WESTERN NEW YORK HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 413 



EVERGREENS, NOVELTIES, AND DWARFS. 

 KEPORT OF T. C. MAXWELL, OF GEXEVA. 



Probably never before was there a time when so many intelligent men were 

 so deeply interested in the cultivation and development of ornamental trees 

 and plants, — when this interest was so wide spread, — when so many men were 

 looking for " Sports of Nature," and striving by the best modes of culture to 

 produce such novelties as will interest the great army of nurserymen and the 

 immensely greater number of amateurs, and it is the opinion of the writer that 

 all who have, or will give this subject unprejudiced thought, will concede that 

 these efforts are not without reasonable and encouraging results, — the horticul- 

 tural world moves. 



It is true that some of these new things at first appear to some as deformities, 

 unsightly and unworthy of a place in good collections, and so are hastily con- 

 demned, yet when we become acquainted with their peculiarities and see them 

 used by men of skill and taste we can but see that they will add greatly to the 

 interest and beauty of the picture we make about our dwellings and in our 

 parks and cemeteries. 



On Mt. Honnis, Fishkill on the Hudson, is found a sport from our well 

 known Hemlock. The species we all know is remarkably graceful and beauti- 

 ful, lofty and grand, but this sport grows down as persistently as the Kilmar- 

 nock Willow, — a real deformity, and yet on Mr. Sargent's lawn it is one of the 

 most interesting and ornamental plants in his entire collection, — "a thing of 

 beauty," with which scarcely another tree or plant on these most beautiful 

 grounds or in all the land can compare. 



In England, a nurseryman is sending out a Juniper, " hardy as an oak," 

 of a beautiful golden yellow through and through. He says '-'we may a few 

 years hence hope to see our lawns and pleasure grounds adorned with 2^y7-amids 

 of gold," and we are told that in France is found a Birch with leaves as purple as 

 the Purple Beech, and we hear in one direction of a Dwarf Weeinng Spruce, and 

 in another of an upright larch, and in another of a variegated spruce, and a 

 Golden Arbor Vitas, and of various other sports, some of which we can but 

 hope will prove valuable acquisitions. The numerous variations in form of 

 growth, shape and color of leaf, are adding largely to our list of choice valua- 

 ble trees and plants for ornament. 



We are getting variegations of leaf, yellow and white, in nearly all our orna- 

 mental trees and shrubs, both evergreen and deciduous, and a few cases of tri- 

 colors. Some of these sports are very beautiful, and yet they appear to many 

 persons who only give them a passing glance, as sickly specimens, only fit to be 

 thrown away, and in this careless way, no doubt, many valuable things have 

 been lost, but the time has come when any thing remarkable in shape of tree, 

 shape or color of foliage, should have a careful trial, and if found worthy, 

 propagated and disseminated. 



The word "evergreen" in many minds is so associated with the green of our 

 old Balsam, Fir, and Norway Spruce, that they will scarcely accept as an ever- 

 green any variation from the color of these well-known trees, but if they will 

 examine the best catalogues of this country as well as Europe, or what is worth 

 a hundred times more, examine a good collection of trees and plants, they will 

 be interested to notice the many beautiful hues of green evergreens, the white 



