38 TREE-PLANTING IN LONDON. [Nov, 



" The Japanese use another natural sand-paper which they find 

 prepared for them in the leaves of A2^1ianan1hc aspera. I have no 

 practical acquaintance with these, and therefore can say nothing 

 concerning their practical merits as compared with our glass-paper, 

 sand-paper, and emery-paper. 



'•' As a ' wrinkle ' for the uninitiated, I may add, by the way, that 

 glass-paper is the most suitable for polishing soft wood, sand-paper 

 for very hard wood, bone, ivory, etc., and emery-paper for metals. 

 Dutch rush will cut either, following the smoother of these papers 

 for a higher polish ; but it is specially applicable to plaster of Paris 

 and other similar soft material that would show ugly scratches after 

 either of the above-mentioned papers." 



TREE-PLAXTING IN LONDON AND SAN FRANCISCO. 



THE movement for the adornment of city streets by forest denizens 

 widens. In London, the Holborn Board of Works are discussing 

 a scheme for planting Gray's Inn Eoad. If the agitation deepens, 

 Oxford Street may yet flourish as a charming boulevard, with trees 

 on either side from the Marlile Arch to Eegent Street. The Empire 

 City of California is meanwhile arboreally adorning herself; so 

 Mary Wager Fisher writes to the Rural New YorJxr from San 

 Francisco : — 



" Fuchsia, heliotrope, geranium, and plants of this order of hardi- 

 ness are left in the ground the year round. When the winter is 

 more than usually cold, as was last winter, they are likely to freeze 

 down, but sprout again in the spring. Fuchsias grow to be several 

 feet in height, and several feet in diameter, forming a great bush 

 when left untrimmed, like our Spir;eas, and are used as hedges, 

 while their bloom is enormous. Pelargoniums and geraniums grow 

 to a similar size — six to eight feet high. I saw in Oakland, a 

 suburb of San Francisco, an abutilon fully 20 feet high, nearly 

 covering the large side of a dwelling-house. Oakland is an exceed- 

 ingly beautiful city, and in its most fashionable quarter the lawns 

 and gardens are wonderfully fine. They are not large, but are kept 

 in perfect order and in perfect freshness liy means of hose and water. 

 A great many cypress hedges enclose the lawnis, and as cypress grows 

 here in greatest luxuriance, it bears any amount of pruning, and the 

 trees and hedges are trimmed into any desired shajie, c^uite as 

 fantastic as those one sees at the Versailles Gardens in France. 



" The eucalyptus-trees grow to a striking height, and have tlie 

 drooping habit of the elm, but are more slender in form. The new 

 leaves are of an altogether different sliape and hue of green than 



