 Small Gardens by Eben E. Rexford Coffee Break Collection 19 Plants and Flowers This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Betty B. Small Gardens Many persons who would like to grow flowers and vegetables do not attempt to grow any because they do not consider that they have a place large enough to justify them in doing so. Here is where they make a mistake. A garden need not be a large one to be enjoyable. A few plants are better than none. It is possible to make a bit of garden more satisfactory than a large one because it will be more likely to get more attention than would be given to the larger one. And attention is one of the important features of any successful garden. There will, in the majority of cases, be little nooks and corners here and there about the home grounds in which some plants can be grown by those disposed to make the most of existing conditions. These, if not improved, will be pretty sure to be given over to weeds or to the accumulation of rubbish of one kind or another and they will detract from the tidy and clean appearance which should characterize the home everywhere. If the owners of these bits of ground these possibilities for adding to the attractiveness of home could be made to realize the amount of pleasure they could be made to afford with very little exertion on their part, the general work of civic improvement societies would be most beneficial and this would be done at the very place where civic improvement ought to start. The home. There can be no real and lasting improvement in civic undertaking unless the individual home takes up the matter. The civic improvement society that starts out with the idea of improving things generally but does not begin the good work at the home is working on the idea of making clean the outside of the cup and ignoring the condition inside it. Just as the home is the foundation of society so must it be made the pivotal point at which any substantial and lasting improvement finds its beginning. Because the scattered places about the small home in which few plants could be grown will not admit of bed making or the designs which many persons seem to think indispensable in gardening is no good reason why we should not take advantage of and make the most of them. If one lives in a community where there are German families he will be surprised at the amount of vegetables they grow in each home lot not an inch of soil is allowed to go to waste. A large amount of the food of the family is grown in places which most Americans would overlook simply because of the prevailing idea that unless one can do things on a large scale it is not worthwhile to attempt doing anything. The German has been brought up to not despise the day of small things any profits by the advice as we might if we would and I am glad to say as more and more are profiting by year by year as they become aware of the fact that much can be done where conditions are limited I would not advise much mixing of varieties on the contrary I would prefer to give over each little piece of ground to one plant those of low habit I would have near the path giving the places back of them to taller growing kinds of course in the majority of small homes there is not much chance for exercising a choice in the location of one's flowering or vegetable plants still it is well to study the possibilities for general effect and do all that can be done to secure pleasing results where plants that grow to a height of three feet are grown the best place for them is at the rear or along the boundary of the lot where there will serve as a background for plants of lower habit children should be encouraged to take an interest in the cultivation of small gardens they will do this if the parents are willing to help them a little at the start show them how to spade up the soil in spring and how to work it over and over until it is fine and mellow they will make play of this part of garden work as it is as natural for a child to dig in the dirt as it is for a pig to wallow in a mud puddle add some kind of fertilizer to the soil and explain to the boys and girls that it is food for the plants that are to be show them how to sow seed and tell them all you can about the processes of germination and encourage them to watch for the appearance of the seedlings in a short time you will have aroused in them such interest in the work they have undertaken that it will be as fascinating to them as a story and nature will take delight in writing it out for them in daily installments that constantly increase in interest the ability to know plants and how to grow them ought to be a part of every child's education don't let a bit of ground go to waste have flowers and vegetables even if there isn't room for more than half a dozen plants or only one plant for that matter for that one solitary plant will be a great deal better than none at all and of small gardens a beautiful fruit garden by Gertrude Jekyll coffee break collection 19 plants and flowers this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Betty B a beautiful fruit garden there is a whole range of possible beautiful treatment in fruit growing that is rarely carried out or even attempted hitherto but little has been done to make the fruit garden a place of beauty we find it almost flaunting its unloveliness its white painted orchard houses and binaries its wires and wire nettings it is not to be denied that all these are necessary and that the usual and most obvious way of working them does not make for beauty but in designing new gardens or remodeling old on a rather large scale there need be no difficulty in so arranging that all that is necessarily unbeautiful should be kept in one department so hedged or walled around as to be out of sight in addition to such a fruit garden for strict utility I have in mind a walled enclosure of about an acre and a half longer than wide laid out as shown in the plan I have seen in large places just such spaces actually walled but put to no use the wall has trained fruit trees peaches spreading their goodly fans pairs showing long level lines and including hardy grape vines giving all the best exposition of the hardy fruit growers art next to the wall is a space six feet wide for ample access to the fruit trees their pruning training and root management then a 14 foot plant border holy for beauty and a path eight feet wide at a middle point on all four sides the high wall has an arched doorway corresponding to the grassy way between the fruit trees in the middle space if the wall has some symmetrical building on the outside of