DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



47 



mities of tho branches, and will probably continue 

 in bloom a lon;^ time, as seme buds have scarcelj' 

 swelled while others are fully expanded. The fra- 

 grance is very slight and not unpleasant. 



I have watched with no little interest the forma- 

 tion of the bud and the expansion of the flower on the 

 tree in our grounds, and am quite of tlie opinion that 

 the Paulownia, with its very rapid growth, its per- 

 fect symmetry, its entire hardiness and its racemes 

 of beautiful flowers, is a very valuable and highly 

 ornamental acquisition to the list of hardy deciduous 

 trees. ^. B. Farsons. Flushing, 5 mo. 20, 1847. 



[This is the first specimen of the PJTulownia, so 

 far as we have heard, to flower in the United 

 States. — Ed.] 



buds and roses upon it. In colour, it is a light sul- 

 phur — lighter probably, by several shades, than if it 

 liad been grown in the open air. F. Petersburs, 

 Va., May 1, 1847. 



AZ.A.I.EA SINENSIS, HARDY. — You are acquainted ' 

 with that downy plant the Azalea sinensis; its ; 

 habits you are aware, are not dissimilar to the 

 American Pontic — the hardy and shrubby variety 

 so ormamental in pleasure grounds ; the flowers of 

 the sinensis, however, are of a much more intense 

 or brilliant orange than any of ours, and are really 

 splendid, on which account and being an exotic, it 

 has been, so far as I have observed, treated as an 

 indoor shrub. From some remarks I heard a friend 

 make last autumn on Azalea culture, I was de- 

 termined to try it out ; and although my specimen 

 plant was transplanted into one of the flower beds. 

 out of a pot, in November, and, to make the experi- 

 ment thorough, lett totally unprotected, it is now, 

 May 20, fast breaking into leaf, even at the extreme 

 tip of the longest branch, and showing some half 

 dozen flowering heads, with a strong shoot coming 

 up from the roots. The circumstance of this fine 

 shrub being hard\', greatly enhances its value as an 

 outdoor shrub. Too little attention is paid to the 

 culture of hardy Azaleas ; many of them have been 

 hybridized by Mr. Landreth, of Philadelphia, 

 with complete success. I have one called radi- 

 cans, sent me by G. Winter, Esq. of Flushing, 

 whose flowers almost vie with the beautiful sinensis, 

 and add greatly to the gaiety of the garden in this, 

 the " rosy time o' the year." I am yours very 

 truly. G. C. Thorburn. .Astoria, Long-Island. 



Ci.OTii OF Gold Rose. — Though this rose, when 

 first introduced into the country, bore a high reputa- 

 tion, and was sought after with avidity, yet it ap- 

 pears to have been received with faint praise by 

 those who have succeeded in flowering it- No enco- 

 mium however, that has ever been passed upon it, 

 could have been exaggerated. It is indeed the 

 queen of roses. In the bud, and until it is half ex- 

 panded, it is impossible to conceive of an object 

 more exquisite. It is the appropriate type of girl- 

 hood, in all its loveliness and purity. Nor indeed is 

 it less perfect when fully blown. Not only in form, 

 but in size, is it entitled to pre-eminence over the 

 most admireVl of the tribe. S. D. Morton of this 

 place has succeeded in developing its beauties in a 

 manner to make it the admiration of all beholders. 

 Twelve months atjo he turned out a small plant in 

 his grape-house, the soil of which had been trenched 

 and enriched to the depth of two feet. During the 

 summer it made a luxuriant growth . extending itself 

 fully eight feet ; an<l at this time it has about forty 



Large Native Pear tree.— We learn from Mr. 

 Jno. Owen, Cambridire, Mass., that the original 

 Harvard pear tree is yet standina in Cambridge. 

 The trunk at 4 feet above the sround measures' 4 

 feet 2 inches in circumference. It is growing in a 

 clay soil. 



Protection against late Frosts. — One of the 

 mo.st vexatious impediments to the successful culti- 

 vation of Iruit that the cultivator has to contend 

 against in many districts of our country, is the lia- 

 bility to partial or complete ruin to the blossoms or 

 young fruit by late spring frost. This disaster may 

 be prevented by smoke, as is known to many ; but 

 the ease and safety of the application is nol'appre- 

 ciated as it should be ; and to call attention to it is 

 the object of this communication. In the winter or 

 spring previous to the season of fruit blossoms, I 

 procure a wagon load of sawdust or refuse tan bark 

 from the tannery, a part of which I place under 

 cover that it may become dry, and the rest I leave 

 exposed to the weather. At the season of exposure, 

 if the weatiier gives indications of danger, and the 

 temperature is nearly or quite down to the freezing 

 point, at one or two o'clock in the morninjr, I take 

 two or three shovelsful of the drv bark or sawdust, 

 and lay it on the ground ; into this I put a coal of 

 fire ; then, on this place halloa bushel or more of the 

 wet bark or sawdust, and a smoke will quicklv rise 

 that will prevent the accumulation of frost for 

 .some distance around. Two men wUl make twenty 

 or thirty of these fires in nearly as many minutes, 

 which will be sufficient to protect a fruit garden of 

 an acre in extent. If there is a slicht current of air, 

 I place the tires on the \s ind ward side of the garden, 

 if not, they are so arranged as to give security to 

 those trees which have blossomed most fully. At 

 the season when J'ruit trees are in flower, frost rare- 

 ly condenses on vegetation until late in the night, 

 and if the fires arc going by two o'clock in the morn- 

 ing, it will be soon enough, and more fuel will not 

 be needed, as it would be, should they beset at an 

 earlier part of the night. 



Smoke, however annoying and vexatious under 

 certain circumstances, may be turned to good ac- 

 count in the matter referred to. Artificial means 

 are often resorted to, to retanl the blossoming of 

 fruit trees until a late period in the season, in order 

 that the danger from frost may bo lessened. The 

 latter method aflbrds but partial safety at certain 

 and considerable expense, which is worse than lost 

 should no frost occur ; because as much time as the 

 flowers are kept back, the fruit will be delaved in 

 ripening, ard many of the best varieties cannot, in 

 northern latitudes, mature, unless they have every 

 day of the short summer. Smoke, of course, would 

 be much more available in the fruit garden than in 

 the orchard. But even in the latter, one hundredth 

 part of the loss occasioned by a severe late frost 

 would be more than suflicient to defray all the ex- 

 pense of protection by warm vapor or smoke in the 

 way I have pointed out, and which I have thorough- 



