8
THE WEST SHORE.
M;
fay.
A Twelve Page Monthly Mutinied Paper, published
L. bAMUKL, s Washington-it.
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION,
llDcludinf Pottage to any part of the United Stain:)
Oo copy, one ytt, . . . fi 50
Single Number, - 10 cent.
Printed by fan. H. HiMEl, cor. Frcnt h Waahinttion
TO LOVERS OF FLOWERS.
We should be pleased to receive short
communications from all flower-lovers on
subjects of floriculture, giving their ex
perience, successes and failures. We also
desire to engiave all our native flowera
and should be pleased with descriptions
and drawings of them or if drawing cannot
be made, a flower and leaf pressed will do.
HOMK MADE BKALTIFUI..
Every home should smile with beauty.
But few realize the magic power of a yard
of (lowers upon the household. Men can
not easily be sour and morose, women arc
not often heard to fret and scold, neither
arc children prone to seek pleasure with
bad associates, when favored with beauti
fied yards for recreation at their homes.
When whole families become interested
in cultivating flowers, they feci a sweet
blending symothy and aspiration for the
richer beauties that adorn the character
and secure the esteem of the virtuous and
the good. Who can love flowers and not
love the morally beautiful? Or who can
contemplate Ihem as the creations of a
beneficent Deity and not feel the more de
vout and thankful?
Secure seeds of at least a few of the
choicest flowers. Such as make a brilliant
show and arc a long time in the blossom
ing stage arc most desirable. For the
benefit of the more inexperienced, I would
name the following, a part or all of which
may lie secured for a trifling sum :
For white flowers, Sweet Alyssum and
Candytuft; for red, l'hlox, I'ortulaca, Fe
lunias, Pinks and Zinnias; for blue, Cam
panula, Gila, and Larkspur: and for yel
low, the Marigold and Calliopsis. Add to
these Mignonette for fragrance, Everlasting
Flowers for winter bouquets, and the large
Fancy (iennan Pannes for exquisite heauty
and a rich diversity of coloring.
As it is never w ise to undertake loo
much at once, thesewill hcstiflicicnuo be
gin with. Then add every season to the
list, until the yard on alt sides smile with
beamy.
PLANTING SWF.F.T VKH.KTS.
Double flowering sweet violets are cap
ital plants for edgings to beds, borders and
walks. The best time to plant them is in
the Spring, when the beds are sjiadcd up
and got into sh.ie for the season. Have
a strong soil made rich with fowl manure,
give them plenty of water mornings, not
loo much sun, and keep them in a cool
place. Diaw a line where it is desirable
to form the edging, and after scjtarating
the plants into small pieces plant them
firmly about six indies apirt, along after
the line. In a short time they will present
an unbroken line of edge, and the next
season they will give an abundance oftheir
acceptable, fragrant flowers. The double
Russian is the variety best adapted fot this
purpose. The animals and other flower
ing plants can be planted quite close to
the violets, as some shade will he found
beneficial to them.
MaM'rk ro ins Rose. Take two parts
fowl or pigeon manure, four parts burned
luri or earth, and four iorts cow manure.
Especially are the above beneficial in the
spring. The rose should be watered often
hile growing, with a mixture of two
pounds of hen or pigeon manure to every
jus gallons of water; the best time to wa
ler is in the evening or on a cloudv dav.
Of all the flowers that delight the eye, none
are so grandly beautiful as the rose.
Obstinacy and lehcmcncy of opinion are
me surest proofs ol stupnlity.
POT PLANTS.
HEXM Mli.l.EK.
About the first of May most plants in
pots can be set out doors ; they also look
very pretty distributed amongst the flower
bed's. The pots should be sunk into the
ground up to the rim, and a handful of
ashes put under to keep angleworms out.
ft will do no harm if the roots run through,
the plant will in fact in such cases grow
much stronger, and in taking it up in the
fall if the whole root cannot be saved it can
be cut off; but the plant mustbeshortcned
in the top in proHrtion. Plains set out
in this manner should be watered daily.
