1876.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



201 



variety are looking badly. The trees have been 

 set out about twenty years, and have until 

 within a year or two looked healthy and thriving." 

 [The burr on the oak may be of fungoid origin, 

 once formed the burr continues to increase in 

 size every j'ear, often attaining considerable 

 size. It was not clear what was the matter with 

 the maple branches. — Ed. G. M.] 



Double White Deutzl^. crenata. — Mr. David 

 Saunders, Whitneyville, New Haven, Ct., fur- 

 nishes the following additional note : " I notice 

 in the lA&y Monthly i\\?ii you mention the Double 



White Deutzia crenata as a novelty. Six years 

 ago I purchased a plant of 01m Bros, (then doing 

 business in Springfield, Mass.) marked Deutzia 

 crenata purpurea flora plena, which on flowering 

 proved to be a pure white double. I have since 

 then propagated and disseminated it considera- 

 bly, so that in this locality it is no novelty. I 

 presume it is the same variety you allude to. 

 Please accept of a plant which I send by ex- 

 press." 



[It is pleasant to know that this beautiful 

 variety has found its way so extensively into the 

 trade.— Ed. G. M.] 



^REEN IMOUSE AND fHoUSE IpARDENING. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



If we take a look through most greenhouses, 

 we see with regret that the cultivation of plants 

 with the view to make fine specimens of skill 

 has not kept pace with general gardening pro- 

 gress. The demand for cut flowers causes a 

 general crowding — and thus we see at horticul- 

 tural exhibitions only in rare cases plants of 

 more merit than could be bought for a few cents 

 at any street corner. Even in the cases where 

 large specimens are on exhibition they are 

 chiefly plants which time and not skill has 

 made. It may perhaps be the Sago Palm owned 

 by Robert Morris of the Revolution, or it may 

 be some other thing that has been the hero of a 

 hundred shows, still the same old plant and 

 nothing more. In view of this falling off" or per- 

 haps indifi"erence to garden skill, it is a pleasure to 

 find ourselves once in a while in some old farm- 

 house or cottage by the way, where magnificent 

 specimens of the commonest things are found in 

 the highest perfection It was our privilege to 

 see early the past spring, growing in an old iron- 

 bound bucket, a specimen of the common In- 

 dian Daphne, several feet high, and with hun- 

 dreds of sweet blossoms over everj' part of it ; 

 and yet this person had not even a greenhouse 

 of any sort to grow the jflant so well. Where is 

 the greenhouse that can produce such Daphnes 



as this ? More recentlj- we have seen old Scarlet 

 Geraniums and Rose Geraniums not cut down 

 and made into small bushes from time to time, 

 but kept on growing from year to year, making 

 grand specimens, clothed with foliage from bot- 

 tom to top, and covered with flowers — truly mag- 

 nificent sights to see. This is the sort of skill we 

 like to see encouraged. A new or rare plant is 

 all very well, but a good specimen of an old 

 thing is equally new or rare and well worth the 

 trying for. 



Most of the plants are set out for the summer, 

 as formerly recommended — little care will be re- 

 quired beyond seeing that they are not over or 

 under watered. Some will be yet grovdng ; and 

 may be full of roots. If growth will probably 

 continue for a while longer, pots a size larger 

 may be furnished such. Whenever a shoot ap- 

 pears to grow stronger than the rest, so as to en- 

 danger compactness or any desired shape, pinch 

 it back, and any climbing vines should receive 

 due regulation as they grow over the trellis, or 

 they will speedily become naked below. A good, 

 stifi" trellis is a desideratum hard to be obtained 

 by the uninitiated. 



In training vines, so manage that there shall 

 be a due proportion of branches hanging loosely 

 about the trellis, — as it is this flowing graceful- 

 ness that adds half the charms to this tribe of 

 plants which they so profusely possess. 



