and then taking a small stick made a hole into their runways, through which I dropped the kernel. In this way I have saved my garden, which being light and mellow and highly manured, is a great stamping ground for them when unmolested. I think you will find this a good way to rid the ground of them, for they never fail to eat the corn when they find it. Now, I am anxious to know if there is any thing that will keep the green lice off the Balm and Rose Geraniums. I have used an insect exterminator for sale in the drug stores here, and it seemed to kill them; but in a few days the plants will be all full again, and we could not keep house without our Geraniums. To. bacco fumigation does not succeed with me, and is also obnoxious to the family.-G. W. P., Flint, Mich. For the green lice try tobacco water and soap-suds, and if possible whale oil soap. This will not be offensive and we think will be effective, but you will have to per severe. CONSTANT BLOOMERS. MR. VICK-I have been moved to write you of my success in growing flowers from seed. Two years ago you sent me a package of mixed Pansies; also one each of Phlox, Petunia, Dianthus Heddewigii and laciniatus, and Datura, and the seeds all grew. From the Pansies I think there were about forty varieties the first year. I covered them with Evergreen boughs through the winter, and they kept very nicely; I never saw such Pansies as they were this spring, so large, and so many kinds. They were the admiration of all who saw them. The Phlox all grew, but I did not have all the varieties, as I saved part of the seed for the next year; but I found that old seed would not grow. Is this generally the case with old seed? The Petunias were good, although they were only the common kind; I had quite a nice bed this year. The Dianthus did not bloom very much the first year; but I covered them as I did the Pansies and early the next spring they began to grow, and they were one mass of bloom. The bed did not look as well in mid-summe, and I would like to know how I can keep this bed in bloom all summer. But it was the Daturas that moved me to write. The first year I pulled all up but two plants, thinking they were the wild Jimson weed, but they grew and had some very nice flowers, some measuring more than six inches across. It went beyond my expectations this year; the bush was nearly ten feet high, and one evening it had seventy-nine flowers. If I could I would have had a photograph of it taken, but as I could not I will have to be satisfied with telling you. I am very much pleased with my success in flower culture, but will have to thank you for my success. Will you inform me through your MAGAZINE what kind of soil is best suited to Fuchsias ? -ADA. E. Mc E., Good Hope, Ohio. AMATEUR GARDENERS. LARGE RICINUS.-I have just harvested my Ricinus or Castor bean, which I raised from the seed you sent me last spring. It was of mammoth growth, attaining a height of fourteen and one-half feet and sixteen feet across the branches, of which there were seventeen after cutting off five during the summer. Each of the branches contained a cluster of burs, the center one having one hundred and thirty-four burs,-the other branches not so many. Many of the leaves measured from thirty to thirty-two inches across from tip to tip or point of leaves. When sawed off at the ground, the body measured five inches and a half of wood, in diameter, inside of the bark, which was one-fourth of an inch thick. The body, after sawing the branches off from six to ten inches from the trunk, makes a fine rustic hat-rack, for which we are using it at present. This is a big bean story, but nevertheless a true one.-T. G. T., Perryville, Pa. SUCCESS IN IOWA.-MR. VICK :-Not having seen anything in your MAGAZINE from this county, I thought I would tell of my success with bulbs planted last year. The Auratum Lily had six flowers, and the largest was six inches across; and the Caladium was also very fine, its large green leaves being a curiosity to us. What gave me the most pleasure, however, were my Dahlias, raised from seed obtained the first of March. They came up in a few days. I treated them as described by a lady in the February number, setting them out the last of May. In July they began to bloom, and I had sixteen, all different shades. A few were not very double, but some were so double that they were round as balls.-MRS. H., Grundy, Iowa. THE NEW YEAR. With this number we commence a New Year in the life of our MAGAZINE. The old year is gone, and whatever we have said of good or evil will remain good or evil forever. In the haste of preparing our pages for the press we have permitted a few typographical errors to go uncorrected, and as we look back upon the pages of the past year these errors cause us pain. They are not very numerous, and we are glad of that, but we cannot avoid the consciousness that with more care we might have prevented all, or nearly all. Then as we look at them and think about them they grow larger, and what seemed at first a trifling error, hardly as a speck upon a page, seems now to deform and spoil the whole. We endeavor to console ourselves with the thought that perfection is not attainable, and yet something whispers very clearly that we might have come nearer to perfection had we exercised proper care before the pages passed through the printing machine, and the printer announced that it was too late for corrections. We have written a good deal and answered hundreds of inquiries. We have endeavored to give a large amount of information and sometimes flattered ourselves that we were doing pretty well, very well, indeed; but on reviewing the old numbers of an evening, perhaps with a little of the spirit of self-satisfaction, we