REMARKS ON STRAWBERRIES. 



493 



The Swiss Stone Pine, {Finns cembra,) 

 we find also perfectly hardy in this latitude. 

 This tree produces an eatable kernel, and 

 though of comparatively slow 2:rowth, is 

 certainly one of the most interesting of the 

 pine family. The Italian Stone Pine, and 

 the Pinaster, are also beautiful trees for the 

 climate of Philadelphia. The grand and 

 lofty pines of California, the largest and 

 loftiest evergreen trees in the world, are 

 not yet to be found, except as small speci- 

 mens here and there in the gardens of cu- 

 rious collectors in the United States. But 

 we hope, with our continually increasing 

 intercourse with western America, fresh 

 seeds will be procured by our nurserymen, 

 and grown abundantly for sale. The great 

 Californian Silver Fir, {Picea grandis,) 

 grows 200 feet high, with cones 6 inches 

 long, and fine silvery foliage ; and the no- 

 ble Silver Fir, {P. nohilis,) is scarcely less 

 striking. "I spent three weeks," says Doug- 

 lass, the botanical traveller, " in a forest 

 composed of this tree, and, day by day, 

 could not cease to admire it." Both these 

 fine fir trees grow in Northern California, 

 \>rhere they cover vast tracts of land, and, 

 along with other species of pine, form grand 

 and majestic features in the landscape of 

 that country. The English have been be- 

 fore us in introducing these natives of our 

 western shores ; for we find them, though 

 at high prices, now offered for sale in most 

 of the large nurseries in Great Britain. 



The most beautiful evergreen tree in 

 America, and, perhaps, — when foliage, 

 flowers and perfume are considered, — in the 

 world, is the Magnolia grandijlora of our 

 southern. states. There, where it grows in 

 the deep alluvial soil of some river valley, 

 to the height of 70 or 80 feet, clothed with 

 its large, thick, deep green, glossy leaves, 

 like those of a gigantic Laurel, covered in 

 the season of its bloom with large, pure 

 white blossoms, that perfume the whole 

 woods about it with their delicious odor ; 

 certainly, it presents a spectacle of unrival- 

 led sylvan beauty. Much to be deplored 

 is it, that north of New-York it will not 

 bear the rigor of the winters, and that 

 we are denied the pleasure of seeing it 

 grow freely in the open air. At Philadel- 

 phia, it is quite hardy ; and in the Bartram 

 Garden, at Landreth's, and in various 

 private grounds near that city, there are 

 fine specimens 20 or 30 feet high, grow- 

 ing without protection and blooming every 

 year. 



Wherever the climate will permit the 

 culture of this superb evergreen, the orna- 

 mental planter would be unpardonable, in 

 our eyes, not to possess it in considerable 

 abundance. There is a variety of it, origi- 

 nated from seed by the English, called 

 the Exmouth Magnolia, [M. g. exominsis,) 

 Avhich is rather hardier, and a much more 

 abundant bloomer than the original spe- 

 cies. 



REMARKS ON STRAWBERRIES. 



BY DR. WM. W. VALK, FLUSHING, L. I. 



We pray the reader to keep cool, for both 

 of us would rather eat strawberries than 

 write about them ; yet, as the strawberry 

 question is not entirely settled, to the satis- 

 faction of horticulturists generally and ama- 



teurs in particular, and we have no idea 

 that the subject is as easily finished as some 

 persons imagine, and, withal, even experi- 

 enced cultivators are continually " falling 

 into error," (out of which their friends are 



