1876.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



255 



not be forgotten that the allotments belong to the 

 exhibitors, and that their views had to be in a 

 great measure consulted in the laying out. Our 

 only astonishment is that with so many varied 

 interests to serve and so many difficulties in exe- 

 cuting the Horticultural Department should 

 have turned out so well. The flowers will be 

 better as the season advances. To-day we will 

 glance at the trees and shrubs. Few of these are 

 large specimens. They would have been failures 

 if they had been. Some few of the large ones 

 have died, but very few on the whole. European 

 nurserymen are not in strong force. The leading 

 ones are from Holland. R. Van Ness, of Bos- 

 koop, has Hollies, Rhododendrons, Roses, Mag- 

 nolias, and similar plants popular in European 

 gardening ; the trained fruit trees attracting 

 much attention. W. C. Boer, of the same town, 

 has a similar collection, with some very good 

 Retinispora leptoclada among them. The grafted 

 currants and gooseberries of Chas. Pohl, of 

 Austria, attract universal attention. Grafted on 

 the Missouri currant they seem free from the 

 mildew which is the bane of the foreign goose- 

 berries here. Messrs. Vietch, of England, have 

 some very nice plants, as well as choice kinds of 

 plants. These have been given to the City of 

 Philadelphia. Some are too tender for our cli- 

 mate without some protection, but are so beauti- 

 ful that protection should be cheerfully given 

 them. Of the.se there is Veronica Traversii, with 

 myrtle-like leaves and an abundance of white 

 flowers like spikes of Privet, and a Raphiolepis 

 ovata about 2 feet over. The leaves are like 

 those of a Pittosporum, and the flowers like the 

 common Indian cherry. It is tolerably hardy. 

 One of the best specimens of Prumnopitys ele- 

 gans is here. It may popularly be likened to 

 a conical-growing yew tree. It is a native of 

 Valdivia. The Umbrella Japan Pine, Sciadopitys 

 verticellata, is represented here by a specimen 

 about 2 feet high. This is a remarkably beauti- 

 ful and very hardy evergreen, but slow in growth 

 while young. Of the rare pines there is Pinus 

 koraiensis, from the Corea. It is a five-leaved 

 pine, as dark as an Austrian, but with fine deli- 

 cate leaves. There are several interesting 

 spruces, for instance Abies Hookeriana, one of 

 our Pacific hemlocks, with dark, blackish 

 leaves not half the size of our ordinary hemlock, 

 and A. Hanburyana, from Japan, also like our 

 Hemlock, but with very broad leaves. Then 

 there is the Japan white spruce, Abies Alcocqui- 

 ana, and the Japan " Norway " spruce, Abies 



polita, and a capital specimen of Retinispora 

 filicoides. This is one of the most interesting of 

 all hardy evergreens, having foliage like some 

 Cheilanthes, or other fine-leaved fern. 



Most of the remainder of the collection are 

 various forms of Hollies and Rhodendrons, of 

 rare species, and some trimmed into fanciful 

 forms. 



Of American nurserymen Mr. R. Buist has a 

 choice collection, mostly evergreens. Among 

 these a Retinispora pisifera aurea about 5 feet 

 high is very attractive. This proves so hardy 

 that it is becoming very popular. There is here 

 an Euonymus aurea marginata, which lessens 

 one's regrets that golden Hollies do not thrive in 

 our climate. And then there is the beautiful 

 variegated white dwarf, E. radicans variegata, 

 of which much more might be made in our gar- 

 den work than is made. Mr. Buist's collection 

 is well massed and very effective. 



Messrs. Hoopes Bros. & Thomas, West Chester, 

 Pa., have a collection of 40 kinds of ivies, with 

 flat trellises of wood and wire. It is a good 

 chance to note the merits of the various kinds, 

 and if the mass of judges did not decide that the 

 old sorts are better than the improvements we 

 should be surprised — a little delicate form called 

 Conglomerata we might except. It is very neat, 

 and as few would regard it as an ivy at all at 

 first glance is, perhaps, why it seems to be an 

 exception in beauty. 



The same firm have a collection of Coniferous 

 evergreens which does them much credit, each 

 tree neatly labeled. A Sciodopitys here is nearly 

 as good as Vietch's. The most beautiful pine in 

 the collection is, perhaps, Pinus insignis, from 

 Lower California, but unfortunately it is not 

 hardy in these Middle States. The collection 

 affords an excellent chance to study differences. 

 Here is Pinus Ayacahuite approaching P. ex- 

 celsa; Abies nobilis, and A. magnifica, appearing 

 much the same; and Abies Albertiana, which 

 will puzzle any one to tell from a common hem- 

 lock. Then the student will find kinds like 

 Pinus Elliottii, and others that he could perhaps 

 see nowhere else, and well worthy of examina- 

 tion. 



R. B. Parsons & Son have also an excellent 

 collection, mostly Rhododendrons and other 

 evergreens. The Rhodendrons, as well as those 

 of S. B. Parsons & Son, are admirable specimens, 

 and make one regret that some one had not 

 thought to make an effort to get a tent for them 

 as well as for Mr. Waterer's. Perhaps they will 