find some things that might have been better done, some little evidence of impatience and haste, that robs of all pleasure until we bargain for a little peace by resolving to do much better the next year than we did in 1878. On the FIRST of JANUARY our YOUNG PEOPLE, as well as their MAGAZINE, commence a NEW YEAR. In looking back upon the year just closed perhaps they can remember some acts they should not have done, others that should have been performed with more earnestness, while some fine opportunities for noble actions were altogether neglected. The record of the days and acts of last year are printed, and cannot be altered. We cannot undo one wrong act, nor take back a hasty or foolish word; nor can we fill up any blank, for the recording angel, like the inexorable printer, declares that it is too late. What is done will remain forever, and what is undone will be forever blank. Such thoughts at the commencement of a new year are not conducive to that joyousness which we always associate with this season. What a good thing it is that we are young, that but a few years of our lives are gone, so that, while it is too late to mend the past, we can begin to act a noble, manly part-do right under all circumstances and with all the energies we possess, conscious that it is not too late to form characters and make records of which we shall have no reason to be ashamed. How sad old people must feel when they look back upon wasted or wicked lives, and know that there is no pleasant future for them. With these thoughts, which may, perhaps, modify somewhat the joy of this New Year, but may add greatly to the happiness of the next, we wish all our Young People a Happy and Useful New Year, and present them with the engraving on the following page, designed by our artist for their special benefit, and in which we claim no general or special partnership. Our part was merely a request for a full page design suitable for the Holiday season, and the result is seen on the following pages. Our artist, we may as well tell our young people, is a very peculiar kind of person. His strong point is the painting of flowers, which he does exceptionally well, as all who see our books know; but sometimes he turns poet, and occasionally preacher, and is quite expert at a roast goose. All these weaknesses are displayed on this occasion.. He has very little skill in concealing his failings,-and indeed, few people really succeed in deceiving others as to their faults or failings, and the attempt is about as ridiculous as the efforts of the ostrich to hide his great body by merely concealing the head,- -a feat attempted by a great many creatures without feathers. BOTANY FOR LITTLE FOLKS. A pod or seed-vessel like that of the Pea is called a legume; this word is derived from the Latin lego, to collect, and indicates that the seeds are collected together and enclosed in the other; on account of these diversities they have The been given different names, and at fig. 120 the petals are marked with letters,-the upper and upright petal, B, is called the banner, the two horizontal petals marked W, are called the wings, and the two lower petals pod, as in a case or box. The Pea is the replying close in contact, marked resentative of a very large order of plants, called K, are called the keel or boat. the Pea family or Pulse family; the scientific name of the order is Leguminosa, meaning leguminous plants, or plants that bear fruit in the form of a legume. The plants of this family sometimes have another name applied to them; they are called papilionaceous plants. The Latin word papilio means a butterfly, and, as we look at the flowers of the Sweet Pea, with their gay colors, we are at once reminded of a group of Fig. 117. Garden butterflies; and as Science dictates that a Latin word must be used, we are quite resigned to this long one since it is so expressive. Pea. It appears, then, that these plants are pretty well marked-they all bear the family likeness, either in the fruit or flower, or in both. In some cases the likeness is less clearly to be seen than in others, for, in an immense order, such as this is, there are many deviations from Fig. 118. Sweet Pea, (Lathyrus odoratus.) what may be called the family type; still, the careful observer will seldom be at a loss to determine leguminous plants. The calyx of the Sweet Pea is shown separate from the flower at fig. 119; it is a little cup with five teeth, two of which (the upper or back ones) are shorter than the others. The petals are five in number, are unequal in size, and occupy peculiar positions in relation to each Fig. 119. Calyx from the flower are shown at proximity to that of her charmed attendant. It 120. Pea Flower. The diagram, fig. 124, shows the position of the parts of the flower in the bud; the outside arcs indicate the divisions of the calyx, and within these the dark curves show the situations of the petals-the two lower petals forming the keel are enclosed on each side by the wings, and the upper petal or banner covers over the wings. The stamen next to the banner stands out alone, while the others are shown, by the little oval figures connected by a line, to be joined together as already explained and illustrated at fig. 1z2. The fruit of the Sweet Pea, fig. 125, is a pod thickly covered with hairs. Some members of the Pea family have very curiously shaped fruit or pods; that of the Lucerne (Medicago sativa) is shown magnified at fig. 126, and that of a plant commonly called Snails, (Medicago scutellata,) at fig. 127. Another species of Medicago, (M. intertexta,) and commonly called Hedgehog, is seen at fig. 128; it is a pod spirally coiled five or six times, and having its edge armed with bristly prickles. |