editor's tablk. 



Dox't he t^ A HuKRY. — A correspondent at Clinton, N. Y., snys : " I see the Aln'fs Memifsii 

 is marked tender about New York. I have wintered a sjn'cimen two feet high, which lias 

 survived two seasons. The first winter, I gave it a thin blanket of hemlock boughs, and it 

 came out well in spring, nipped only a little in the extremities of its branches. The second 

 winter, I gave it no protection, and, in the spring it looked sadly, every leaf as red as sole 

 leather. I dug it up, and toted it olf to the lawn, intending soon to bum it on a brush heap, 

 and set out iu its i)lace a fresh and beautiful hemlock. The day after, I came to look after 

 my hemlock, and caught up the apparently dead, ' far-fetched, and dear bought' spruce, 

 and started for the brush heap. But as the buds looked pli»mp, I turned aside, and set the 

 tree against a fence, and threw two or three shovelfuls of earth over the roots, to see whether 

 the doomed thing would live. A few days since, I noticed that it was pushing out fresh 

 leaves on every branch, determined to live and to be hardy." This will form a suggestion for 

 the consideration of many. "Wo lately brought home a fine Quercus Luccomhiana, which a 

 neighbor had pulled up "because it was dead," and have not a better tree. It retains its 

 dead leaves all winter, and comes out late in the spring. Novices destroy many valuable 

 trees from not knowing their habits. 



The same correspondent says : " Salisluria adiantifolin is with me killed to within throe 

 feet of the ground ; Kijlreuteria paniculata, worse still ; Magnolia acuminata, top killed, 

 while the deciduous Cypress has wintered better than ever ! and so has the Japan sophora. 

 The English Maple is considerably injured." Alack! for half-hardy things ! Very many 

 may as well be abandoned as creating more discomfort than pleasure. 



Gossip. — A gentleman in Connecticut has succeeded in artificially breeding trout in his 



cellar, through which he has turned a stream of water. A few years ago, it was difiicult 



to procure salmon in Paris for less than from two to four shillings (English money) per 

 pound. Now, in consequence of their fast increase through artificial breeding, they have 

 been sold as low, this season, as sixpence per pound. Is there any reason why the people 



of this country should not "go and do likewise ?" Dr. Carl Miiller has commenced a 



c^tinuation of the Annates Botanices Si/stematicoe of Walpers, of which Vol. IV., Part 1, is 



before us, extending from Ranunculacese to Nymphseaceze. In Xenophon'a minor works, 



will be found some excellent remarks on planting, horticulture, &c., that may still be studied 

 with advantage. In one of his treatises, occurs the following : " ' Would you merely heap 

 up the earth around the plant, or tread it do^vn hard ?' ' I would tread it down,' said I, 

 ' assuredly ; for if it were not trodden down, I am well aware that the untrodden earth, if 

 wetted by rain, would be turned into mud, and, if scorched by the sun, would become dry 

 to the very bottom ; so that there would be danger lest the roots of the plant, under a pre- 

 valence of wet weather, should be rotted by damp, or should be scorched up in hot weather 

 from the roots being heated through the dryness or porousness of the earth.' " The les- 

 son to be learned from diseases which are dependent upon parasites, whether animal or 

 vegetable, is most important. It is simply that, in our treatment of the maladies of vege- 

 tables as well as those which affect our own frame, we should not trust to chance or mere 

 empiricism, but, as a first step, we should study as intimately as possible the nature and 

 habits of the organisms which produce the disease. And to this end, science must be the 

 helpmate of practice, to enable the cultivator to observe and distinguish accurately. A 

 knowledge of the cause of disease is a step more than halfway towards its cure, and thus 

 the student in the obscurest branches of science, against which utilitarian objections may 



most readily be urged, may prove a real benefactor to his fellow-men. Calvert Vaux, in 



his book on Villas and Cottages, remarks truly, that "the constant recurrence of about the 

 same requirements will, of course, lead to much similarity of plan, particularly in small 

 buildings ; but the monotony that this would occasion, maybe agreeably relieved by variety 



