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THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[March, 



along which the road passes, the proper road 

 authorities shall proceed, under certain regula- 

 tions, to make such road. "We know many roads 

 in the vicinity, now "mud holes," which could 

 be very well macadamized for five per cent, of 

 the value of the property fronting on them ; but 

 as it is now, though half the people along the 

 line might want to have a good road made, it 

 would take no end of time and money under ex- 

 isting modes to get it done. By a general road 

 improvement law such things would fall natur- 

 ally when the ripening time came. 



Roses in Europe. — We point to our fruit 

 nurseries with their hundreds of thousands of 

 fruit trees with just pride. Europeans equally 

 pride themselves on other things. Speaking of 

 the nurseries of our correspondent, A. M. C. Jong- 

 kindt, Coninck, at Dedemsvaart (Dedems Canal) 

 in Holland, a correspondent of the Gardener^s 

 Chronicle notes that he saw 300,000 rose stocks. 

 The Japan Climbing Fern. — The Japan 

 fern Lygodium scandens, has been found much 

 more tractable than its near relative, the Lygo- 

 dium palmatum, or as it is sometimes called 

 "Hartfoi'd Fern." The Japan species makes a 

 very pretty thing to train on fancy trellises out 

 of doors in partially shaded places during sum- 

 mer time. 



Lantanas. — We should like again to call our 

 readers attention to the great value of the Lan- 

 tana as a summer-blooming plant for American 

 gardens. Few things beat it in beauty, — and 

 the hotter and drier, the better it blooms. 



The Japan Jasmine. — This very interest- 

 ing plant, trained on walls in Germantown, was 

 beautifully in bloom on Christmas day. Its 

 value as a frost-resisting winter bloomer is well 

 known in this little town, but we do not often 

 meet with it elsewhere. Botanically it is Jas- 

 minum nudiflorum. 



The Osage Orange as an Ornamental 

 Tree. — A correspondent with whom we heartily 

 agree, notes that those who have only known 

 the Osage Orange as a hedge plant, have missed 

 a beautiful sight in a well-grown tree of the 

 Osage Orange. 



Double Portulacas. — Those who want 

 something for hot, dry places, that will take fair 

 care of themselves, must look out for double 

 Portulacas. There are now double yellow, crim- 

 son, rose, white, striped, and other shades, and 

 they come tolerably true from seed. 

 The Nootka Sound Cypress. — There is 



said to be a specimen of the Thujopsis borealis 

 growing on the grounds of Hamilton College, 

 New York. It would be of much interest to 

 know when it was planted, how high and wide 

 it is now, whether it is at all sheltered, and if it 

 ever showed any signs of injury by severe 

 weather. It suffers very much about Philadel- 

 phia, and we do not know of one really fine 

 specimen anywhere in the East, unless this one 

 may chance to be. 



Hollyhocks. — If there is any part of our 

 country where the old-fashioned hollyhock still 

 thrives, it would be well to know where it is and 

 all about them. From some disease they are 

 seldom seen now in gardens hereabouts. 



Pentstemons. — Plants from the western re- 

 gions do not thrive well, as a rule, in eastern 

 gardens, but the whole tribe of Pentstemons 

 seem to do wonderfully well. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Farm Gardens. — An Ohio correspondent 

 writes: "It is surprising to see how little the 

 isolated farmer cares about the beautiful in na- 

 ture or art. There seems to be a sad lack of in- 

 tellectual attainments, home comforts, and re- 

 finement. With all the means within reach, to 

 make home pleasant within, and the surround- 

 ings attractive outside, tbey absolutely ignore 

 them, and appear to neither know of nor care 

 about them, and are content to exist without 

 sharing the truly good and useful things which 

 God so abundantly gives. So different are the 

 conditions in and about old settled towns and 

 cities, that a dweller therein can scarcely under- 

 stand how much the people vary in habits and 

 views of life, in comparison with the denizens of 

 the secluded plantation or farm, when almost 

 the only literature, besides the quacks' nostrum 

 almanac which enters the house, is confined to 

 the false teachings or miserable drivel derived 

 from some wretched political newspaper. 



"Happily is it that the picture does not por- 

 tray all the features of farm life everywhere. 

 There is both an obverse and reverse side, on 

 which may be seen the enterprising and intelli- 

 gent, and often scientific husbandman. And 

 such are what you or I would consider the true 

 beau ideal of what a farmer should be. And such 

 are they who can see and understand there is 

 something in this world besides a place to grovel 

 in, and can find time to read and profit by the 

 Monthly and such like magazines." 