each angle so much the better the garden can make use of all one may be a bothy with lower extension out of sight one a half underground fruit store with bulb store above a third a paint shop and a fourth a tea house the middle space is all turf in the center a mulberry and both ways across double lines of fruit trees ending with bays the bays are at the ends on the plan in almost any part of the sea warm south of england below the 51st parallel of latitude which passes through the upper part of Sussex the rows of fruit trees on the green might be standard figs elsewhere they would be bush pairs and apples if the soil is calcarius so much the better for the figs and mulberry the vines and indeed nearly all the fruits the angle clumps in the grass are planted with magnolias yuckas and hydrangeas the border all round is for small shrubs and plants of some solidity or importance the spaces are too long for an ordinary flower border it would have a good bush of magnolia stilata at each angle yuckas tritomas hardy fuchsias peonies euphorbia wolfenai hollyhocks dahlias hydrangeas nickel mastases flag iris the beautiful olearia guinea and oh hasty tree lupines for citia weigella the smaller bush spireas veronicas tamaris the large bloom climaticis bush kinds of garden roses funkias and so on surely my fruit garden would be not only a place of beauty of pleasant sight and pleasant thought but of leisurely repose a repose broken only faintly and in welcome fashion by its own interests in july august and september a goodly place in which to wander and find luscious fruits in quantity that can be gathered and eaten straight from the tree there is a pleasure in searching for and eating fruit in this way that is far better than having it picked by the gardener and brought in and set before one on a dish in a tame room is this feeling an echo of faraway days of savagery when men hunted for their food and rejoice to find it or is it rather the poet's delight of having direct intercourse with the good gift of the growing thing and seeing and feeling through all the senses how good and gracious the thing is to pass the hand among the leaves of the fig tree noting that they are a little harsh upon the upper surface and yet soft beneath to be aware of their faint dusky scent to see the cracking of the coat of the fruit and the yellowing of the neck where it joins the branch the two indications of ripeness sometimes made clear by the drop of honey moisture at the eye then the handling of the fruit itself which must needs be gentle because the tender coat is so readily bruised and torn at the same time observing the slight grayish bloom and the coloring low toned transitions of purple and green and finally to have the enjoyment of the luscious pulp with the knowledge that it is one of the most wholesome and sustaining of fruit foods surely all this is worthy garden service then how delicious are the sun warmed apricots and peaches and later in the year the jargonel pairs always best eaten straight from the tree and the ripe mulberries of September and how pleasant to stroll about the wide grassy ways turning from the fruits to the flowers in the clumps and borders to the splendid yuccas and the masses of hydrangea bloom and then to the gorgeous tritomas and other delights and to see the dignity of the stately bay trees and the incomparable beauty of their every twig and leaf the beautiful fruit garden would naturally lead to the orchard a place that is not so often included in the pleasure ground as it deserves for what is more lovely than the bloom of orchard trees in April and May with the grass below in its strong young growth in itself a garden of cow slips and daffodils in an old orchard how pictorial are the lines of the low leaning old apple trunks and the swing and poise of their upper branches best seen in winter when their graceful movement of line and wonderful sense of balance can be fully appreciated but the younger orchard has its beauty too of fresh young life and wealth of bloom and bounteous bearing then if the place of the orchard suggests a return to nearer pleasure ground with yet some space between how good to make this into a free garden orchard for the fruits of wilder character for widespreading medlars for quinces again some of the most graceful of small British trees for service damson bullies crabs and their many allies not fruit bearing trees except from the birds and botanists point of view but beautiful both in bloom and berry such as the mountain ash wild cherry black thorn and the large buried white thorns bird cherry white beam holly amalol shea then all these might be intergrouped with great breaks of the free growing roses and the wilder kinds of climates and honeysuckle and right through it should be a shady path of filberts or cob nuts arching overhead and yielding a bountiful autumn harvest and of a beautiful fruit garden the beauty of the pollen by S. Leonard Bastin coffee break collection 19 plants and flowers this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the beauty of the pollen it is not easy for the modern botanist to accept the dictum that there is a special purpose in form and shape throughout the natural world whilst dismissing the old idea that beauty is intended solely to delight the eyes of mankind one is bound to admit that we cannot advance a practical reason for the formation of everything there is, perhaps, no better illustration of this than the infinitely varied design to be observed in the pollen of flowers the golden dust which plays so important a part in the marriage of the plants to the unaided vision the appearance of the yellow grains is not suggestive of anything very interesting but with the help of a powerful lens a whole world of hidden loveliness is brought to view the grain of pollen is even more complicated than it may appear at first sight for the strange design is simply formed by the covering which protects the precious contents inside the minute case is the fragment of protoplasmic matter a spot of life which is destined to bring about the mysterious process of fertilization the covering of the pollen grain is not of the same thickness all over here and there may be observed thin places like little windows the number varying according to the particular species the purpose of these is to facilitate the extension of the living matter in the grain which takes place when the pollen alights on the stigma of the flower certainly one cannot say that in all cases the strange design of the pollen is entirely without purpose when the grain is encased in the skin thick