Abutilons, Lemon Verbena, Century plant,
Cactus, Hydrangea, Lantana, Heliotrope
Oleander, Fuchsia, &c, will be much
benefited, by planting out; it gives them a
new start and in the fall they can mostly
be potted in the same pots by reducing the
ball some. In potting plants a mistake is
often made by using pots entirely too large ;
it is safe to remember a plant cramped in
lis roots will bloom much sooner and letter,
than those in pots they don't fill with
roots. Now is a good time to shift plants
into larger pots, if necessary. One inch
post and will require watering only once or
tw ice a week. All the Seadums or mosses,
so called.J are calculated for rockwork.
Verbenas in the sunniest place well watered
and Pansy in the shadiest will give bloom
all summer. Flam Gladiolos or Flaglilics
among the Verbenas, the low Verbena
partly hiding the long stocked Gladiolos
and both will thereby'be improved. Plant
an old fashioned crimson Peona under a
Snow-ball and the) contrast is pleasing as
they bloom at same time.
A Good Fertilizer. A good liquid
fertilizer and one that will show its effects
quickly may be made simply of wood-soot
and ashes in proportion of one pint of soot
to two gallons of water. Mix these ingre
dients together in the evening, andletstand
till next evening, then apply by means of a
sprinkler. Those who have never tried
this fertilizer will be surprised at the pow
er which it seems to possess.
To Remove; Plants from the Pot. To
turn out intact the contents of a flower pot,
dampen the soilthroughout, place the open
palm upon the top, covering as much as
possible; invert the' pot, give a little jar
against a table or door, and that, with the
lifting up of the pot, insures you the con
tents in hand uninjured.
N THE CdU-MllIA RIVED, NEAR THE BLOCK HOUSE.
larger than the former size is all that is
required. It no repotting is rcouired clean
off the upper soil to the roots and fill w ith
fresli rich soil, or shake the plant out of
the pot, reduce the lull an inch or so flroiin..
ami set in same put and fill up with fresh
soil, lots, when set out doors, sli.ml.l i,
placed where they can receive the morning
sun tit) to 10 or 1 1 o'clock, but !....
where the noon or the afternoon
can strike them, which would be sure to
burn them. If plants have been kct in a
very warm place or in a cellar thev sli.ml.1
not at once be cxioscd cither to the hot
sun or cold nights but gradually kmli
off by setting them in a cool room for a
while or by placing them on the wrch in
day time and taking in at night for about
two weeks. Camellias. lUmni.. , i
Daphna arc better kept in a liehi mnm .
conservatory all summer, and fmii,.
sprinkled over head and well watered.
Keep Calla-Lillics growinc all iheiim it,.
drying off process is a mkut r,.
make line foliage plants i n, w .!
ifimnlh t,aW. Ccmun- nlant. if!
large, nukes a Cite ornament on a gate
Ot r Fki it axn Ve.iktaw.fs. In these
days, when nearly all the good things in
the vegetable world are fast becoming cos
moiliiaii, it is interesting to trace the
iiauoiiauiy 01 some of the most familiar
things in our daily fare. Seldom, while
muucinng our matutinal radish, do .-
laiise to conjure an imaginary bed of buried
crimson and white in ih..r.r i,.t r r
Chou and Piys-Wampi ; yet from China
japan were me first Radishes intro
duced to the outside barbarians of Europe.
Neither, at supper, in meeting with a
peculiarly flavorous morsel in our cake, do
we inwardly thank the horn. nr n
thenes for the luxury ; vet the earliest
Utron-grovcs breathed their perfume on
the sunny Grecian ether. Our Quinces
hanging from crooked, crowded limbs, the
most neglected of all our luxuries, may be
forced to stand in drunken rows along
broken-down fences, or act as outposts to
barns and outhouses ; but the great-grcat-grandinother
of all the Quinces was a
plucky little tree of high station, looked up
to by sweet-scented shrubs in the Island of
1 rete.
