1879. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



165 



tree one reliable nurseiy firm assures us that 

 their sales of it during the past twenty years, 

 for ornamental purposes alone, cannot have 

 been less than thirty thousand trees. We are 

 coming to the conclusion that Mr. Hovey's ex- 

 perience of American nurseries and of Ameri- 

 can taste for trees must be \Qvy limited, and we 

 are not willing that his opinions in English 

 papers should stand for " American" opinions. 

 They are Mr. Hovey's and nothing more. 



Hardiness of Rocky Mountain Ever- 

 greens. — It was a good winter to test the point 

 made by Professor Sal-gent, that Abies Menzie- 

 sii of Colorado is much better adapted to endure 

 Eastern Winters than Abies Menziesii of the 

 Pacific coast. We examined recently some spe- 

 cimens in Germantown that had been tlirough 

 the Winter side by side, and found all of the 

 Pacific plants with their leaves off, while the 

 •Colorado specimens had not a leaf injured. The 

 Colorado form is known in nurseries as Abies 

 Menziesii Parryana. It is besides much more 

 beautiful in its habit ; though from its slower 

 and more compact growth, less adapted to tim- 

 ber culture. Europeans, wlio are planting our 

 trees exclusivel}', will find tlie Pacific forms best 

 suited to their purposes. 



Hardiness of the Firs. — It is among the 

 peculiarities of the season, that the Firs as dis- 

 tinct from the Spruces, were comparatively un- 

 injured by the severe Winter in Germantown. 

 Pinsapo, Appolonica, Pindrow, and others often 

 thought tender, were wholly unhurt. 



Carbolic Acid and Weeds. — As a weed 

 destroyer, carbolic acid seems likely to prove a 

 boon to gardeners. Such weeds as dandelions 

 are killed by one application, the mode of apply- 

 ing it to destroy single plants being to make a 

 hole in the crown wdth an iron point, and then 

 to pour in a little of the liquid from a bottle. 

 For paved yards, and also for garden paths, the 

 carbolic acid is mixed with from ten to fifty 

 times its quantity of water in a bucket, according 

 to its original strength, and applied with a brush 

 or Ijroom , or from a rose watering can ; a sunny 

 <lay being the best. — Florist and Pomologist. 



The Virginian Creeper in Europe. — It 

 is interesting to see the striking use frequently 

 made of this common creeper abroad, in letting 

 it fall in immense sheets over walls, banks, 

 bridires, and the like. On each side of the 



Palace of Schonbrunn there is a private garden 

 which is completely enclosed on the three outer 

 sides by a high and roomy covered way of iron 

 trellis-work. The whole of this in both gardens 

 is completely .slieeted with the Virginian Creeper 

 — immense walls of rich and glowing colors. It 

 w^as, indeed, the only thing in the great French 

 garden there, or of what was seen from it, that 

 deserved any praise. — Garden. 



Carpet Bedding with Hardy Plants.— 

 A carpet bed near the entrance to Messrs. 

 Veitchs' Coombe Wood Xursery is well worth 

 notice, showing, as it does, wiiat excellent effects 

 may be obtained by the use of dwarf-growing 

 hardy shrubs in what is called pattern garden- 

 ing. The plants employed in this case are silver 

 and golden-leaved Retinosporas, Euonymus albo- 

 variegatus, and Mahonias, the Avhole 1)eing 

 edged with a band of Erica herbacea carnea. 

 Such beds give little or no trouble when once 

 planted; they are equally beautiful in Winter 

 and in Summer, and, although it might not be 

 advisable to carry this style of gardening to an 

 unlimited extent, yet a few such beds introduced 

 into flower gardens where a series of pattern 

 beds exist, would go far to relieve the monoto- 

 nous blaze of color usually found in such places, 

 and thereby greatly enhance the general efl^ect. 

 — S. in Garden. 



NEW OR RARE PLANTS. 



Gy'NERIUM jubatum.— This is a magnificent 

 grass, with a flowing, mane-like inflorescence. 

 The lateral branches of the plume are remarkable 

 for their length and their graceful curvature, and 

 the secondary branchlets are numerous, long and 

 slender, the whole forming a dense, massive 

 plume, not less than three feet in length. I have 

 only seen a female inflorescence, which is of a 

 silvery hue slightly tinged with pink at the l)ase 

 of the separate florets. Perhaps it may be worth 

 while stating that the sexes are borne on separate 

 plants in all the species of Gynerium and that 

 the plumes of the male flowers are neither so 

 handsome nor so durable as the plumes of 

 female flowers. Whether this is a distinct species 

 the material before me is insufficient to deter- 

 mine, but its distinctness and superiority as a 

 variety are beyond question.— ir. B. Henislei/, in 

 Garden. 