with bristles or spines it is obvious that the adhesive character of the pollen is much enhanced this is an important point when the flowers depend upon insect agency to distribute the fertilizing powder the pollen of the marguerite typical of a large number of composite flowers in this respect not only co hairs but clings to any object very readily the yellow grains of the musk mallow although somewhat less formidable in appearance are not easy to separate so closely do they stick to one another even the beautiful crystalline forms of the dandelion pollen are covered with minute hairs and the small flies which often visit the masts florets of this blossom cannot fail to take away with them a good dusting of grain there are other means of ensuring that the pollen of flowers shall adhere together when the rhododendron blooms are at their best the touch of a bristle at one of the anthers will be sufficient to draw away all the grains from a cavity in a stream an examination under the microscope reveals the fact that the atoms are connected by long, viscid threads the pollen grains of the rhododendron are objects of great beauty, triangular in shape, and finely reticulated in the pollen of the handsome rose-bay or garden willow herb we again find the streamers attached to each grain in this case the contents of the anthers hang from the stamens like torn ribbons it is impossible to overlook a very remarkable shape of the grains in this case although it is difficult to see what end can be served by this strange pattern the three projections which stand out so plainly at the corners of the grains represent the thin places in the covering skin to which reference has already been made two other flowers which in their pollen take on a more or less triangular shape are the nasturtium and the clarchia in reality the former of these has grains which are somewhat pyramidical in pattern although there is a great deal of variety in the design the example shown must only be taken as one of the more common forms and not as a type of the whole the pollen of the clarchia is certainly very curious consisting as it does of a rounded central mass adorned with three equidistant projections in some cases the little windows in the pollen grains are protected with small covers quite the strangest of these contrivances is that to be seen in the gourd tribe a typical example that of the marrow being depicted in the accompanying photograph it will be noticed that the whole covering of the grain is thickly strewn with spines whilst at intervals certain excrescences are apparent each one of these is provided with a little cap and at a certain stage in the development of the pollen the lid is raised allowing the contents of the interior to escape in the extremely beautiful pollen of the passionflower the thin places are ring-like when the matter inside commences to swell the portions of the covering which are encircled come away leaving three openings for the escape of the fluid within the grain with its exquisite markings the pollen of the passionflower must be regarded as the most handsome of the examples which have come under notice rounded grains are immensely common among the pollen of flowers a frequent type is that of the flocks a ball devoid of any excrescences but strongly marked and showing the thin places very plainly that very handsome flowers do not always produce the most elaborate forms of pollen is well illustrated in the case of the cactus the example shown represents a nearly round grain with longitude in all depressions a very common formation in the Lili tribe is that which bears a close likeness to a grain of wheat in nearly all the foregoing cases of pollen the flowers which produce it are to an extent dependent upon insect agency for their fertilization in all these instances the pollen is found to be of a clinging nature such as will readily stick to any object there is no doubt that one reason for the various sculpturings which render the grains such pretty objects is to make them adhesive why these groovings should be so elaborate is of course a more difficult question to answer opposed to the clinging pollen we have the dusty pollen typical of all wind fertilized plants of this nature is the yellow cloud which we can shake from the hazel capcans the individual grains are quite smooth thus each spec floats away alone on the breezes in a manner which would be impossible if the pollen were of a sticky nature in the case of the pine trees and even more interesting provision is made to ensure a wide dispersal of the pollen here each grain is provided with a pair of bladder like wings which act like the sail of a ship speeding the bark onto its destination end of the beauty of the pollen The Crocuses Song by Hannah Flagg Gould Coffee Break Collection 19 Plants and Flowers This is a LibriVox recording or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Crocuses Song Down in my solitude under the snow where nothing cheering can reach me here without light to see how to grow our trust to nature to teach me I will not despair nor be idle nor frown locked in so gloomy a dwelling my leaf shall run up and my roots shall run down while the bud in my bosom is swelling soon as the frost will get out of my bed from this cold dungeon to free me I will peer up with my little bright head all will be joyful to see me then from my heart will young petals diverge as rays of the sun from their focus I from the darkness of earth will emerge a happy and beautiful crocus many perhaps from so simple a flower this little lesson may borrow patient today through its gloomy a sour we come out the brighter tomorrow End of The Crocuses Song Difference of Sexes in Plants by Francis Bacon 1561 to 1626 from Silva Silverum or a natural history in ten centuries Coffee Break Collection 19 Plants and Flowers This is a LibriVox recording. Our LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org The Difference of Sexes in Plants For the difference of sexes in plants, they are oftentimes by name distinguished as male peony, female peony, male rosemary, female rosemary, he-holly, she-holly, etc. But generation by copulation certainly extendeth not to plants. The nearest approach of it is between the he-palm and the she-palm, which as they report, if they grow near, incline the one to the other, and so much as that which is more strange, they doubt not to report that to keep the trees upright from bending, they tie ropes or lines from the one to the other, that the contact might be enjoyed by the contact of a middle body. But this may be feigned or at least