editor's table. 



orer the Itaves of one of my bound volumes of this 'Journal of Rural Art ami Rural Taste' 

 On everv hillside are seen unmistakable embodimt-nts of ideas an<l sug^'e3tions put forth 

 by it. Attractive and convenient homes are rapidly supplaiitiiit; architectural caricatures ; 

 vineyards and orchards are thriving where burdocks and thickets once deformed the lields. 

 As faithful bishop of a large horticultural diocese, you will some time, I trust, be present at 

 a meeting of ou>' Rural Art Society,' now cutting its wisdom teeth in garden craft, the 

 suggestion for which comes, I think, from your work." 



Manaoixo Lilacs, Roses, and IIoxEYSrcKi-Es. — A writer in the Gardeners' Chronicle says : 

 " If taste and a knowledge of colors are observable in the distribution of the plants in the 

 flower borders, we may also perceive a certain degree of skill in the peculiar method prac- 

 tised in France of pruning and managing the Persian lilacs and the few other shrubs that 

 are cultivated. The roses and honeysuckles are annually headed back and pruned very 

 close to the stem. Tlie lilacs are nice bushy half standards, having their branches so 

 thinned and regulated that none either cross or interfere with each other, nor extend 

 beyond a certain distance from the stem. In the winter pruning, all the young twigs are 

 removed except the one at the end of the branch that is left for flowering, and towards the 

 end of April and beginning of May, they have a splendid appearance. Immediately the 

 flowers decay, the twigs that bore them are pruned back, and the branch made to send out 

 a fresh shoot for flowering the following season ; by this mode of treatment the bunches of 

 flowers, although by no means so numerous, are very much larger and finer than any we 

 are accustomed to see." 



Flower Pots. — Tlie two conservatory flower pots here figured, are from a German manu- 

 factory (that of Edward Saelzer), and must be admitted to be in fine taste ; they are orna- 

 mented, with wreaths painted in gay colors, and are altogether superior, both in quality of 

 material and in their ornamentation, to most that are imported from abroad. The pattern 



CO.XSERVATORT FlOWEB P0T3. 



could be advantageously adopted in a more simple material. We do not despair, when hor- 

 ticultural societies adopt premiums for such things in their schedules, of having manufac- 

 tured in America patterns that one can bring into a parlor ; to this end, good models are 

 needed. 



Fruit. -T-Mr. Isaac B. Baxter, long a valuable member and successful exhibitor at the 

 Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, laid on our table early in September very firte 

 mens of the following pears : Golden Beurrfi of Bilboa, Washington, and Julienne 



