t want a horse he will often want a cow or chickens. In the accompanying sketch A is a site provided for one or other of these animals, and it is designedly given a prominent position that its architecture may receive treatment in consonance with that of the residence, that it may be in unison with the surroundings, and that it may supplant the useless and ugly pavilions frequently seen.

The approach to the house is direct and convenient for all points, unless the architect is perverse enough to put the coal cellar on the opposite side.

The boundary hedge is of Norway spruce with room enough to grow and room enough to get between it and the fence to clip it. I saw a hedge on paper recently—between two groups of shrubbery—which was not allowed room to stand on end.

There is a small vegetable garden, 13, with a border around it for blackberries, currants, raspberries, strawberries and such like, and at the end, 14, either a few fruit trees or flowering shrubs. The porches, both back and front, are but a single step above the roadway. The rooms may or may not be another step above them, depending somewhat upon the character of the subsoil, etc. I have not arranged any special drying ground, for cedar poles may be set up in the center of any of the round beds, 1 to 8, and clothed with Japanese ivy, Euonymus radicans, climbing hydrangeas and so on, and have wires between them.

Now these beds may be further filled with either bedding plants or select herbaceous plants. I will assume that it is a summer cottage, and I would then plant the ground as follows, which would result in a very different how d’ye do from that usually seen in such places: 1, Begonia Evansiana; 2, Funkia grandiflora; 3, Echinacea purpurea; 4, Aconitum Napellus variegata; 5, Lobelia cardinalis; 6, Sedum Sieboldii; 7, Veronica longifolia subsessilis; 8, six distinct varieties of Phlox paniculata. These beds may be varied greatly, but nothing of unreliable character should ever be planted in them. Number 1, for instance, might have a tub of nelumbium in place of the begonia, not that it is greatly better, but for variety and fancy.

Numbers 9, 9, 9, are shrubbery groups composed of the following summer-flowering material, disposed in such manner that all sides may be seen, and mowed around, and giving the longest possible margins for the space occupied. There are but few trees to bloom after July, they are chiefly Rhus semialata Osbeckii and R. glabra; Dimorphanthus Mandschuricus; Koelreuteria paniculata and Clerodendron trichotomum. None of them are large. Of shrubs there are a number, and it is strange that they are so seldom used effectively. Garden shrubbery looks more devoid of color in August here than English shrubbery in midwinter. This should not be with a list such as the following to draw from and utilize. Just fancy what we have—and the great artists we have—and tell me if it should be.

There are the altheas, lots of them; Buddleia Lindleyana; Calluna vulgaris; Clethras in variety; Callicarpa purpurea; _x_ Clematis in variety; Clerodendron viscosum; Desmodiums; Dabœcia polifolia; Daphne cneorum; Erica vagans; Euonymus Sieboldianus; Hydrangea Hortensia varieties; Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora; Hypericum in varieties; Hibiscus roseus, etc.; Indigofera Dosua; Kerria Japonica; Lespedeza bicolor; Leycesteria formosa; Lagerstrœmia Indica; _x_ Lonicera Halleana; _x_ Periploca græca; Polygonum cuspidatum; Potentilla fruticosa; Rubus odoratus; Rhodotypus Kerrioides; Rhus copallina; Rosa rugosa; R. Wichuriana, and several hybrids; Spiræa salicifolia, S. tomentosa, S. Douglassii, and S. Bumalda if it is pruned after flowering in spring; Tamarix Chinensis; _x_ Tecoma radicans; _x_ Tecoma grandiflora; Vitex agnus-castus; Vitex Negundo incisa, and a large number of sub-frutescent plants of large size, which may be substituted for such of the shrubs as are tender north of Philadelphia. Numbers 10 and 11 are prepared borders which may well be planted with Hydrangeas Hortensia, Thomas Hogg, etc., and interspersed with the pink and white varieties of Lilium speciosum. Numbers 12, 12 are plants of Sciadopitys verticillata.

Climbers are marked x. South of Philadelphia Bignonia capreolata, Magnolia grandiflora and evergreen roses may be grown on walls.

_Trenton, N. J._

JAMES MACPHERSON.

ROSE LEAVES.

