Facts About Flowers

A soiattion of tobáceo soap will keep the aphis away from honeysuckles. Ctjttings should always be made from healthy plants, otherwise they are sure to be poor and diseasod. Plobists say nothing is gained by Btarting gladioli in the house in advance of the outdoor planting time. It is the nature of the poinsettia to drop its leaves after blooming when grown in the sitting-room. It of ten drop them before, unless a good deal of water is used on its foliage. Amono the most beautiful of the late autumnal blossoms may be mentioned Beveral species of blue gentian. The gentian is one of very few flowers whioh may be described as a true blue - most of those grnerally called blue being in reality more of a purple order. As A florist's flower the orchid will hold a far more important place in the near future in this country than in the past, and the day is not far distant when prices of the different orchid blooms will be quoted together with roses and other flowers in the horticultural bulletin, and there will be few retail florista that can afford to do without them. The beautiful daisy opens at sunrise and closes at sunset, whence its name, "day's eye." The morning-glory opens its flower with the day, The "John-goto-bed-at-noon" awakes a four o'clock in the morning, but closes its eyes in the middle of the day, and the dandelion is in full bloom only during the hours of strong light. This habit of some flowers is cortainly very curious, and furnishes one of the many instances which prove the singular adaptability of every thing in nature. The fringed gentian is the species commemorated by Bryant. It closely resembles its relatives, but the flowers are few and the sterns and leaves simple. lts chief claim to distinction is its fringed lobes, not petals, as the flower is all one piece, like a trumpet. The corolla is open and the lobes are developed so as to resemble petals of a deep blue with fringed border. The gentians form an interesting family of themselves and include a great number of foreign species. Chrtsantiiemums can be propagated by seeds and cuttings and by séparating the oíd plants. The seed may be sown in February or March in well-drained boxea of mellow soil in which there is some sand. Sift a thin covering of fine dirt over the seed, press down into the soil with a block and water gently with a sprinkler. Keep moist and shaded. They will be upin about a week. 'When the little plants have three leaves sprout in a nicely-prepared bed in the garden, or, if the weather is cool, they may be put in other boxes or in jars, rather closely, say one inch apart. Orciiids are not short-lived under careful treatment. The constantly increasing demand (there now being five hundred cultivators where there was one when they were flrst imported) has kept prices up, and the likelihood is that, while flowers may be somewhat cheaper, good plants for florists' stock will remain about tho same; again, the cost of collecting is constantly increasing; it being almost impossible to estímate the trouble and hardships undergone, especially as the plants in their native homes become scarce, and the collector must travel greater distances than heretofore.