amplified. Nevertheless, I am apt enough to think that this same binarium of a stronger and a weaker, like unto masculine and feminine, doth hold in all living bodies. It is confounded sometimes as in some creatures of putrefaction, wherein no marks of distinction appear, and it is doubled sometimes as in hermaphrodites, but generally there is a degree of strength in most species. End of The Differences of Sexes in Plants by Francis Bacon Experiment Solitary Touching the Melioration of Tobacco From Silva Silverum, or a Natural History in Ten Centuries, by Francis Bacon, 1561-1626 Coffee Break Collection 19, Plants and Flowers This is a LibriVox recording, a LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Tobacco is a thing of great price, if it be in request, for an acre of it will be worth, as is affirmed, two hundred pounds by the year towards charge. The charge of making the ground and otherwise is great, but nothing to the profit. But the English tobacco has small credit as being too dull and earthy, nay, the Virginian tobacco, though that be in a hotter climate, can get no credit for the same cause, so that a trial to make tobacco more aromatically and better concocted here in England were a thing of great profit. Some have gone about to do it by drenching the English tobacco in a decoction or infusion of Indian tobacco, but those are but sophistications and toys, for nothing that is once perfected and hath run its race, can receive much amendement. You must ever resort to the beginning of things for meelioration. The way of maturation of tobacco must, as in other plants, be from the heat either of the earth or of the sun. We see some leading in this in muskmelons, which are sewn upon a hot bed, downed below, upon a bank turned upon the south sun to give heat by reflection, laid upon tiles which increaseeth the heat, and covered with straw to keep them from cold. They removed them also, which added some life, and by these helps they become as good in England as in Italy or province. These and the like means may be tried in tobacco. Inquire also of the steeping of the roots in some such liquor, as may give them vigor to put forth strong. End of Experiment Solitary Touching the Meelioration of Tobacco, by Francis Bacon Farewell to Spring, a chapter from Stories of Wildflower's Children Love by Catherine Chandler Coffee Break Collection 19 Plants and Flowers This is a LibriVox recording, or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Chapter 24 Farewell to Spring Changeable maiden with beauty laden, dust thou wish to rival thy kin, or dust thou praise them by trying to daze them with varieties in thy spin. If any of you boys or girls wish to become the famous botanists, you better begin now to study the Farewell to Spring. A botanist, you know, is a person who has studied plants long and who knows their habits. The famous botanists of the world have all been men, but that is no reason why a girl should not plan to become one. It used to be that all the doctors were men. Now there are women doctors. Does not matter whether you are a man or a woman. It does matter if you do your work well. So Helen, if you want to be a botanist, just start in now and watch the plants. The more you find out about them when you are a child, the easier you will find it to learn more about them later. Plants are like people. We are friends from childhood. We feel we know them well. Now take the Farewell to Spring. It is the native of the Pacific Coast. Most of its family are natives of California. The older botanists did not have the chance to study it while it was growing. It does not always grow the same. No matter where the poppy and the baby blue eyes grow, they look the same to us. Perhaps a little smaller if the ground is dry. Perhaps a little larger after a wet winter. But always they are our same old friends. Not so of the Farewell to Spring. The winter has been a dry one. It will bring out one colored flower. There has been much rain. It will change this color. It grows on a dry hillside. It differs from where it grows in the shady grass. The Corolla always has four broad petals. But sometimes they are white. Sometimes pink. Sometimes a pale purple. Sometimes the edges of the petals are smooth. Sometimes they have small notches. Sometimes they are deeply cleft. Sometimes they have a deep crimson spot down inside near the honey bowls. Sometimes they have a palo red spot. Sometimes they have a white spot. And sometimes they have no spot. Sometimes on the same plant there will be differently spotted flowers. They certainly are changeable. But one thing is certain. They never are yellow. And another thing is equally certain. They are always beautiful. The calyx too acts oddly. It does not open wide when the Corolla bursts out and put its sepals around the flower. It just splits on one side and hangs down on the other side below the open Corolla. If you take a calyx off, you'll see it is cone shaped. There are eight stamens, but they are not all alike. The four standing opposite the petals are shorter. Those standing between the petals are longer. The anthers are a lovely deep crimson. They add much to the beauty of the flower. The pistol rises from the center of the stamens. At its top, the stigma divides into four parts and curves them backward as O'Lillie curves her petals. You can easily see them in the picture provided. Mrs. Bug, when she comes visiting, must get a lot of pollen dusted over her. When she goes to the center of the next farewell to spring, she will surely brush against the spreading stigma and leave some pollen on it. With such healthy looking anthers and such a fine looking stigma, very good seeds ought to be made. They are. The seed cases differ from those we have been studying together. It grows long and slender. Lots of seed cases do that. It gets narrower at both ends. Some other seed cases do that. It has four sides like a box. Few seed cases have that shape. See if you can learn how it sends the seeds out to the world. Farewell to spring comes in the late spring or early summer. That is how it gets its name. Then the ground is dry. Your mother need not fear that you will get wet feet if you go out to study these flowers. You will find the leaves differing in shapes. Some will be longer and narrower than others. Some will have a smooth edge. Some will have tiny teeth along the edge. The stalk of the flower bud will not over as if the bud was too heavy for it to hold up. As the sun warms it, the bud bursts open into a beautiful blossom. Then the stalk stands up straight. It is so proud of the loveliness