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TEE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[April, 



its beautiful red berries, but fail to get any un- 

 der cultivation. The reason is that the plant is 

 dioecious. The plants should be selected when 

 in flower, and the two forms, — the long stamened 

 and the long styled — and both set in one mass 

 together. 



Aristolochia sipho. — There are few climb- 

 ing vines that will give the noble appear- 

 ance tlie old " Dutchman's Pipe" will. There 

 is a smaller-leaved species, the Aristolochia 

 tomentosa, which is also pretty, — but if you cut 

 its roots it will never forgive. Indeed the more 

 the roots are cut the more it spreads, till in time 

 the grower is inclined to believe in the old idea, 

 that at times there may be too much of a good 

 tiling. 



Grafted Conifers. — Mr. A. Fowler, the 

 distinguished gardener at Castle Kennedy, when 

 looking at his own beautiful plants, wonders 

 why there sliould be any prejudice against graft- 

 ed conifers? The chief reason is that the plants 

 have been grafted in pots, where the roots learn 

 to coil and twist, and they keep the tree more or 

 less in a stunted condition for years afterwards ; 

 and another reason is that some propagators 

 take little bits of weak side branches for scions, 

 and which only make leaders with great diffi- 

 culty. A properly grafted conifer is often bet- 

 ter than a seedling tree. 



Introducing Skylarks. — Every once in a 

 while some one writes to a nurseryman : "I won- 

 der why you nurserymen do not grow this or 

 that," and it generally happens that they have 

 been growing it all their lives, or have over and 

 over again tried it, and found insuperable ob- 

 stacles. It is thus with travelers when they go 

 to some foreign country. They cannot conceive 

 why this or that is not done. After his return 

 to England, even so very intelligent a gentle- 

 man as the Duke of Argyle says that the skies 

 of America are higher, wider and more full of 

 sunshine than those of England, and he is very 

 earnest in suggesting that the skylark to this 

 ' glorious privacy of light' would be happier 

 than that of the London sparrow." He might 

 have found on inquiry, that when the lark 

 might go up in the morning in bright warm 

 sunshine, and return at noon to find a foot of 

 snow on the ground, he would probably have 

 a suspicion that this was not the country for 

 him, — and when hd found it to be three 

 or four months after before he could find the 

 ground be left behind him, and nothing to eat in 



consequence of this deep snowy covering, he 

 would probably grow more disgusted. Moreover 

 he might have learned that attempts have ac- 

 tually been made from time to time to introduce 

 the bird, and that once they thought in Dela- 

 ware they had secured his permanent presence ; 

 but of late we have heard nothing of him, and 

 we presume in the language of His Grace's 

 countrymen, he has "gone for aye," a much 

 sadder instead of a " happier" bird. 



Origin of the Mareschal, Neil Rose. — 

 A correspondent of the 6ardener''s Chronicle be- 

 lieves this rose to have arisen from graft hybrid- 

 ization. 



The European Winter. — The Belgian Hor- 

 ticulturists are already counting their losses over 

 their terrible wintry battle-field, and reports like 

 these are continually coming in. One from the 

 "Commune" of "Hastiere," says: "Pears, 

 Peaches, Plums, Apricots, and Grape vines ex- 

 ist only in a state of carcasses I" Another story 

 runs : " Pears, — dwarfs, half-stems, or standards 

 are dead to the roots, as also are many nut 

 trees." Another writes : " The altitude of the or- 

 chards seem to have had no effect on the disasters. 

 At the foot of the Meuse, espalier Pears are con- 

 verted into bundles of dry wood, and I measured 

 an apple tree a metre in circumference that was 

 completely killed." Then come some "inex- 

 pliques." " In the Botanic Garden at Kamur is 

 a Wellingtonia, wholly unhurt, but another near 

 it completely killed;" another wonders why 

 "Araucaria, Deodar cedar, Picea pinsapo, and 

 Pinus maritima should be completely killed ; 

 while Picea balsamea should escape always un- 

 hurt." 



Among the plants which are noted as being 

 everywhere completely lost are Camellias, Aza- 

 leas, Rhododendrons, and Roses in "immense 

 quantities," and it is prophesied that many com- 

 mercial houses will be nearly ruined. 



The Broad Eir. — In our country we con- 

 fine the word "Fir" to the class of coniferous 

 trees which have branches with the leaves ar- 

 ranged in a single row, — fan-like, — as for in- 

 stance the Balsam Fir, the Silver Fir, etc. But 

 in Europe, the Pines — those with bundles of 

 " needles" for leaves — are " Firs" also. The 

 Garden says that in Austria, the Austrian Pine 

 is called the "Broad Fir," because as it grows 

 old, it loses all its lower branches, and makes 

 a broad flat, spreading top. 



