1879. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



357 



Herbarium, under Baron Von Mueller. Many 

 improvements have been also effected in the 

 park. 



The Virginian Creeper. — A correspond- 

 ent of Mr. Robinson's Gardening Illustrated, 

 writes as follows of our Ampelopsis. We do not 

 think these distinctions have been noted in 

 American nurseries, but they ai"e worth looking 

 into : 



"I know of two varieties or species of this 

 popular foliage plant, one worth growing, the 

 other not. The latter is by far the most ramp- 

 ant grower, and any bit of it stuck in the ground 

 will grow, while it produces a plentiful crop of 

 suckers from the roots. It never assumes the 

 splendid color of the other, but turns a little 

 brownish-red or purplish before the leaves fall. 

 The two kinds are quite distinct in appearance 

 when planted out, but when grown in pots un- 

 der shelter, the worthless sort when young is so 

 like the other as to be very difficult to distin- 

 guish. 



" In the good kind the leaflets droop on all sides 

 from the central point; the expansion of each 

 leaflet also droops slightly from the midrib, so 

 that a section across the leaflet would resemble 

 the form used in common wood engravings to 

 represent flying birds '— ^ , the junction of the 

 two curved lines being the midrib. 



''In the worthless vaiiety the leaves have a 

 stiff"er, sturdier look, and if cut across the midrib 

 would generally resemble a wide letter \J , the 

 midrib being at the bottom of a channel when 

 seen from the upper sides ; one or two very 

 large leaves may occasionally assume the same 

 habit as the other kind; the leaflets are also 

 much narrower and more pointed, the form re- 

 sembling that of a racing cutter, while that of 

 the other is like that of a fishing smack ; or the 

 first is in foliage like the rose-flowered Horse 

 Chestnut, or the leaflets like the Spanish Chest- 

 nut, while the good variety is like the wild 

 Blackberry, only not quite so wide in the leaf- 

 lets. The worthless kind will extend its cover- 

 ing 4 or 5 feet in a season when the plant is 

 large ; the other is not nearly so rampant. I 

 I have never seen it increase more than 2 feet, 

 but my experience only covers plants in town 

 gardens, where they were growing at a disad- 

 vantage. It is also much more slender in 

 growth, that is, the stems are thinner and 

 weaker ; the plant itself, not producing the long 

 straggling growth of the other kind with leaves 



at distant intervals, is much more compact-look- 

 ing, that being the chief diflference visible at a 

 casual glance. 



"The only way to avoid getting the wrong 

 sort is to order plants from a first-class nursery 

 which has a world-wide reputation to lose." 

 ■••» 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Various Queries. — M. Newton asks : — " If it 

 is not intruding too much on your time and 

 space, I would like to ask a few questions. 



1. Will the Pear grow on the Osage Orange; 

 has it ever been tried to any extent? 2. How is 

 artificial fertilizing best performed? 3. What 

 is the best soil and when the best time to trans- 

 plant the Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora? 4. 

 Will seed of the rose grow ? " 



[1. Only those species that are closely allied 

 botanically will graft together. The Osage Or- 

 ange and the pear are so widely separated that 

 no one has probably tried to make them grow. 



2. Artificial fertilization of flowers is best per- 

 formed by cutting off the anthers of one flower 

 before the pollen appears, and then taking the 

 pollen from some allied species, and placing it 

 on the stigma' of the flower to be fertilized. 

 Very often, as in the lily, the flower has to be 

 cut open just before it expands, to get the anthers 

 out, and the pollen of the strange flower is to be 

 applied the next day ; or after if strange pollen 

 be applied at once to put more on next day. 3. 

 Hydrangea paniculata is a very easy thing to 

 transplant, and it will thrive in any garden soil. 

 It can be moved any time in the year when the 

 earth is not frozen. 4. Roses grow very well 

 from seed soon as they are ripe, or in the Spring, 

 only that in the last case it remains a year in 

 the ground before it grows. It is in this way 

 that new varieties are generally originated. — Ed. 

 G. M.] 



Rose Madame Oswald de Kerchove.— We 

 have from Mr. Schwartz, of Lyons, a chromo of 

 the above rose, which, if correctly painted shows 

 a yellowish buff tint among the rosy ones, — a 

 sort of Saffrano character, which so far as we 

 know is wholly novel among hybrid perpetuals. 

 There is also a slight canary color on some of 

 the petals. 



Slipping of Earth from Side Hills.— F. 

 W., Newark, N. Y., inquires:— "Please tell me 

 through Gardener's Monthly, or otherwise, 

 what to plant on a side hill to prevent the earth 