that it forgets the weight. It sways back and forth showing off the beauty. The butterflies skimming through the air see this movement. They stop short. Is this one of our sisters they whisper softly? Let us go down and see. As softly as snow falling they descend to the side of Farewell to spring. Oh, it s a flower. What a lovely flower. As lovely as any of us. And that is the best compliment a butterfly can pay. And I smelt that dainty meal whispers one who had not got up in time to eat breakfast before they left home. In a second each butterfly is inside a Farewell to spring in both beautiful insect and beautiful flower nod together in the breeze. Farewell to spring does not die in one day. It wraps its petal together at night time. Next morning it opens them wide. The same flower blooms for several days, always closing its sunset. Every day the butterflies visit it. Every day it has a delicate feast ready for them. Both beautiful insect and beautiful blossom are helped by the friendship. Such a joy to have good helpful friends. Is it not? The way we gain them is to be helpful to them and to smile and to be just as thoughtful as we can. Many friends to you. End of Farewell to Spring. Fern Life by Willis Boyd Allen Coffee Break Collection 19 Plants and Flowers This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Josh Kibbe. Fern Life by Willis Boyd Allen. 1. It's Home Within a shadowy ravine, far hidden from the sun, a fern its wee soft fronds of green unfolded one by one. For mourn till eve no twittering flock nor insect-hovered nigh, its cradle was the likened rock, the storm its lullaby. By night above the dark abyss, the stars there vigils kept, and white-winged mists stooped low to kiss the baby while it slept. 2. At School Weeks passed away, the tiny fern frond after frond incurled, and waited patiently to learn its mission in the world. By fir trees draped in mosses gray, the willing fern was taught, and once each day a single ray its summer greeting brought. 3. Asleep Her cradle songs the north wind sung, and whispered far and wide, until a thousand hair-bells swung along the mountain side. She sung a far-off twilight land, moss muffled forest-stem, and to her mountain organ grand the aged pine-trees hymn. 4. A Cradle Song of the Night Wind The pines have gathered upon the hill to watch for the old new moon. I hear them murmuring, hush, be still, tis coming, coming soon. The brown thrush sings to his meek-brown wife, who broods below on her nest. Of all the world and of all my life, tis you I love the best. But the baby moon is wide awake, and its eyes are shining bright. The pines in their arms this moon must take, and rock them to sleep tonight. 5. The Hair-Bells Chime Softly swinging to and fro, hair-bells tinkle sweet and low. All the world is fast asleep, birds and folks and woolly sheep, far above us the mountain, far below an unseen fountain, from its rocky cradle deep like a child laughs in its sleep. All our faces shyly hidden, as the fir trees oft have bitten, softly bending, sweet notes blending, moonbeams climbing, we-bells chiming, hair-bells tinkle, star gleams twinkle, to and fro, to and fro, sweet, sweet and low. 6. The Hymn of the Northern Pines Sure, sure, sure, are the promises he hath spoken his word hath never been broken. Pure, pure, pure, are the thoughts in the hearts of his chosen, as crystals the northwind has frozen. Strong, strong, strong, underneath are the arms everlasting, on them are cares we are casting. Long, long, long, have we sung of the life he doth give us, his mercy and love shall outlive us. 7. At Last Far from its mountain home the fern is found a resting place, a maiden is begun to learn to love its winsome face. But when at night the northwinds smite against the frosty pain, the fern is listening with delight to hear their voice again. Or in their solemn murmuring the pine trees chant once more, the hair-bells chime, the thrushes sing, the mountain torrents roar. Again, the dark-robed fir trees stand about its mossy bed, and hold aloft with trembling hand their crosses over its head. End of Fern Life The Flower by Alfred Tennyson Coffee Break Collection, 19. Plants and Flowers This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Flower Once in a golden hour I cast to earth a seed. Up there came a flower. The people said, a weed. To and fro they went through my garden bower, and muttering discontent cursed me and my flower. When it grew so tall it wore a crown of light. But thieves from o'er the wall stole the seed by night. So did far and wide, by every town and tower. Till all the people cried, Splendid is the flower! Seed my little fable, He that runs may read. Most can raise the flowers now, For all have got the seed. And some are pretty enough, And some are poor indeed. And now again the people call it but a weed. End of The Flower Flower in the Cranied Wall By Alfred Tennyson Coffee Break Collection 19 Plants and Flowers This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Flower in the Cranied Wall I pluck you out of the crannies. I hold you here, root and all, in my hand, little flower. But if I could understand what you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is. End of Flower in the Cranied Wall The Garden by Andrew Marvell Coffee Break Collection 19 Plants and Flowers This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Garden How vainly men themselves are maize to win the palm, the oak, or bays, and their uncessant labours see crowned from some single herb or tree, whose short and narrow verged shade does prudently their toils up-braid, while all flowers and all trees do close to weave the garlands of repose. Fair, quiet have I found thee here, and innocence, thy sister dear. Make and long I sought you then in busy companies of men. Your sacred plants, if here below, only among the plants will grow. Society is all but rude to this delicious solitude. No white nor red was ever seen so amorous as this lovely green. Fond lovers, cruel as their flame, cut in these trees their mistress' name. Still alas they know or heed how far these beauties hers exceed. Fair trees, west where your barks I wound, no name shall but your own be found. When we have run our passions heat, love hither makes his best retreat. The gods that mortal beauty chase still in a tree did end their race. So hunted Daphne so, only that she might laurel grow, and pan did art a syrinx speed, not as a nymph, but for a reed. What wondrous life in this I lead, ripe apples drop about my head, the luscious clusters of the vine upon my mouth do crush their wine, the nectarine