My rose bushes are almost as much admired for their beautiful foliage as for their lovely roses. “I never saw such handsome leaves, why they look exactly like wax.” This is an exclamation I am growing quite accustomed to hear from friends, and it is really true; but I think any one who grows roses as house plants may have just as handsome foliage if the proper care is taken of the plants. Once or twice every week (just as is most convenient) I wash every leaf with clean, weak soapsuds, under side as well as upper side. With the small-leaved Polyanthas it is too tiresome to wash each leaflet individually, but the foliage can be sprayed well, and then very carefully and gently a branch of leaves may be wiped at once, and in this manner one can go over quite a number of plants in half an hour. The leaves may be left without wiping, of course, but the foliage is apt to be marred unless it is done, as the soapsuds dries on the leaves in white, unsightly spots. Roses treated in this way will very rarely be troubled with pests of any kind, and such rich waxen green foliage as they will possess is more beautiful than many flowers.

It is something quite remarkable here, where the thermometer falls to 40° and 50° below zero, to see roses blooming outside of a conservatory, But mine have been doing beautifully in the bay window all winter, and small as the plants are they have flowered wonderfully well. At night the plants are moved away from the window to a place where they are secure from frost Queen’s Scarlet seems to make a special effort to surpass itself each time some other rose comes into bloom, and every rose it produces is, I think, more beautiful than its predecessor. It is in every way one of the loveliest of roses, and although lacking in the rich fragrance of many others, it yet possesses a delicate sweetness of its own. The first time that American Beauty bloomed for me it bore two exquisite roses, and the little bush was barely eight inches high, one of the shoots which produced a flower being only four inches out of the soil, and the rich, exquisite sweetness of these large, deep pink roses is surely unsurpassed by any other.

Sometimes when the buds seem very slow about unfolding I take a cup of lukewarm water and gently bending each bud give it a few minutes immersion. This certainly hastens their development and in no way injures them. If I could only have one rose Queen’s Scarlet would be my choice; if I could have others American Beauty would certainly be the next one.

MRS. S. H. SNIDER.

* * * * *

CARE OF SEEDS.—The smaller the seeds the less covering required. Fine seeds may be scattered on the moist soil, or at most have a sprinkling of sand over them.

* * * * *

PAYSON’S INDELIBLE INK

Has a Record of Half a Century.

☞ For Marking Personal and Family Linen.

☞ For Marking Clothing of any Fabric.

It has been in constant and regular use in

U. S. Gov’t Hospital, Washington, D. C., 50 years. U. S. Hotel, Boston, 40 years. Miss. State Lunatic Hospital, Jackson, Miss., 33 years. Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, 31 years.

Received HIGHEST AWARD at WORLD’S FAIR, 1893.

Sample bottle mailed on receipt of 25 cts. if you cannot obtain it at druggists or stationers.

A. L. WILLISTON, Northampton, Mass.

Letter Box.

In this department we shall be pleased to answer any questions relating to Flowers, Vegetables and Plants, or to publish the experiences of our readers. JAMES VICK.

Lady Washington and Other Plants.

I see by your September Magazine that you want the experience of anyone that has had good success with Lady Washington geraniums. I had good success with mine. I used as a fertilizer ground oil cake worked into the soil. It was a year-old plant and had five bunches of bloom with five pansy-like flowers in each bloom. They only bloom once a year. I also used the oil cake on an ivy-leaved geranium and its growth was beyond my expectations, for in a year’s time it was eighteen feet long. All plants I have used it on have done exceedingly well.

MRS. N. G.

_Lane, Kansas._

Roses in Kansas.

I would like to know what manure that the farm can furnish to use for the bed of Monthly roses, also, must they be pruned or cut back the first year, and what treatment must I give them in the winter here in Kansas? Must I cut off all branches and cover the roots or wrap the branches?

MRS. M.

Dig into the bed every spring a heavy dressing of well rotted stable manure. Protect the plants in winter with a covering of leaves or branches of evergreens, prune in spring and when needed at other times, so as to get a good growth of new wood.

Ixia—Spider Lily.

Will you please tell me through your Magazine how to pronounce ixias.

Also, how to treat the spider lily.

A. E. M.

_Casstown, Ohio._

The division of the word as here given, ix-i-a, sufficiently indicates its pronunciation.

The spider lilies, or Pancratiums, are plants growing naturally in marshes or low moist grounds and require plenty of water in their growing and blooming stage—afterwards give less water favoring a season of comparative rest, but do not allow to go wholly dry.

Plants About a Fish Pond.

I have a nice fish pond that till recently has been outside of my yard, but finding that the cattle would spoil the banks I am now taking it into my yard enclosure and wish to make it an ornament, which it really is. What kinds of plants are suitable to plant in the water and around it that would make it showy? I have now the Egyptian lotus growing in it.

W. C. L.

_Pennsville, Pa._