Fennel grew wild along the banks rf
European rivers long before the first enta.
tainment of the "Arabian Nights" n
dreamed of ; and Celery, once known
"Smallage," was munched by many
ancient Druid, let us believe, plucking it
during his solitary walks along the gu
British coast. Even then, it may be, the
ducks of an unknown continent were
munching it too, lqr it grows wild ln
our Chesapeake and Delaware bays, mi
our canvas-backs and their friends love
dine upon it. But the British, as usuji
have all the credit, as it is down in their
books.
Garlic came from Sicily, where, for mr
part, I wish it had staid. The Caulo-rd,,
an affiliated cross between the turnip mj
cabbage, claims the Faterland for its own.
Beans blossomed first within sight of em
bryo mummies, in the land of the Sphinr
and the Egg-plant first, laid its glossy
treasures under an Aincan sun.
Peru and Chili were the first coumriet
enlivened by the dazzling hues of tht
Nasturtianvine ; and Southern Europe gate
us the Artichoke and the Beet.
To Persia we stand indebted for Peaches,
Walnuts, Mulberries, and a score of every
day luxuries and necessities ; to Arabia ire
owe the cultivation of Spinage ; and to
Southern Europe we must bow in tearful
gratitude for the Horse-radish.
At Siberia the victims of modem intem
perance ' may shake their gory locks for-
r for from that cold, unsocial land
came Rye, the father of the great fire-water
river which has floated so many jolly souls
on its treacherous tides, and engulfed so
much ol humanity's treasure.
The Chestnut, dear to squirrels and
young America, first dropped its burrs on
Italian soil, while its giant cousin, yclept
the "Horse," is a native of Thibet.
Who ever dreams, while enjoying his
"Bartlett," his "Flemish Beauty," or his
"Jargonelle," that the first Pear-blossoms
opened within sight of the Pyramids ? and
what fair school-girl of all the pickle-eating
tribe, dreams of thanking the East Indies
for her Cucumbers? Aprojios of this, I
once was told by a worthy old lady, a sin
gular item in regard to the last-named
edible. She said that in its wild state it
grew on very luxuriant vines that trailed in
every direction over the ground, tangling
themselves among the bushes at such a rate
that the progress of grazing animals was
thereby much impeded ; hence, she as
sured me, the name, cow-cumber. The old
lady's learning, I admit, was generally not
of the most reliable order, but I give her
suggestion for what it may be worth. Pro
bably she was in some way akin to that
other worthy old lady who, when asked by
her city nephew, why in the world she
called a certain vegetable "Sparrow-grass."
replied, innocently :
"Well, child, I can't say where these
names come from gen'rally, but certain it's
as plain as the nose on your face that
sparrow-grass must get its name from the
sparrows feedin' on it so plentiful when it's
in seed."
The nephew chuckled inwardly, of
course. But he, poor fellow, was ignorant
in his turn ; for hi didn't know that
Asparagus was first found in Russia and
Poland; and that in its wild state, u
gathered along the shores of Long Island
Sound and elsewhere, it is a most delicious
edible.
ariegateo Leaves. Among favorite
objects of cultivation in green-houses anil
v......""" gaiucns, 01 laie yeais, v
nUnl I.,..! : J. . . J -n
i'ini3 nawiiy vancgaica leaves , aim
AtTnrt In... 1. ...... 1 .l. .
ucvu ajurcu 10 secure uie
est possible variety. Any plant may, it ii
said, be variegated by innoculating into it
the sap of one already variegated by means
of ingrafting. The cause of this phenom
enon, according to Mr, Morrcn, consists
in the existence of minute corpuscles which
have no green color like the ordinary
corpuscles, presenting an analogy to albin
ism in the animal kingdom.
L