60 THE FLOEIST AND POMOLOGIST. [MARCH, 



is a much larger Pea in every respect, and comes into use wlien sown at the same 

 time some 8 or 10 days later. It has the same handsome green appearance, and 

 the same excellent quality. Boyes' Masterpiece is the nearest approach to this 

 excellent variety at present before the public. 



There is yet another form having much smaller pods and peas, and also later than 

 the normal type in coming into use. This is often sold as the true Ne Plus Ultra, 

 whilst that is doing duty under a new name. This small-podded later variety 

 appeared last season under the names of Edwards^ Invincible^ Hapers Champion 

 of the World, and Late Wrinkled Green. — A. F. B. 



YOUNG'S NEW WEEPING BIRCH. 



WITH AN ILLUSTEATION. 



J--,|i E have seldom met with a more remarkable and characteristic hardy 

 S^ deciduous tree than that now represented, nor one more worthy of being 

 planted in any situation where an ornamental tree could be appro- 

 priately introduced. To the airy lightness and graceful elegance of the 

 Birch in its nonnal character, this New Weeping Birch, called i?ei?iZaaZJrtj)e/i(iM^a 

 Youngii, adds the grotesque peculiarity which characterises the growth of the 

 Weeping Beech, since its main branches often start up at random in an erratic 

 sort of way. Thus the tree acquires a peculiar and distinct aspect, in which 

 gracefulness is singularly combined with a certain weird-like picturesqueness. 



We learn that this ornamental variety of Birch was found growing in a 

 wood in Hampshire, about twenty-five years ago, by the late Mr. W. Young, of 

 the Milford Nursery, where, thanks to the courtesy of the present proprietor, Mr. 

 Maurice Young, the photograph was taken from which our plate has been pre- 

 pared. Owing to the extreme slenderness of the branches, which in the original 

 plant were so weak as to creep along the surface, great diflficulty was experienced 

 in propagating the first plants. Our plate represents one of these about 23 years 

 old, and of the following dimensions : — Height of stem, 10 ft. G in. ; height of 

 head, 8 ft. ; total height, 18 ft. 6 in. ; diameter of head, 12 ft. Some of the long 

 pendent twigs are 9 ft. in length, and not thicker than fine string. 



As a weeping tree of a distinct type, this Birch cannot be too highly recom- 

 mended. We saw it in all stages, during the past summer, growing in Mr. Young's 

 Nursery, and we were greatly impressed with the peculiar and somewhat erratic 

 style of beauty which it presented — for no two trees were alike in habit. Our 

 illustration represents its average or medium habit of growth. When in its 

 younger stages it not unfrequently presents the rotund outline observable in 

 the lower portion of our figure, but as it gains age away starts a leading shoot, 

 which ' groweth where and how it listeth,' sometimes taking on the form here re- 

 presented, sometimes running up more slender and fountain-like, and sometimes 

 stretching out laterally, as if determinedly opposed to symmetry, and defiant of 

 control. The spray is remarkable for its long slender thread-like character, 

 falling sheer down in tufts, many feet in length, from the main branches which 



