284 jFioral J\^oies. 



Floral Notes. 



I'liiHtiny Slips. 



The Gazette des Campagnes recommends to dip the extremities of the slip in 

 collodion, containing twice as much cotton as the ordinary material used in photog- 

 raphy. Let the first coat dry and then dip again. After planting the slip, the 

 development of the roots will take place very promptly. This method is said to be 

 particularly efficacious in woody slips, Geranium, Fuchsia and similar plants. 



t'aitcy frlceii for I'lants. 



At a recent sale of rare plants by Messrs. Backhouse, of York, England, the 

 Country Gentleman says: "A mass of the Oncidiurn tigrhium, consisting of about 

 thirty bulbs, sold for $150. Smaller plautsor masses brought 815 to $00. A strong 

 plant of Oncidiurn macranthuiii was sold for $45, and other plants, all of the same 

 species, from $17 to $37. Many other plants, mostly rare Orchids, brought prices 

 nearly as high." 



« The t^ifnt J'\tch.sin." 



Dr. James Eights, who accompanied Wilkes in his exploring expedition to the 

 South Seas in 1838, told me that when on the Island of Juan Fernandez he was 

 pleased with the exceeding beauty of the fuchsia, there growing wild, and that he 

 brought the seed to New York, and from it grew the first plants that were known 

 here. 



Humboldt, in his Cosmos, makes some allusion to the doctor, in connection with 

 his scientific researches in South America, and about a dozen years ago Parsons added 

 a new flower to his catalogue which Dr. Eights discovered in the Southern States and 

 for which he received the munificent sum of fifty dollars. 



To me, in all the flora of the North there is nothing prettier than our native 

 fuchsia — the Cellandine whose golden "drops" hang over meadow brooks and con- 

 trast harmoniously with the surroundings. — Mrs. N. Orr, in Rural JSew Yorker. 



Notes from the J'iiies. 



Spring Foliage. — There is much in the varied hues of the just developing leaves 

 to attract the observer who has an eye for the minor beauties of nature. The 

 expanding leaves of the pear and those of the ash-leaved maple are both of a tender 

 green, but quite unlike, and botii are quite different from the nearby Virgilia (more 

 projierly Cladrastis). Then just beyond is a Weeping Poplar, the young leaves of 

 which are of a brownish green, yb^c^J the French would say, as dark ns the neighbor- 

 ing Gringko tree is lively. An artist would describe the foliage of this last-named 

 tree as "gamboge green." Then a little nearer the house is a golden glow from the 

 young leaves of what the nurserymen call SpircBa aurea, but which is only a bright- 

 leaved variety of the well-known Nine-bark [Spirma opnlifolia). A little more at 

 the right is the charming purple-leaved variety of the common Barberry, and still 

 farther along arc the Purple Hazel and Purple Bush. These last-named are varieties 

 cultivated for their colored foliage, but there is enough in the difi"erent shades of the 

 young leaves of trees in their normal condition to make the effects of spring foliage 

 worthy the study of the landscape gardener. I have alluded to the 



Weepi7ig Poplar, which is one of the most desirable of lawn trees, Its branches 

 are most decidedly pendulous. It comes out very early, the leaves hold on late, and 

 all through the season its quivering foliage upon the drooping branches makes it a 

 most enjoyable tree. This and similar weeping trees increase in height very slowly, 

 and they are grafted upon upright stocks of some kind. The nurserymen graft all 

 such trees too low. My poplar was grafted at about eight feet, but this is not high 

 enough ; the branches already sweep the ground. I am growing a Lombardy Poplar 

 to a straight stem, and when it gets about fifteen feet or so high I shall graft it with 

 the weeping variety, and hope for a tree worth having. I saw to-day that a neighbor 

 had planted near his house a AVeeping Ash, grafted not above six feet high. This 



