The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-11-06

years. Some small palms grow well il
warm rooms, and none better than th
Corgpha AuaruAs Another favorite, es
peclally at this season, is the arum lily
while the Scarborough lily HdHota) j
very attractive when it throws up it
cluster of scarlet lily-like flowers in tn,
autumn months, just before the chrys
anthemur1 comes into bloom.
Fortunately, there is a good deal O
healthy emulation among window-gar
deners, and little ingenuity will enable
any of you who may so desire to be.
come possessed of plants not generally
to be met with in rooms or windows,
Orange and lemon trees are very easily
reared by sowing the seeds in pot OF
earth and watering them now and then
with warm water not hotter than the tea
you drink, if so hot. 1t is most interest
ing to watch the growth of seeds of all
kinds, aad | recommend you to SOW
every seed you can obtain. | once saw
a healthy little date-palm which its own
er, dock laborer, had reared from a
stone. 1t obtained a prize at flower
show in London, much to the delight of
its owner, who had grown it in dingy
little room in East London for nine or
ten years. An old lady living in an aim
house once asked me to name plant
she had grown for FIVE years in her
room, and it was none other than real
tea-tree Thea bohea), the seed e. "a little
round thing" as she described it, of
which she had accidentally found at the
bottom of her tea-caddy.
Last year was one of those appointed
to make the prize awards at a flower
snow at Litton Hall, Lesson Park, and
the perfection to which geraniums, ft1ch-
slas, petunias, cactus plants and ANIMALS
had been brought was really surprising,
when one remembers the difficulties and
make-shift contrivances under which
they had been grown. What most sur
prised me, however, was the little garden
belonging to an inmate of the Blind Asy-
luna little sunny corner, gay with
flowers and creepers. This little plot
had been made, planted and tended by
a blind woman, a Mrs. or Miss Morgan,
and nothing could we'll BE neater or show
more loving care than did her flowers.
She knew the position of every plant,
and could actually tell me, by the means
Of the tips of her fingers, the names of
them, and could show me each treasure
almost as well as if she had had her sight. |
Now, great as your difficulties may be, |
you will own that those which this blind
gardener surmounted were greater than |
any you may expect to encounter. It |
would not be quite fair to conclude with
out making some reference to the sani-
AIRY or health question in relation to |
vindow-gardening. I am sure I need |
1ot tell you that plants in reality belong
% Natures scavengers, and benefit us by |
eating up decomposing matter which, if |
eft unutilized by them, would become
source of extreme danger to ourselves.
Apart from such direct gifts as corn and
vine, or fruit and timber, we must not
orget the draining and disinfecting value
If vegetation. So that now we have
come to the
Uses OF VEGETATIoN.-The proper
JUNCTION, Or one of the right uses of all
is to produce food and cloth
ng for us from the refuse matter of our
arge towns. Every little green leaf,
part from its Individual beauty, has a
hare in the great work of publication
which all leaves carry on. In malarious
countries the blue or fever gum tree is
low largely planted, because it grows
apidly, and its roots and leaves suck up
moisture so quickly that few of these
rees actually drain any swamp or marsh
lear or in which they are planted. 1t is
o with our own poplar trees, which in
vet, low-lying places act most efficiently
IS the best of natural drains for
tagnant bit of marsh or land. Now, if
'ou drain a swamp in an ordinary way
'ou simply carry pollution from one
,lace and deposit it in another place
'ut tree roots suck up offensive matter,
md tree leaves actually purify it. The
caves throw off pure water by evapora-
ion, and with it life-giving oxygen, in
tead of the poisonous gases of the at
nosphere. What is true of large trees
in degree equally true of the smallest
window plant The highest mission OF
'lants is not merely to please our eyes
With color, our mouths with delicious
ruits not only do they do this and
more, but they are ever silently bat sure
Y eating up what is impure and injuri-
us to ourselves in the atmosphere and
n the earth all round our homes and
ny dwelling in which plants are well
nd healthily grown will be more likely
o be a clean and healthy house than if
he plants were not there.