BY H. W. BEECHER. THE treatment of house-plants is very little understood, although the practice of keeping shrubs and flowers during the winter is almost universal. It is import. ant that the physiological principles on which success depends should be fairly understood, and then cultivators can apply them with success in all the varying circumstances in which they may be called together. Southwark. His life had been singularly exempt from sickness and suffering, so PARLOUR FLOWERS IN WINTER. that by temperance, and a methodical division of time, he was enabled to continue his labours, with little intermission, to the last. In summing up his character, one of his biographers says: "Let us lay all these together, his zeal and piety, his charity and compassion, his fidelity and integrity, his gratitude and thankfulness, his munificence and hospitality, his humanity, affability, and modesty, and to these add his indefatigable study, the fruits of his labours in his sermons; and writings, together with his profundity in all kinds of learning, his wit, memory, gravity, judgment, and humility, and his detestation of all vices and sins, and consider whether the church of God in general, and this in particular, did not suffer an irreparable loss by his death." New and deep interest was added to an exploration of the fine old church of St. Saviour from the recollection that our feet pressed the spot where his ashes reposed. It is imposing from its antiquity, earlier portions having been erected in 1106. In the process of some recent repairs, the workmen struck upon a plain leaden coffin, under an arch of brickwork, with only the letters L. A. upon its lid. In this casket, all that was mortal of Bishop Launcelot Andrews had peacefully slept for more than two centuries: But thou, O prelate, in thy lowly bed, Whose slight initials on yon coffin's face The treasured wisdom of thy finish'd race,- To teach the erring, and the lost to save; Whose tireless bounty sought the suffering poor, Whose pitying care the helpless orphan fed, Brought heavenly comfort to the sick man's door, And toward the prisoner turn'd with angel tread; Two objects are proposed in taking plants into the house-either simple protection, or the development of their foliage and flowers during the winter. The same treatment will not do for both objects. Indeed, the greater number of our acquaintance treat their winter plants, from which they desire flowers, as if they only wished to preserve them till spring; and the consequence is, that they have very little enjoyment in their favourites. Treatment of house plants simply designed to stand over. Tender Roses, Azaleas, Cape Jessamines, Cape Myrtles, Oranges, Lemons, Figs, and Oleanders may be kept in a light cellar, if frost never penetrates it. If kept in parlours, the following are the most essential points to be observed. The thermometer should never be permitted to rise above 60 or 65 degrees, nor at night to sink below 40 degrees. Although plants will not be frost-bitten until the mercury falls to 32 degrees, yet the chill of a temperature below 40 will often be as mischievous to tender plants as frost itself. Excessive heat, particularly a dry stove heat, will destroy the leaves almost as certainly as frost. We have seen plants languishing in a temperature of 70 degrees (it often rising ten degrees higher), while the owners wondered what could ail the plants, for they were sure they kept the room warm enough! Next, great care should be taken not to over-water. Plants which are not growing require very little water. If given, the roots become sogged or rotten, and the whole plant is enfeebled. Water should never be suffered to stand in the saucers; nor be given always when the top soil is dry. Let the earth be stirred, and when the interior of the ball is becoming dry, give it a copious supply, let it drain thoroughly, and then turn off what | falls into the saucer. Plants designed for winter flowering.-It is to be remembered that winter is naturally the season of rest for plants. All plants require to lie dormant during some season of the year. You cannot cheat them out of it. If they are pushed the whole year, they become exhausted and worthless. Here lies the most common error of plant-keepers. If you mean to have roses, blooming geraniums, &c., in winter, you must artificially change their season of rest. Plants which flower in summer must rest in winter; those which are to flower in winter, must either rest in summer or autumn. It is not usually worth while to take into the house for flowering purposes any shrub which has been in full bloom during the summer and autumn. Select and pot the wished-for flowers during the summer; place them in a shady position facing the north; give them very little water, and then keep them quiet. Their energies will thus be saved for winter. When taken into the house, the four essential points of attention are light, moisture, temperature, and cleanli ness. 1. Light. The functions of the leaves cannot be healthfully carried on without light. If there be too little, the sap is imperfectly elaborated, and returns from the leaves to the body in a crude, undigested state. The growth will be coarse, watery, and brittle; and that ripeness which must precede flowers and fruit, cannot be attained. The sprawling, spindling, white-coloured, long-jointed plants, of which some persons are unwisely proud, are often the result of too little light and too much water. The pots should be turned round every day, unless when the light strikes down from above, or from windows on each side; otherwise, they will grow out of shape by bending toward the light. 2. Moisture.