A.

pairs at the end; put it in warm water, which you
will have to change several times a day, and keep

   
   

BLUEBERRY BUSH IN WIN-

TER, NATURAL SIZE. B.
BLUEBERRY BUD ENLARGED
6 DIAMETERS. C. MOUN-
TAIN ASH, HERMETICALLY
SEALED, HALF DIAMETER.

soon as the leaves, or even earlier.

it where it
will not get
chilled : set
in the sun-
shine when
there is any
— nothing
is so good
for flowers,
with a few
exception-
al cases, or
for children, as plen-
ty of sunshine — and
in a few weeks you
will have a bit of May bloom
to brighten your room. En-
couraged by this you will
try other things. You can
easily judge what will be

most likely to come forward,

under such management;
you will think of the wild
cherry, of the plum-trees, of
the common garden spirea,
and the flowering almond, of
others both wild and culti-
vated which have flowers as
You can attempt

this process with anything you please; and should
“you get nothing but leaves for your pains, you will

still be well repaid.

You will notice that your lilac buds are very plump

as they come from the bush, and that the

“ nipping

and eager air” of winter has not harmed them in the

least.

In shape they are like acorns without the

cups ; and those vari-colored lines are where the cas-

ings lap which protect the vital part.
With a penknife blade if you will

solid they are!

How hard and

gently raise one of those brown-edged scales you will

_ come to a layer of green ones, one above another; now

lay back those bedclothes, as you might call them,
and there is the treasured darling within, and all this
swaddling and swathing has been to keep it from

harm.

It is the future blossom. What, ‘at? you

say. Yes, that: can you believe it? you see a heap
of what might be taken for the tiniest green grapes ;
and what a rarely lovely green it is too! —and so lucent,

A WINTER GARDEN.

241

sO juicy, so tempting, that they actually seem some-

thing good to eat!

Some day — what a wonder ! —

they will have become transformed into a great toss-
ing plume of lilac flowers.

Press the blade upon one of them, and N\\
you have granules almost infinitesimally
small, but they keep their substance in
shape, little as there is of it.
they look as transparent and dissolvable
as jelly, you find that they have form and
individuality. There is in them a portion
of the principle we call life ; a germ of one
of its countless forms; but nothing we can

ALDER IN AUTUMN, SEED PODS

‘,

  
    
  
 
 
 
  
 
  
  
 
   

Though

do throws
light on the
mystery of its
beginning. Oh!
where do the
beautiful tubes and
the salver-form corol-
las come from? —and hoz
do they come ?— and whence
that exquisite color— and
the fragrance, like balsam or
incense of the East ?—and
how can such sprays of liv-
ing beauty as toss and sway
in the summer air, spring
from such glutinous green
matter as that?
Greater wonders

 

than

AND DRY BUDS; REDUCED were wrought by Aladdin’s

ONE THIRD IN DIAMETER.

lamp are taking place right

in your own dooryard. No tale of genii is more

marvellous than this; and this is true.

You can

watch the process of growth after the enveloping

scales have opened and fallen back.

That impor-

tant inmost part develops more and more, assuming
a pyramidal form, and coming out farther, so that

soon the flower stem appears.

After that it is simply

a matter of progress and expansion; but the mystery
of its beginning, color and shape, is mystery still;
yet, in the words of a great botanist, though “we

cannot tell what life zs,’
which it does.”

2

we can “notice some things

MAKING THE ARRANGEMENTS.

Let me remind you that our dear old Mother