1880. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



195 



whose homes add somewhat every year to our 

 social advantages. Nearly every one adds 

 something each season to embellish their 

 grounds by planting not only that most valuable 

 evergreen' "the everlasting Norway," but they 

 are commencing to plant the rarer spruces from 

 California and Japan; the silver fir from the 

 same regions, as well as our own, quite their | 

 equals in beauty our hardy hemlock, truly 

 called the American Deodar ; that most valua- 

 ble and noble tree, our white pine, with its twin 

 sister, the almost weeping Himalayan pine, as 

 well as a dozen others of real merit. Then, too, 

 they are planting the exquisite cypress of Oregon, 

 the Countess Retinosporas of Japan, with their 

 varied shades of color, the cedars of Lebanon, 

 the Deodar and African cedar. With these are 

 blended the golden and silver yews, the Ameri- 

 can and Japanese mahonias, the most valuable 

 of all evergreen shrubs. Even the Caucasian 

 evergreen laurel will be planted here by the 

 hundreds this season. The planting of such 

 varieties with our native def^iduous trees and 

 shrubs indicates a decided advance in taste and 

 study of arboriculture, a love for the suburban 

 landscape, which may be made to compare with 

 the pictures of Ruyadel, Hobbema, and Eousseau. 

 Is it not of equal importance that a certain 

 amount of this sort ol home education should 

 constitute one of the accomplishments to be ex- 

 pected as a matter of course in our families? 

 Is it not a matter of interest to know whether 

 the countless note of music was the voice of a 

 thrush, the jay, or blackbird ? Whether the 

 daisy, the pansy, or the dandelion were one ; 

 whether the sweet shrub or the currant bush 

 were alike? Whether the elm, the birch, the 

 larch, the ash, the oak, the poplar, the lime, the 

 hickory, were simply trees without names ? 

 Whether the lofty pines, the spruce, the firs, the 

 cypress, the hemlock, were equally cedars, only 

 one and all "just too lovely for anything?" 

 Surely some cultivation in this direction would 

 be of as much value, when acquired, as to know 

 the latest figure in the lancers, or to possess the 

 instinct which recognizes at a glance the crea- 

 tive genius of Worth in a new costume, or 

 its facile imitation produced by the renowned 

 modistes of the Queen City. It is gratifying to 

 repeat that the village has always been distin- 

 guished for good order and the good character of 

 its citizens. The day and night police are men 

 of good morals and experience, intelligent in 

 their activity, and have faithfully protected 

 property and person against trespassers, tramps, 

 and disorderly characters, and deserve your 

 confidence for the faithful discharge of duty. 



BEAUTIFYING RAILROAD LINES. 



BY MARGID DIGRAM. 



About a month ago, during a trip to Pittsburg 

 over the Pennsylvania Central Railroad, I no- 

 ticed that the company was fertilizing, in a very 

 liberal way, the inclined banks by the sides of its 



tracks, which had previously been sodded. 

 Everywhere along the road there is a care ex- 

 hibited in these matters of mere appearance, that 

 is very commendable. That it is politic in a 

 pecuniary sense, there can be no doubt what- 

 ever ; for of two roads running between the same 

 points, that one which is able to offer the greatest 

 number of attractions to the eye, other things 

 being equal, would certainly secure the greatest 

 amount of passenger traffic. 



The above road, I further observed, was also, 

 in some places, planting shrubbery or creepers 

 at the foot of steeply inclined gravelly banks, 

 apparently as an experiment or as a temporary 

 measure, the same to be superseded, probably, 

 by sodding at some future time. 



Just before noticing this fiict, it had occurred 

 to me that it would be an excellent idea to sub- 

 stitute shrubbery or trees, kept down by trim- 

 ming, in place of the grass now used, as a com- 

 plete cover for these sloping banks. 



The rhododendron and other wild shrubs, the 

 hemlock, poplar, beech, birch, hornbeam, catalpa, 

 ailanthus, and some other trees, would be 

 suitable for this purpose. A commencement 

 might be made with poplar and catalpa, or ail- 

 anthus, as quick growers, and these could be fol- 

 lowed, and the interspaces filled in, with any 

 other or others desirable, all to be trimmed down 

 to one uniform height, and the effect to be had 

 from the shape and colors of the leaves. Still 

 better effects would probably be found in an 

 irregular surface, brought about by allowing of 

 greater growth in some trees than in others, but 

 still all to be kept low. 



Another plan thought of was to cover the in- 

 clined bank with a screen of galvanized iron, 

 held parallel to, and two or three inches from the 

 ground surface, by deeply driven wooden pegs. 

 These wooden pegs or stakes could at the same 

 time support boards running lengthwise with the 

 bank, the intention of which would be to pre- 

 vent the formation of deep gullies in the loose 

 earth. 



The wire screen at the upper edges of the bank 

 could be turned up so as to form a fence for the 

 protection of the sloping portion below. At the 

 foot of the screen creepers and climbers would 

 be planted, such as the wistaria, woodbine, am- 

 pelopsis, etc., which would in time make a beau- 

 tiful cover for the rough earth beneath the screen. 



Still another suggestion is this : That the pro- 

 posed wire screen should lay directly on the 

 ground ; that it should be pinned down by long 



