TERING PLANTS IN CELLARS.

Many plants, such as Agaves (Century Plants), Oleanders, large Cactuses,
etc., that have grown too large to be accommodated in the sitting-room
or conservatory; can be successfully wintered in any moderately dry,
frost-proof cellar. After placing these large plants in the cellar, it
will not be necessary to give them any water, the object being to keep
them dormant all winter, which can be done by keeping the soil as dry as
possible, but not so dry as to allow the plants to shrivel, or become
withered. Large plants of the kinds mentioned, often form desirable
ornaments during the summer time, but it is impracticable, in most
cases, to bring them into the house in winter, but they can be kept for
years by cellaring through the winter as stated. Large Geraniums, Salvia
and Heliotrope roots, and even Tea Roses, and Carnations, can be kept
moderately well in the cellar by trenching them in dry, or moderately
moist sand. Thus many choice specimens of these plants that we are loth
to pull up and threw away when winter approaches, can be successfully
kept over until the next season. It is a needless expense to purchase a
stock of new plants for the garden every year, when we can winter many
of the old ones in this simple and inexpensive manner. The leaves of all
deciduous plants should be removed before they are put away in this
manner. The foliage should remain on the Oleanders and Carnations.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE LAW OF COLOR IN FLOWERS.

The public are so often duped by a set of travelling frauds, who make it
their business to represent themselves as being the sole proprietor or
agent of some "wonderful" kinds of plants, bulbs, or seeds, which
possess the virtue of being remarkably distinct from anything ever seen
or heard of before, that many over-credulous ladies or gentlemen fall
victims to the unprincipled sharks. Did you ever see any one who could
sell rose bushes that would certainly bear blue roses, or plants of the
Verbena that produce yellow blossoms, or Tuberose bulbs bearing scarlet
flowers? If you have not, you have something to learn, and many have
paid dearly for experiences of this kind.

There is a natural law of color in flowers, that the varieties of a
species invariably present a certain range of colors. To attempt to
introduce a new and distinct color, as for example a blue rose, into a
family where the colors are always white, red, and yellow, is an
impossibility