-Different species of plants require different quantities of water. What are termed aquatics, of which the Calla Ethiopica is a specimen, require great abundance of it. Yet it should often be changed even in the case of aqua tics. But roses, geraniums, &c., and the common house plants, require the soil to be moist rather than wet. As a general rule, it may be said that every pot should have one-sixth part of its depth filled with coarse pebbles, as a drainage, before the plants are potted. This gives all superfluous moisture a free passage out. Plants should be watered by examination, and not by time. They require various quantities of moisture, according to their activity and to the period of their growth. Let the earth be well stirred, and if becoming dry on the inside, give water. Never water by driblets-a spoonful today, another to-morrow. In this way the outside will become bound, and the inside remain dry. Give a copious watering, so that the whole ball will be soaked, and then let it drain off, and that which comes into the saucer be poured off. But, in whatever way one prefers to give water, the thing to be gained is a full supply of moisture to all parts of the root, and yet not so much as to have it stand about them. Manure water may be employed with great benefit every second or third watering. For this purpose, we never found anything equal in value to guano. Besides water to the root, a plant is almost as much benefited by water on the leaf -but this we will speak of under the head of cleanliness. 3. Temperature. Sudden and violent changes of temperature are almost as trying on plants as to animals and men. At the same time, a moderate change of temperature is very desirable. Thus, in Nature, there is a marked and uniform change at night from the temperature of the day. At night, the room should be gradually lowered in temperature from 45 to 50 degrees; while through the day, it ranges from 55 to 70 degrees. Too much and too sudden heat will destroy tender leaves almost as surely as frost. It should also be remembered, that the leaves of plants are constantly exhaling moisture during the day. If in too warm an atmosphere, or in one which is too dry, this perspiration becomes excessive, and weakens the plant. If the room be stoveheated, a basin of water should be put on the stove to supply moisture to the air by evaporation. Sprinkling the leaves, a kind of artificial dew, is beneficial on this account. The air should be changed as often as possible. Every warm and sunny day should be improved to let in fresh air upon these vegetable breathers. 4. Cleanliness. This is an important element of health as well as beauty. Animal uncleanliness is first to be removed. If ground-worms have been incorporated with the dirt, a dose or two of lime-water to the soil. Next aphides or green-lice will appear on the leaves and stems. Tobacco smoke will soon stupify them, and cause them to tumble upon the shelves or surface of the soil, whence they are to be carefully brushed or crushed. If one has but a few plants, put them in a group on the floor; put four chairs around them and cover with an old blanket, forming a sort of tent. Set a dish of coals within, and throw on a handful of tobacco leaves. Fifteen minutes smoking will destroy any aphis. If a larger collection is on hand, let the dish or dishes be placed under the stands. When the destruction is completed, let the parlour be well ventilated, unless, fair lady, you have an inveterate smoker for a husband; in which case you may have become used to the nuisance. The insects which infest large collections in green-houses, are fully treated of in horticultural books of direction. Dust settles on the leaves, and chokes up the perspiring pores. The leaves should be kept free by gentle wiping or washing. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. The celebrated philologian, Jacob Grimm, in a treatise on "the Origin of Language," delivered in 1851, before the Royal Academy in Berlin, says: "Yes, truly, the English language, by which, not in vain, the greatest poet of modern times I can only mean Shakspere was begotten and nurtured with strength; the English lan guage, I say, with good reason may call itself a universal language, and seems chosen, like the English people, to rule in future times, in a still greater degree, in all the corners of the earth. For, in richness, in sound reason and flexibility, no modern language can be compared with it; not even the German, which is torn as we ourselves are torn, and must shake off many a weakness before it can enter the lists with the English." TASTE IN FURNITURE. Ir is scarcely possible to lay down a rule with respect to the ordinary furniture of a room, yet there is a general law of propriety which ought as much as possible to be observed. Regard must be had to what is called "the fitness of things," and thereby the avoiding of violent contrasts. For instance, sometimes a showy centretable is seen in the middle of a room, where the carpet and every other article is shabby and out of repair; or a flashy looking-glass stands above the chimney-piece, as though to reflect the incongruous taste of its owner. Shabby things always look the shabbier when thus contrasted with what is bright and new. We do not mean to say that new articles should never be purchased; we remark only, that in buying furniture, regard should be had to the condition of the room in which it is to be placed. For this reason, second-hand furniture is sometimes preferable to new. "So many men, so many minds," is an old saying; and scarcely two people agree in choosing their assortment of furniture. What is convenient for one is inconve nient for another, and that which is considered ornamental by one family, would be thought ugly by their neighbours. There are, however, certain articles suited to most rooms,—an ordinary parlour, for example. The number of chairs depends on the size of the room; eight are usually chosen, two of them being elbows. A square two-flap mahogany table, or a circular one with tripod stand, occupies the centre of the apartment. At one side stands a sofa, a sideboard, a cheffonier, or perhaps a bookcase. Sometimes the cheffonier, with a few shelves fixed to the wall above it, is made to do duty as a bookcase, and it answers the purpose very well. If there be no sofa, there will be probably an