and curious peach into my hands themselves do reach. Stumbling on melons as I pass in sneered with flowers I fall on grass. Meanwhile the mind from pleasure less withdraws into its happiness. The mind, that ocean where each kind does straight its own resemblance find, yet it creates, transcending these far other worlds and other seas, annihilating all that's made to a green thought in a green shade. Here at the fountain's sliding foot or at some fruit tree's mossy root, casting the body's vest aside, my soul into the boughs does glide. There, like a bird, it sits and sings, then wets and combs its silver wings, and, till prepared for longer flight, waves in its plumes the various light. Such was that happy garden-state while man there walked without a mate. After a place so pure and sweet, what other help could yet be meet? But was beyond a mortal share to wander solitary there? Two paradises twer in one to live in paradise alone. How well the skilful gardener drew of flowers and herbs this dial new, where from above the milder sun does through a fragrant zodiac run. And as it works, the industrious bee computes its time as well as we. How could such sweet and wholesome hours be reckoned but with herbs and flowers? End of The Garden, Recording by Patrick Wallace On Pianese by Arthur Gray Staples Coffee Break Collection 19, Plants and Flowers. This is a LibriVox recording, all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org on Pianese. Something sort of choked in my throat today is, once again I saw the Pianese coming into bloom in the garden, who Pianese that bloom have mostly been planted by other hands, long since laid folded away under other blossoms. Grandmother called them Pianese, and they were her treasures, huge red Pianese that she felt sure to be superior to any other that grew. They blossomed alongside the graveled walk that led up through the little garden of Holly Hawk, tall and gaudy. Pianese read his blood, and deep in their hearts the stamens of yet unfolded beauty. We brushed them as we walked, and saw them as mere flowers. To her they were as gifts out of her store of God's special beneficence. She took them to church for the minister's desk. She took them to school for the closing day's exhibition. She took them to weddings and funerals, and in the old parlor, a great mass of them stood in a great blue bowl, Pianese, sweet and lovely Pianese, that gave her a certain unique standing in the community. So I see them today coming along again, and I notice how little attention we busier people give to this historic flower, so old as to pass far back into history. Cleopatra may have won them, other and earlier queens of Asia and Africa may have picked them and pressed them to their bosoms. Queens of the Ming dynasty may have dug about their roots in the long ago. For they came early from lands of the Mongols and Tartars, the Chinese and all through southern Europe. I fancy that some early Puritan lifted the Pianese from the English garden and brought the bulb along to add a touch of home to the rough world of Plymouth. There are Pianese in New England so old that no man knoweth their genesis. We used to know only the red Pianese, but it has no finer ancestry than the white Pianese. Do flowers chiefly take their color from the country, these racial flowers like the Pianese? The white Pianese came from snowy Siberia, where it was given perfume to compensate it for the loss of that superior and opulent crimson that fairly sparkles like the deeps of old wine. The snow is in its heart, but the odor of roses is on its effluence. Do you know anything more lovely than the white Pianese, the tips of its petals slightly violet or pink, deepening into a suspicion of rose, its center is of pure cream and shading into ivory? Can you fancy anything lovelier than these flowers? And so, admitting their perfection, can you avoid a sense of wonder as to why God made them, unless He intends this all to be finally built up into a similar state of beauty? I have a Pianese patch that calls to mind those long since gone. These Pianese came from my old home. They were planted long ago in that town by one most dear to me. I always wanted some of them in my garden. One day, unknown to me, some of their roots were brought up here and planted by a friend. It was in the autumn. In the spring, they began to grow, and when I first saw their blossoms, I thought it was a miracle. I knew them—great, white, wonderful, lovely Pianese. Immediately I set about solving the mystery and learned it from my old home. Those Pianese blew me so gorgeously, carry, therefore, reminiscences beyond any flower in the world. They speak of a line of secession far back beyond my memory. They link the present with the past. They call to mind a secession of junes, dreamy and young, in old gardens where roses bloomed in apple trees flung their petals, about like snow, and lilacs sent at the air and where moonlight lay upon the old flagging that led through the sagging gate to the open door. Alas, and alas, how little we know what may stir our children's children, how little we know what simple thing may be our own memorial. It may be a tall elm in the dooryard, the Pianese bloomed by the garden path, sufficient if, in some later day, when we were gone and nigh forgotten, someone stirs vagrant memories by recalling us through the simple flower, for stops in June to look deep into the heart of the Pianese, to see once again the visions of the old homes and old family circles which time has dissolved, leaving only the perennial of beauty in the flower and in the hearts of children and of children's children. End of On Pianese The Prayer of the Flowers by Lord Dunsaney Coffee Break Collection 19 Plants and Flowers This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Colleen McMahon The Prayer of the Flowers It was the voice of the flowers on the west wind, the lovable, the old, the lazy west wind, blowing ceaselessly, blowing sleepily, going greasewards. The woods have gone away, they have fallen and left us. Men love us no longer, we are lonely by moonlight. Great engines rush over the beautiful fields, their ways lie hard and terrible, up and down the land. The cankerous cities spread over the grass, they clatter in their lairs continually, they glitter about us, blemishing the night. The woods are gone, opan the woods, the woods, and thou art far, opan, and far away. I was standing by night between two railway embankments on the edge of a midland city. On one of them I saw the trains go by, once in every two minutes, and on the other the trains went by twice in every five. Quite close were the glaring factories, and the sky above them were the fearful look that it wears in dreams of fever. The flowers were right in the stride of that advancing city, and thence I heard them sending up their cry, and then I heard, beating musically upwind, the voice of Pan reproving them from Arcady. Be patient a little. These things are not for long. End of The Prayer of the Flowers, Recording by Colleen McMann A talk about stalking the garden by Mrs. M.D. Welcome. Coffee break collection 19, plants and flowers. