308 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



MASON COUNTY 



Continued ill health for the past five months, has prevented me from giving- due atten- 

 tion to the revision of the fruit list, &c, furnished me from your office. I will simply 

 suggest the following additions to the lists of deciduous trees, shrubbery, herbaceous 

 plants and flowers. 



Deciduous Trees, Cottonwood, Lombardy Poplar, and Buckeye. 



In ornamental shrubbery, I would add, Sumach (Rhus,) Red bud, the three varieties 

 of Elder (viz., sambucus Canadensis, variegatum, and cutteau,) Rhus cotinas, Cerasus 

 Japonica, English Hawthorn, Highbush Cranberry, Spiroa Douglasii, Spirea prunifolia, 

 Calacarpa purpurea, Red wax drop, Scotch Broom (genisto,) White flowering Lilac, Fra- 

 grant Syringa, Lantana, Lantana viburnum, Indigo shrub (amorpha futicasa,) Weigelia 

 amabilis, Alosia citriadora, Oleander. 



To vines and creepers, I would add, the Rose vine or Arbor rosa (calystegia pubescens,) 

 Queen of Prairie, Baltimore Belle and Eglantine roses, English Ivy, Madeira vine, Mul. 

 tiflora roses, dark red and pink, Variegated leaved Japan Honeysuckle (lonicera aura 

 reticulatus) Yellow Myrtle (moneywort,) Scarlet Trumpet creeper, Jasimine, Cypress 

 vine, and Cobea scandens. 



To the flower list the additions might be legion, so profuse has Flora been with her 

 gifts. But I would not add Lilium auratum, which though a splendid flower becomes 

 sadly "demoralized" after its second, and often its first years growth in this climate, as 

 far as my knowledge extends. But all the other Japan Lilies (excepting, perhaps, the 

 Longifolium alba,) Day lily, Tiger lily, Lemon lily, Corn lily, Spider lily, Blackberry 

 lily, Lily of the Valley (convalaria,) Old White lilly (lilium candid um,) Star flowers, 

 Snowdrop, Crocus, Scilla Siberica, the whole Iris family, Grape and Feathered Hyacinths, 

 Achilia toementosa, A. rosea, A. millefolia, Tigrida pavonia, T. Conchiflora, Amarillis 

 or Jacobean lilly, Sweet Scented Violets, Euglish Polyanthus, Mountain Daisies, the 

 entire set of Aquilegias, Delphinium formosum,.Dianthus, and many hundreds of annuals 

 bi-ennials and perennials which cannot be here named, might with advantage be added 

 to the list. I would advise the classification of the shrubbery and flower list in some 

 systematic form that the hardy and tender annual and bi-ennial, herbaceous and climb- 

 ers, shrubbery and bulbs, be not classed promiscuously with tuberous rooted or bedding 

 plants, hardy or greenhouse plants in the same lists. A separate and well selected list of 

 annuals, might also be desirable, naming their season of planting and flowering. 



As the work of a Horticultural society is missionary to some extent, in educating the 

 tastes of the people, this is the more necessary. 



A large portion of the people will plant tulips, hyacinths and crocuses in the spring, 

 and wonder " why in the world " they do not do better, or plant annuals so early in the 

 cold, wet soil that the seeds rot with wet and cold, instead of growing as they would 

 under more congenial circumstances. They then curse the seedsman from whom they 

 bought their seed, for selling an inferior article, and send to another for a new supply 

 informing him how rascally they have been dealt with by No. 1, gets a new supply, and 

 by this time the season has so far advanced that the second lot will manage to grow, 

 and seedsman No. 1 bears the blame and loses his customer, and his customer's influence. 



All the additions suggested, and nearly all of the ornamental shrubbery and flowers 

 in the list received from your office, I have had in cultivation for a great.or or less num- 



