Aspidistra Variegata

A stove plant from Japan, with leaves springing from the rootstock. They have stalks a foot high; and are fifteen inches long and six inches wide; lance-shaped, tapering to a point. Ground color a dark green, striped with pure white. The variegation is very irregular: in some leaves one side will be all white; on others, the white is regular in long lines. The variegation is most perfect when the plant is grown in very sandy soil. The flowers are very carious both in form and position: they only just peep out of the soil. It is a very useful exhibition plant, the variegation being so distinct. Increased by division.

Assistant Secretary

H. J. Dunlap, of Champaign.

Treasurer

Jonathan Huggius, of Macoupin county.

Champaign was chosen for the next annual meeting of the Society.

The meeting was interesting and profitable, as the meetings of this Society always are. The Illinois State Horticultural Society has a mission - a aim - which it never loses sight of, as may be seen from its large and well digested volume of annual transactions. We should say much more of what transpired at this meeting but for the restriction of our limits.

Assort Your Fruit For Market

It is well proved by record of statements made by our most successful fruit-growers that it pays to assort the fruit before sending it to market. One dozen of the largest berries picked out of a quart and tastefully and showily arranged will often bring nearly as much as the whole quart, when the large are mixed with the small; and this rule of superior size and show commanding the superior price, holds good all through the lists of fruits.

Aster, Washington

White and peach blossom. This variety is said to be a great improvement upon any variety before offered, and without exception the finest in cultivation. In the white variety the color is unusually pure; that of the peach blossom is of a very delicate tint.

Asters As Decorative Plants

The Florist and Pomologist says that the perennial asters, sometimes termed Autumn daisies, furnish some most valuable decorative plants for the open ground during autumn. Aster Amellus is one of the best of them, bearing plenty of flowering stems numerously branched at the top, the flowers violet blue; neat clumps of this dotted about shrubbery borders, or at the back of mixed beds, form most welcome masses of a very acceptable hue of color in our gardens, right up to November.

A violet-colored variety of A. Amollus, named bessarabicus, is a good decorative plant also.

At Kew

Nymphcea gigantea from Moreton Bay is also in bloom. The leaves of this new species are small compared with the size of the flowers, which it is reported should measure one foot in diameter. The blooms hitherto produced at Kew, however, do not measure above half that size. They are blue, with yellow centres, and rise on strong footstalks at least one foot above the surface of the water. In order to have this Lily in perfection, it is thought it will require to be planted in deep water. A fine specimen of the Madagascar Lattice plant (Ouvirandra fenes-tralis) is also growing in this house. Its leaves are quite one foot in length and four inches in width. It has flowered and ripened seeds from which young plants have been raised.