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Betty B. A talk about stalking the garden. The flowers we love, they are those we gathered years ago when we played at home. Flowers by the doorstone dropped and scattered, here and there as a child would roam. How shall I stalk my garden is a question often asked by amateurs. That depends very much on the size, location and soil of the ground to be furnished. If the site is elaborate and the beds to be geometrically laid out, much skill, artistic taste and generous expenditure is needful to produce a fine effect. If the flower beds are cut in the lawn, a different classification and arrangement of plants will be needful. If they consist of long beds bordering a walk or one bed only beneath the front window, there needs to be a grouping of flowers adapted to the situation. None but the wild garden ought to be stalked haphazard style. Arrange always so that there shall be a succession of flowers during the entire season. For if you devote a space for those of brief duration, you will by and by have a barren spot by no means pleasing. The most exposed situations ought, of course, to be arranged with special reference to the best possible effects or continuity of bloom and harmony of colors. Don't mix in all sorts of colors and sizes of plants in any bed. Masses of distinctive colors always have a fine effect. Where there are varieties that have more show of flowers than of leaves, it is well to interspersed plants whose beauty lies more in their foliage than in their blossoms. The beautiful coleuses, acuranthes and alternanthera with their richly colored leaves and pyrethrums with their vivid green lancelated foliage are very effective for this purpose. Canis are very fine among tall free blooming plants, particularly for centers. Care ought always to be had in selections so that a tall and coarse plant shall never have for its surroundings the low and delicate growers. Imagine the effect of a gorgeous California sunflower or a towering hollyhock in the midst of a bed of pansies or tea roses or a dahlia in a bed of verbenus. Have your large stocky plants in a bed by themselves unless it be as a background border for the more delicate flowers. A long bed running beside a fence or one beneath the windows of a dwelling house can have with good effect a dense background of shrubs or pom-pong dahlias or even the taller dahlias if relieved by a fence. Where there is a large bed directly beneath the front windows a good arrangement is to have first trailing vines that shall cover far up the sides of the dwelling. For this the ipameous are very appropriate. Of these there are numerous varieties. I bonanox with its large fragrant blossoms which however expand in the evening. Mexicana grandiflora alba immense flowers of white long tube a native of Mexico grows to the height of 10 feet. I heterosia superba is bright blue with white margin ivy like foliage and I fall more moratus a new Japanese variety with foliage beautifully modeled and marbled with white. Cocsinia or star ipomia bears a great profusion of small flowers scarlet striped with white. With any of these vines of the canary bird flower intermingled would have a superb effect. The light green deeply laccinated leaves and bright yellow fringed flowers proving a marked contrast to the foliage and blossoms of the ipomia. It is a very rapid grower and will climb and branch out 10 feet or more. In front of these climbers or whatever others may be preferred a row of sweet peas quite thickly set can be trained so as to fully cover the vines below the flowering branches and to conceal the unsightliness of these low down a row of pyrethrums or some dwarf compact plants would be attractive then a walk if the bed is sufficiently wide. The plants on the opposite side can be arranged so as to have those of medium height next to the path and low bedding ones for the foreground for beanies are very fine for this and so is the double porch alaka for an edging many things are appropriate whether one desires merely a low green or a border of dwarf blooming plants for the latter we know of nothing prettier than the new dwarf candy tuft Tom thumb its habit is low and bushy and its clusters of white blossoms continue a very long time Mr. Vic has for several years recommended thrift as the best edging plant for northern climates it is easily propagated from cuttings every piece will make a plant if taken in the fall or spring and is perfectly hearty it bears tiny clusters of pink flowers and the foliage is fine for floral work in arranging your garden stock study the adaptions of your plants to certain positions some require for their best development a great deal of sunshine others require somewhat sheltered positions porch alaka's revel in dry and sunny spots laughing at drought while pansies love a cool and moist situation therefore to bed them in a sandy soil and a position where they would be exposed to the intense sunshine of midday and the porch alaka in the sheltered moist situation would be a great mistake coleus is ought not to be set in a very open sunny place but with plants that will serve as a protection somewhat or they will lose their vivid markings we observe this first with sea Shaw when exposed to a strong light the rich velvety maroon changed to a dull color hue but when partially shaded it was of a very deep rich color the next summer we had the beautiful pictus and its leaves looked as though they were indeed painted with yellow brown and green but exposed for a time to the direct sunshine nearly all day it changed to a dark green with brown markings and robbed of its gold it possessed no special beauty we speak only of our own experience which has not been limited by any means to these two varieties we have had a few that would retain their distinctive markings well even in quite an exposed situation in the arrangement of your garden have it adapted to its surroundings the broad-leaved palms the tropical colladiums the stately cannes the Cape Jessamine and crepe myrtle are in