How To Keep Pickles Green

Put the cucumbers in strong brine as fast as they are gathered from the vines. When you have enough drain off the brine. Line a kettle with the young leaves of grape vines and put in the cucumbers, throwing away any that have turned soft. A little powdered alum, in the proportion of a teaspoonful to a gallon of cucumbers, should be sprinkled in. Add a little water, cover them closely, and steam for several hours. Don't boil at all, nor let them come to the boiling point, but just keep them steaming. When green enough, pack in stone jars and pour over them boiling vinegar, to which has been added sugar (one teacupful to a gallon), a few whole peppers, cloves, allspice and a little celery seed. Pour the vinegar off and reheat every week for four weeks. Cover the jar closely, putting a weight on the cucumbers to keep them under the pickle; they are very nice.

How To Make The Artillery Plant Shoot

- The artillery plant, or pilea, is cultivated partly for the reason that it possesses the peculiarity of forcibly shooting its pollen into the air like the discharge of a miniature cannon, and yet I find few people who have ever seen this bombardment actually take place. I have been producing this discharge of late by syringing plants when the sun is shining on them brightly. The plants are well budded, and this slight showering causes the flowers to burst open, and the anthers shoot their pollen in every direction in the most interesting manner. Our common wild nettle ( Urtica gracilis), with which the artillery plant is closely allied, often behaves in the same manner. - L. H. Bailey.

How To Preserve Wood From Decay

The following method is cheap and effective in preventing the decay of wood when buried in the ground: Mix finely powdered coal with linseed oil and apply to the parts to be buried.

- Revue Horticole.

The August number of the Revue de l'Horticulture Beige contains a long and interesting article on the new hybrids of streptocarpus. These hybrids are so superior, brilliant, and unexpected, that a universal and lasting popularity is predicted for them.

Huckleberries

The best package for this fruit is a quart measure, using the 32-square quart crate. See that the packages are tight enough at the corners to prevent the fruit from shaking out. The leading manufacturers make a special quart box for this fruit, being closed at the corners and fitting the 32-quart strawberry crate. The fruit shipped in quarts always brings a higher price, and is of more ready sale than shipped in half bushel tight boxes.

Hybrid Narcissus

This flower is a seedling from Emperor, fertilized by pollen of N. triandrus. The flower is three inches across the perianth, the crown is one inch in length. It is of fine waxy substance, and of one uniform color throughout - a creamy ivory-buff.

The plant is quite hardy. - The Garden.

Hydrangea Hoses

Hydrangea Hoses seems a misnomer at first glance, for the flower is a very deep and vivid blue, far darker than H. hortensis. The specific name is no doubt applied with reference to the foliage ; the stems and veins are a bright rosy tint, deeper and more distinct than in any other variety.