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; 'WWr/W®IKS F /jp I ' XM- MRS. CARRIE BELLE GABLE. A PINE TREE. A handfull of moss from the woodside, Dappled with gold and brown, I borrowed to gladden my chamber In the heart of the dusky town; And there, in the flickering shadows Traced by my window vine, It has nursed into life and freshness The gem of a giant pine. , I turn from the cool-blossomed lilies, Dewy the whole day through, From the flaunting torches of tulips, Flame like in form and hue— From the gorgeous geranium’s glory, From the trellis where roses twine To welcome the sturdy stranger, This poor little alien pine. Out of this feeble seedling What wonders the yea’s may bring; Its stems may defy the tempest Its limbs in the whirlwind swing, For age waich to men comes laden With weakness and sure decline, Will add only strength and beauty And growth to this tiny pine. Hark! is it an airy fancy ? The roar of its storm-wrung limbs, Then the sigh of its tender tassels To the twilight zephyr hymns ; The rain on its thick, soft greenness, When the spring skies weep and shine ; Oh, many and mighty the voices Haunting this tiny pine. I will take it again to the woodside, That safe with its kindred there, Its evergreen arms may broaden Yearly more strong and fair; And long after weeds and brambles From over this head of mine, The wild birds will build and warble In the boughs of my grateful pine. ARRANGEMENT OF FLOWERS. Os all the various mistakes made by parties in arranging flowers, the common est is that of putting too many into a vase; and next to that is the mistake of putting too great a variety of colors into one bouquet. Every flower in a group should be clear ly distinguishable and determinable with out pulling the nosegay to pieces; the calyx of a clover pink should never be hid by being plunged into the head of white phlox, however well the colors may look. Sweet peas never look so well in the hands as they do on the boughs over which they climb, because they cannot be carried without crowding them, but put them lightly in a vase with an equal number of mignonettes; or, rather, ornament a vase half full of mignonette with a few blooms of sweet peas, and you get a charming effect, because you follow the natural ar rangement by avoiding crowding of the blooms, and putting them with the green foliage which they want to set them off. Few people are aware until they try it, how easy it is to spoil such a pleasing com bination as this. A piece of calceolaria, scarlet geranium, or blue salvia would ruin it effectually. Such decided colors as these require to be grouped in another vase, and should not even be placed on the same table with sweet peas. They also require a much larger preponderance of foliage than is wanted by flowers of more delicate colors. It is unquestionably difficult to resist the temptation of “just putting in ” this or that flower, because “it is such a beauty.” A beauty it may be—but it would spoil an otherwise perfect combina tion. There is at least one proper place for every flower—then let every flower be in its proper place. It seems only natural to see women em ployed in making up floral designs or tend ing florist’s stores, though we do not think they are so occupied as much in this coun try as in England. A woman must not think, though, be~ cause she is fond of plants and fairly suc cessful with them in an amateur way, that she can go right in and become a success ful florist all at once. She must have in dustry, perseverance, and, not least impor tant, a little capital. She must be able to work herself, and find efficient help to assist her. She must be able to direct intelli gently, but she must also be able to turn her hand to a certain amount of manual labor if need be. Some ladies in southern Illinois are engaged in raising bulbs for the market, tube-roses and gladioli, and there is a similar firm managed by a lady in South Carolina. The leading florist of Cleveland is a wo man of culture and refinement, who began without any capital save brains and will ing hands. She is very successful in busi ness, and has the distinction of being one of the most artistic designers in the trade. Os course every flower-loving woman is not fitted for this work, but the’ fact re mains that it is an honorable and fairly remunerative employment and may very well take it; place among occupations for woman. FILLING AND TAKING CARE OF A FERNERY. Before putting any earth in the pan to contain ferns, procure some charcoal, break it up in pieces as large as a walnut, place in the bottom of the pan and cover with earth; the charcoal will keep the soil sweet and act as drainage. The best soil for a fernery is found in the woods under trees, and is composed ot leaf-mould and decayed vegetable mattei 1 , is black