I hope you will this moment decide to have some egg-shell farms, and sow some seed immediately after getting your soil. Later, when the plants are large enough to plant in the open ground, we will talk of what is best to do with them. In Leaflet LII you will find a picture of an egg-shell farm. LEAFLET LXXVIII. BULBS.[99] BY JOHN W. SPENCER. [99] Nature-Study Quarterly, October, 1899. A BULB GARDEN. [Illustration] "It's rather dark in the earth to-day," Said one little bulb to his brother; "But I thought that I felt a sunbeam ray-- We must strive and grow till we find the way?" And they nestled close to each other. Then they struggled and toiled by day and by night Till two little snowdrops in green and white, Rose out of the darkness and into the light, And softly kissed one another.--_Boston Journal._ To succeed with the cultivation of flowers, the first thing to have in mind is to make the plant comfortable. This condition should be not only the first thought, but also the last thought. If you can do this successfully, the plant will do the rest of the work and your results will be abundant. What plant comfort is, is a question more easily suggested than answered, for it is a very large subject--about as large as the surface of the earth. As a venture we will say that there are as many different kinds of plants as there are people. It is at least safe to say that plants have as many different notions as to their conditions of life as have the people of the different nations and tribes of the world. If you were to have a birthday party and should invite as your guests the children from the four corners of the earth, and by magic could bring them to you in a jiffy, the boys and girls from Greenland would come enfolded in seal-skin, and those from Hawaii would bring only their bathing suits. You would have a busy time keeping them comfortable, for when you opened the door to cool off the little Greenlanders, the little Kanakas would complain of too much draft; and at the table the former would ask if you happened to have some tallow candles for dessert, and the latter would ask for bread-fruit and bananas. Many of our flowering plants have been brought together from such remote quarters as that. We have bulbs from Holland, and pansies from England, and phlox from the dry atmosphere of Texas. [Illustration: _Fig. 367. The Snow-drop._] There is as much difference in the conditions necessary for comfort in these different plants as there is in the requirements of the little Eskimos and little Polynesians. To some extent, plants can change their manner of living, but in the main they are happiest when they can have their own way, just as you and I are.