CRITIQUE ON APRIL HORTICULTURIST. 



Pear Culture. No. 2. — When Doctor Ward gets through, I'll " sum him up," 

 as the lawyers say. 



The Cotton Wood. — Go on, Mr. Allen. I will consider your "ease" with the 

 Doctor's. 



Transformed Pears. — What will they do next out on the Mississippi ? I have 

 seen the prairie plum turn its young fruits into a sort of nodule, as they grew 

 through the summer, something like the gal/s on the oak-leaf; but this is a new 

 thing altogether. 



Is the Kalmia Poisonous ? — I hope not ; although I have often heard that both 

 sheep and neat cattle have died after eating their leaves. I think, with Nuttall 

 and yourself, Mr. Editor, it is more probable that the indigestible quality of the 

 leaves was the cause of death in the animals than any poisonous quality they pos- 

 sessed ; for I have known thousands of cattle and sheep which grazed through the 

 summer, in safety, on the hill and mountain sides, where the laurel grew in full 

 luxuriance. How my old heart jumps back to early boyhood when I think of the 

 beautiful Kalmia latifolia ! I grew up among them ; and how many times, in the 

 joyous spirit of a young lamb, have I skipped among the rocks, and over the 

 hills, when their blushing, brilliant beauty lighted up the ground, and filled the 

 air with fragrance ! The memory of those long passed days saddens me, and I 

 will pass on to 



Mr. Hodgeh Cold Weather. — If he, and his Lake Erie neighbors, haven't had 

 enough of that commodity the past winter, they had better remove down a few 

 degrees south, where I learn they have enjoyed the genial atmosphere of 32° below 

 zero, for days together. I hope the peach-trees have escaped this most humiliating 

 frost ; and with so great a body of snow on the ground to protect them, their 

 chances are better than if the roots had been equally exposed as the branches, 

 Mr. Hodge's pear experience is to the point, and I agree with him — that is, pro- 

 vided he and his neighbor, Mr. Allen, wall settle the real virtues of that aforesaid 

 " Orange" pear, which I recollect something about. The remarks of Mr. Hodge 

 quite confirm my belief of the capricious vagaries of the pear family, in their con- 

 temptuous denials of flavor and good appearance when placed on soils and situa- 

 tions they dislike. 



Domestic Notices. — J. M. Thorburn, seedsman, of New York, asks if " you can- 

 not say a word in favor of ' Agrostis stolonifera' for lawns ?" I trust you will 

 say no such thing ; but /will take the liberty to say a word, by asking another 

 question. Is the humbuggery of these seedsmen, who would sell old Nick himself, 

 if they could get anybody to buy him, never to stop ? For lawns ! In simple 

 English, this " Agrostis stolonifera" is the Fiorin, one of the abominations of all 

 good gardeners and farmers, commonly called quack, couch, or twitch grass — a per- 

 fect pest wherever it obtains foothold, propagating itself by the coarse, stout- 

 jointed root, as tough as wire, and a vitality equal to the houseleek, or live-forever, 

 of the gardens. Nothing but burning will kill it. It loves a coarse, boggy soil, 

 for the credit of America, is not a native, but an European production) 



YoL. YI.— June. 1856. 18 