and spongy, on account of the fibrous matter in it. Ferns grow in this soil, in many shady places, and these are the best plants for a fernery, and can be taken up without disturbing their roots much. The partridge berry, Mitchella repens, is a most desirable plant in a fernery on account of its creeping habit. It covers the ground with its rich green leaves, and its bright red berries are very ornamental. Get a few roots of it by all means. Large growing ferns should be avoided. The Maiden-hair is the best, and this, with one or two roots of the ordinary kind, found in most woods, and a half dozen roots of the Mitchella, will be quite enough to fill your fernery. You must not expect it to look to suit you at first. Give it time to develop, and do not attempt to make it appear like an old fernery at the outset by crowding in large plants. The leaves of these will almost always die, and you will have te wait for new fronds to grow; small plants are best. Cover the soil, which should be slightly heaped up in the center, with moss, and then water. Put on the cover, and wait for further developments. Very soon tiny fronds, curled up in a cunning way, will peep through the moss, gradually they will unroll, and soon you will have beautiful fern leaves, which will speedily be followed by others, until your fernery is tilled with beauty. Never allow it to become crowded. If there is any danger of this, cut out some of the older leaves. As soon as one turns yellow remove it at once. You will not need to give it water oftener than once a month if the glass fits moderately tight. The moisture from the soil will be con densed on the glass and returned to it. Always examine the soil carefully before watering. If it is not quite moist and damp, give more water; if it is, do not. By no means give enough to make the earth muddy, for that will be “too much of a good thing.” If there should be so great-»i accumulation of moisture on the glass as to obscure the view, raise the cover a trifle and let it evaporate. It is not necessary to give the plants any direct sunshine. Their needs are—sufficient wa ter to keep the air in which they grow moist, a cool window rather than a warm one, and the removal of all decaying mat ter. Attend to these things and you can have beautiful ferns. Their care is very simple, and yet many persons think it almost impossible for an amateur to suc ceed with one. A trial would convince them of their mistake. MORNING GLORIES. This old-fashioned flower is not very popular now with many people, more novel and fragrant plants having displaced it. I confess to a love of some old-fashioned things, which, like old friends, are not to be forsaken. Morning glories are in this list. They often receive bad treatment, and hence return a poor reward. An ex posed position is not the place for them. Give them a goodly amount of shade and a soil not over rich but rather moist, and they will repay you gloriously for your thoughtfulness. Under an apple or other tree is a suitable place for them; and there they will remain open most of the forenoon and fill the air with a fragrance unknown to them when planted where the hot sun will wilt them. Some of the new varieties are literal “glories” in the floral world. We have used them exclusively this spring to run over arched gateways and over and around columns of the piazza and at shady windows, where only the morning sun can reach them. Having three arches down the front walk to the gate, we have used morning glories, nasturtiums, and the small ornamental gourds, as they flourished so, last spring. There are two small mounds in my garden, each made at the foot of a tree; running up one tree is a rose vine, whose lovely pink flowers look so lovely nestling among the leaves of the oak, whose spreading branches just give shade sufficient to protect from the hot imid-day sun. The ottier mouna 1 fflY— — the poles at equal distance and brought the ends at the top together and fastened se curely, I planted cypress. Both mounds are covered with a vine and grasses, making a lovely green all over them. I intend using a good deal of maurandia, too, as it blooms so beautifully and makes a lovely vine for baskets. Did any of you ever try petunias for baskets? They are lovely ! Mine grew in a paint bucket and covered it completely, the white and pink varieties. Os course you must pinch them frequently to secure an abundance of blooms. I have another this spring, plant ed in the same way and cypress to twine up, with a little ken nil worth ivy among the petunias to hang over the edge, it is so graceful and always fresh and green. OLD-FASHIONED GARDENS. Who does not love to read of the old fashioned gardens of ages gone by—green and sheltered alleys, moss-covered rocks and sweet-smelling herbs? The modern fashion