easy chair, in a snug corner, not far from the fire-place; in another corner stands a small work-table, or a light occasional table is placed near the window, to hold a flower-basket, or some other ornamental article. These constitute the articles most needed in a room; there are several smaller things, which may be added according to circumstances. It is one thing to have furniture in a room, and another to know how to arrange it. To do this to the best advantage, requires the exercise of a little thought and judgment. Some people live with their furniture in the most inconvenient positions, because it never occurred to them to shift it from place to place, until they had really found which was the most suitable. Those who are willing to make the attempt, will often find that a room is improved in appearance and convenience by a little change in the place of the furniture. It is too much the practice to cover the mantel-piece with a number and variety of knick-knacks and monstrosities by way of ornament; but this is in very bad taste. Three, or at most, four articles, are all that should be seen in that conspicuous situation. Vases of white porcelain, called 'Parian," or of old china, or a small statue, or a shell or two, are the most suitable. The forms of some of the white vases now sold at a low price, are so elegant, that it is a real pleasure to look at them. A FEW WORDS ON THE SONNET. We noticed recently, in a periodical paper, a sonnet introduced by the following paragraph: "We have an utter, relentless, unmitigated dislike, aversion, horror, for those fourteen-lined effusions, called sonnets. They remind us of a child struggling to walk in swaddling clothes. They are puny ideas on stilts. They have a central thought, which, like the centre of gravity, is never seen. The poor thing flounders about like a man running, tied up in a sack. It is a puzzle for children of a larger growth. Like a glass thread, one wonders how it is spun, or how the apple got into the dumpling!" Nor is the above the expression of an uncommon sentiment regarding sonnets. Now, no lover of the sonnet will affirm that even its beautiful form of composition, ever so artistically wrought out of rich material, can affect the human mind, unless the vital spark animates the whole, any more than other forms of art through which no spiritual meaning is conveyed. But he, who in a true sonnet can see nothing but the imaginary laborious process of its execution, would probably stand before a Grecian temple calculating the labour and manner of its construction; while the lover of Art, blind to its process, in silent awe worshipped the grandeur of its complete manifestation. A sonnet, in the highest sense, naturally obeys the law of art, which is to conceal its processes. And where, in the Sonnets of Petrarch, of Milton, of Shakspere, of Coleridge, or of Wordsworth, can any "anointed eye" see the least shadow of constraint, or trace of effort? so unconstrainedly do the poetic language and imagery arrange their metrical feet in the beautiful order of the sonnet,-while the one luminous idea, like electricity, runs through the whole, that the mind which can perceive, sees only the radiant thought, yet feels that a harmonious chain is its conductor. sonnet : Nor is the sonnet such an effort to the poet, as the machine poetaster or mechanical reader may suppose. All will allow that love utters itself through the most natural forms of expression. Petrarch's love for Laura gave birth to the mechanical genius, but a living creation, it was not the invention of that owes its being to the strong emotions of hopeless passion. And if, when reproduced in its original likeness, its beauty and vital power are unfelt, depend upon it, the fault is not in the sonnet. Born in Italy-and how can anything lack music or warmth that originated under those glowing skies?-and introduced into England by Lord Surrey, the sonnet has for some centuries been the medium of conveying and receiving the richest gems of poetic thought and fancy. In our opinion, Wordsworth's Sonnets, save one or two Odes, are worth all his other poems; and he has said, "Scorn not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frowned, Mindless of its just honours; with this key Shakspere unlocked his heart; the melody Of this small lute gave ease to Petrarch's wound; A thousand times this pipe did Tasso sound; Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand SIGNIFICATION OF CHRISTIAN NAMES. (Continued from page 172.) Kenard, Sax. of a kind nature Kenelm, Sax. a defence of his kindred. Laurence, Lat. crowned with laurels. Leopold, Ger. defending the people. Lewis, Fr. the defender of the people. Lodowic, Sax. the defence of the people. Luke, Gr. a wood or grove. Marmaduke, Ger. a mighty duke or lord. Matthew, Heb. a gift or present. Nicolas, Gr. victorious over the people. Orlando, Ital, counsel for the land. Richard, Sax. powerful. Robert, Ger. famous in counsel. Roger, Ger. strong counsel. Rowland, Ger. counsel for the land. Rufus, Lat. reddish. Solomon, Heb. peaceable. Samson, Heb. a little son. Samuel, Heb. heard by God. Saul, Heb. desired. Sebastian, Gr. to be reverenced. Simeon, Heb. hearing. Simon, Heb. obedient. Stephen, Gr. a crown or garland. Swithin, Sax. very high. Thaddeus, Syriac, a breast. Theodore, Gr. the gift of God. Theobald, Sax. bold over the people. WORDS OF WISDOM. Translated from the Chinese, by Dr. Bowring. [From the Hong Kong China Mail] To seek relief from doubt in doubt, And let a hungrier wolf come in. Know you why the lark's sweet lay Learning all that Nature teaches. Few and simple be your words! The daffodil's a lovely flower, The willow is a charming tree; Water and protect the root Heaven will watch the flower and fruit! There are men who, like the pie, He who pursues an idle wish But climbs a tree to catch a fish. To place in danger's foremost rank A feeble man, Is but to use a locust's shank For your sedan. So sweet in her is music's power, Makes honey from her odorous lips. |