Trumpet lilies are bursting into bloom; the scarlet martagon is at its best; speciosum, tiger, and American Turk's cap lilies are yet to follow. I find the trumpet lilies have done better this year than any of the other sorts in open places. Most of the yellow day lilies are past, but the tawny one is at its best; they are all hardy, and seem to thrive alike in wild or cultivated land. Seibold's funkia (called also day lily) has pale bluish flowers, and large, handsome glaucous leaves: the undulated-leaved funkia has beautifully variegated leaves, and pale bluish blossoms; these, together with several others of their race, are in bloom. They like to grow in undisturbed clumps in rich and faintly-shaded nooks; if grown in full sunshine they bloom well enough, but their leaves get "scorched."
The European meadow sweet (Spiraea ulmaria), two feet high, and the Kamtchatka one, four feet high, are in bloom; the double varieties are far finer, whiter, and more lasting than the single ones. They will grow anywhere. There are many fine kinds of sedum or liveforever in season; some of them like album (white), pulchellum (pink), spurium splendens (pink), hispanicum (white), may more properly be called stonecups, but the stronger-growing sorts, as S. warscewiczii (yellow), should be regarded as liveforevers. They like open, sunny places, and dislike artificial waterings.
Dicentra eximia (pink-purple) is free, neat, copious, and a perpetual bloomer, as is also Corydalis lutea (yellow). The climbing fumitory comes up of itself from seed every year, and is now running over bushes, stakes, and strings, and is full of fern-like leaves and flesh-colored flowers. The long, scarlet wands of Pentstemon barbatus are conspicuous in the borders; this should be in every garden, it is so profuse and hardy. Many speedwells still remain in fine condition, notably Veronica longifolia; they are a hardy and a showy race of plants, and will grow anywhere. The main lot of perennial larkspurs are past, but by cutting them over now many flower spikes will be produced during the fall months. The yucca or bear-grass is in perfection; its massive flower scapes are very telling. It will grow anywhere, and once established it is hard to get rid of.
Many kinds of perennial bell-flowers are in fine condition, as the carpathian, peach-leaved (second crop), nettle-leaved, common harebell, and vase harebell. In the case of many of the tall-growing kinds, better results are obtained by treating them as biennials than perennials. No garden should be without the double white feverfew; the more you cut it the more it blooms. Anthemis tinctoria, yellow or white, the yellow is by far the best, and the lance-leaved, large-flowered, larkspur-leaved and eared coreopsises are fine, seasonable perennials, as are likewise the yellow, white, and pink yarrows, double sneezewort, the cone flowers, and large-flowered fleabanes, and all grow readily in any ordinary garden soil, and with little care. Hollyhocks are in perfection; feed them well and prevent many sprouts to each stool. Many kinds of meadow rue, as garden plants, have a bold, graceful appearance; they love moist soil.
In good soil and a partly shaded spot we have no handsomer plant in bloom than the tall bugbane (Cimicifuga racemosa); from a bunch of thrifty leaves arise a dozen scapes of racemes, creamy white, and six feet high. The scarlet lychnis and its many varieties are nearly past, but the large-flowered, Haag's, and others of that section, are in their prime, and showy plants they are. They are true and lasting perennials, bloom well the first season from seed, quite hardy, copious, and effective; any ordinary garden soil. The pyrenean prunella has large purple heads; the false dragonhead (Physostegia), pale rose-purple spikes; centranthuses, cymes of red and white; centaureas, heads of yellow, blue, and purple; pinks, divers shades of red and white; and monkshoods, hoods of blue or white; and all are very hardy, ready growers, and copious bloomers. The bee balm, one of our handsomest perennials, has bright red whorls; it spreads upon the surface of the ground like mint, and thus may be divided and increased to any extent. It loves rich, moist land, but is not fastidious. Among the evening primroses the Missouri one is the brightest and biggest; speciosa, white, from Texas, of blossoms the most prolific; glauca, riparia, fruticera, and linearis, all yellow; many others, though perennial, are best treated as annual or biennial. The spiked loosestrife planted by the water's edge of a pond is far finer than in the garden border. It has hundreds of red spikes.
Add to these, everlasting peas, musk mallows, spiderwort, globe thistles, bold senecios, the finer milkweeds, Scabiosa, Gallium, Chinese Astilbe, various kinds of loosestrife (Lysimachia), and many others as perennials, and Coreopsis, balsams, zinnias, marigolds, stocks, Swan river daisy, mignonnette, sweet peas, sweet alyssum, morning glories, larkspurs, canary flowers, cucumber-leaved sunflowers, verbenas, petunias, corn flower, Drummond phlox, double and single poppies, snapdragons, Phacelia, Gilia, Clarkia, candytuft, red flax, tassel flowers, blue Anchusa, Gaillardia, and a multitude besides of seasonable annuals, which can all be raised quite easily without a frame or green-house, and what excuse has any farmer for having a flowerless garden in midsummer?--William Falconer, in Country Gentleman.
THE TIME-CONSUMING MATCH.
Mr. Edward Prince, splint manufacturer, of Horseshoe Bay, Buckingham township, is authority for the statement that there are about twenty-two match factories in the United States and Canada, and that the daily production--and consequent daily consumption--is about twenty-five thousand gross per day. It may seem a queer statement to make that one hundred thousand hours of each successive day are spent by the people of the two countries in striking a light, but such is undoubtedly the case. In each gross of matches manufactured there are 144 boxes, so that the 25,000 gross produces 3,600,000 boxes. Each box, at least those made in the States, where a duty of one cent upon every box of matches is levied--contains 100 matches, so that the number of matches produced and used daily amounts to 360,000,000. Counting that it takes a second to light each match--and it is questionable whether it can be done in less time than that, while some men occupy several minutes sometimes in trying to strike a light, particularly when boozy--to light the 360,000,000 would take just that number of seconds. This gives 6,000,000 minutes, or 100,000 hours. In days of twenty-four hours each it figures up to 4,166 2-3, and gives eleven years and five months with a couple of days extra, as the time occupied during every twenty-four hours, by the people of North America--not figuring on the Mexicans--in striking matches. Figuring a little further it gives 4,159 years time in each year. The fact may seem amazing, but it is undoubtedly quite correct.--Ottawa Free Press.