of masses of color, unrelieved by green leaves, and yielding little scent, was not known to Elizabethan gardeners; but the fancy, seen some years ago, of enliven ing a garden by beds of colored earth, etc., is alluded to by Lord Bacon as practiced in his day. “These be toys—l have seen as good in tarts,” he exclaims, contemptu ously. The stiff Dutch garden, with its twin alleys and walks, came next. Then arose the uncomfortable practice of turn ing a garden into a statuary yard, and planting marble effigies at every corner. On a wet day these dripping images (gen erally lightly clad, or not clad at all,) look melancholy in the extreme, and a kind hearted spectator feels inclined to offer Venus a water-proof, and Apollo an um brella. The rose and strawberry exhibitions, under the auspices of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, are announced for June 26-27, to be held in Boston. THAT FLOWER BED. In writing of the flower-bed we made last spring in which I massed the plants, I promised to tell the readers how some plants survived the winter without protec tion. We left out all the tea-roses gladi loli, tube-roses and the fine chrysanthe mums. Every one survived the winter, apd to my surprise, three of the coreopsis lived and are now beautifully green. Knowing them to be annuals I can’t ac count for it. Have sown more seed, though. I took a box three feet long and one and a half wide, filled with good loamy soil; drew little rows with a small stick, and planted my seed, one kind in a row. As I sowed the seed I wrote the names down, for instance : First row, Asters, sec ond, Stocks, and so on, till through. I then placed over the box—first sprinkling the soil with tepid water—an old sash, and kept it where the warm sun would reach it all the morning. I never allow the earth to become dry, or baked, and by the third day some of the seed were up thick. Last spring I planted seed of all the ever lastings. I was so much pleased with them, was very successful, had all colors, and the helychrysums are very beautiful, as are the lovely pink acrolinums. I made quite a bouquet of the flowers; filled a small fancy basket with them, and placed it on a bracket where they remained all winter, and many a little blossom with a tendril of the smilax and a green leaf or two, found its way to friends in the dead of winter, but they always had that same bright appearance, even though at times a little dusty. My garden to-day is lovely ! Roses, roses everywhere! Crimson, pinks, white, red, yellow. And the vines ! I have sown seed of many varieties and some of them are now putting forth little clinging tendrils. The parlor or German ivy was wintered in a pit, as was the lecoma. We have made two other deep, rich beds and intend placing in them asters, jinnias and other annujhu Many nations and sovereigns have had plants and flowers as their emblems. The rose of England became especially famous during the Wars of the Roses, after which the red and white were united, and the rose of both colors is called the York and Lancaster; but when these flowers first became badges of the two houses I can not discover. The thistle is honored as the emblem of Scotland from the circumstance that once upon a time a party of Danes having approached the Scottish camp un perceived by night, were on the point of attacking it, when one of the soldiers trod on a thistle, which caused him to cry out, and so aroused the enemy. The shamrock of Ireland was held by St. Patrick to teach the doctrine of the Trinity, and chosen in remembrance of him. It is always worn by the Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. The leek, in Wales, as a national device, has not been satisfactorily explained, otherwise than as the result of its having the old Cymric colors, green and white— Boston Bridget. For all people,- in sickness or in health, lemonade is a safe drink. It corrects bil iousness ; it is a specific against worms and skin complaints. The pippins, crushed, may also be mixed with water and sugar and used as a drink. Lemon juice is the best anti-scorbutic remedy known. It not only cures the disease, but prevents it. Sailors make a daily use of it for this pur pose. A physician suggests rubbing of the gums daily with lemon juice to keep them in health. The hands and nails are also kept qlean, white, soft, and supple by the daily use of lemon instead of soap. It also prevents chilblains. Lemon used in intermittent fever is mixed with strong, hot black tea or coffee, without sugar. Neuralgia maybe cured by rubbing the part affected with a lemon. It is valuable, also, to cure warts and to destroy dandruff on the head by rubbing the roots of the hair with it. In fact, its uses are mani fold, and the more we employ it externally the better we shall find ourselves.