perfect harmony with the well-kept lawn and stately mansion but quite out of place in the simple border of a vegetable garden or rough grass plot belonging to a low plain cottage I will tell you of a bit of a garden furnished in harmony with its surroundings it was rudely dug and roughly finished by two very small hands it was a very wee bed indeed it was fenced on the west side by a rough board shed on the north by an old stump the other side and end had no protection without any method of arrangement or reference to artistic effects here was masked the following assortment monks hood bachelors buttons butter and eggs star of Bethlehem poppies and miracles these last more odorous than fragrant old-fashioned flowers truly but they harmonized with their surroundings and the little pale-faced child thought them very beautiful it is not essential to harmony however that the flower bed be rudely prepared though the cot be lowly and its surroundings rough the garden however small can be neatly prepared provided there are stronger and older hands than those of the little maid referred to and there may be a display of taste in the arrangement of the most common flowers in our day at least where beautiful varieties are within reach of all but it was not so 50 years ago boxes of flower seeds were not to be found in the shops catalogs were not scattered broadcast like autumn leaves and is free a greenhouse at your door was not then as now a verity schoolgirls exchange their limited floral treasures and now and then a slip could be begged from the fortunate possessor of a few house plants but if greenhouse flowers were rare there were thousands in the meadows on the hills in the woods the sweet May flowers unknown then to the little maiden as the trailing Arbutus the anemone, Hepatica, Columbine violets of different hues, wild roses, gay lilies and late in autumn the lovely fringed gentian each chalice molded in divinest grace each brimmed with pure intense and perfect blue what could be more lovely among the garnered treasures of the greenhouse but our talk is a long one and we will defer to another what we have further to say on this subject end of a talk about stocking the garden do vegetables have ideas of external things from Zoonomia or the laws of organic life volume one by Erasmus Darwin 1731 to 1800 and two coffee break collection 19 plants and flowers this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the male flowers of Valesanaria approach still nearer to apparent animality as they detach themselves from the parent plant and float on the surface of the water to the female ones other flowers of the classes of Monacea and Dicia and Polygamia discharge the fecundating farina which floating in the air is carried to the stigma of the female flowers and that at considerable distances can this be affected by any specific attraction or like the diffusion of the odorous particles of flowers is left to the currents of winds and the accidental miscarriages of it counteracted by the quantity of its production this leads us to a curious inquiry whether vegetables have ideas of external things as all our ideas are originally received by our senses the question may be changed too whether vegetables possess any organs of sense certain it is that they possess a sense of heat and cold another of moisture and dryness and another of light and darkness for they close their petals occasionally from the presence of cold, moisture or darkness and it has been already shown that these actions cannot be performed simply from irritation because cold and darkness are negative quantities and on that account sensation or volition are implied and in consequence a sensorium or union of their nerves so when we go into the light we contract the iris not for many stimulus of the light on the fine muscles of the iris but from its motion being associated with the sensation of too much light on the retina which could not take place without a sensorium or center of union of the nerves of the iris with those of vision besides these organs of sense which distinguish cold, moisture and darkness the leaves of memosa and of dionea and of dracera and the stamens of many flowers as of the berberi and the numerous class of syngensia are sensitive to mechanic impact that is they possess a sense of touch as well as a common sensorium by the medium with which their muscles are excited into action lastly in many flowers the anthers when mature approach the stigma in others the female organ approaches to the male in a plant of colin sonia a branch of which is now before me the two yellow stamens are about 3 eighths of an inch high and diverge from each other at an angle of about 15 degrees the purple style is half an inch high and in some flowers is now applied to the stamen on the right hand and in others to that of the left and will I suppose change place tomorrow in those where the anthers have not yet effused their powder I ask by what means are the anthers in many flowers and stigmas in other flowers directed to find their paramours how do either of them know that the other exists in their vicinity is this curious kind of storage produced by mechanic attraction or by the sensation of love the latter opinion is supported by the strongest analogy because a reproduction of the species is the consequence and then another organ of sense must be wanted to direct these vegetable amorets to find each other one probably analogous to our sense of smell which in the animal world directs the newborn infant to its source of nourishment and they may thus possess a faculty of perceiving as well as of producing odours thus besides a kind of taste at the extremities of their roots similar to that of the extremities of our lacteal vessels for the purpose of selecting their proper food and besides different kinds of irritability residing in the various glands which separate honey, wax, resin and other juices from their blood vegetable life seems to possess an organ of sense to distinguish the variations of heat another to distinguish the varying degrees of moisture another of light another of touch another analogous to our sense of smell to these must be added the indubitable evidence of their passion of love and I think we may truly conclude that they are furnished with a common sensorium belonging to each bud and that they must occasionally repeat these perceptions either in their dreams or waking hours and consequently possess ideas of so many of the properties of the external world and of their own existence and of do vegetables have ideas of external things by Erasmus Darwin