326 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[Navember, 



non-irritating house exteriors. If bright colors are 

 to be used in the future garden, their sharp effects 

 will be neutralized, or smothered, in a mass of 

 abutting grayness or greenness. 



Nature is seldom loud. When it is, it is so uni- 

 versally so that it is not to be distinguished from 

 stillness, for it removes all contrasting things. 

 Snow may be called loud, but when it falls upon 

 the earth, and the things that cover the earth, all 

 antagonisms are drowned to view. Green might 

 be called loud — it is certainly strong — but its high 

 tone is lost in its presence everywhere. 1 



Rochester, N. Y. i 



LOBELIA CARDINALIS. 



BY W. F. BASSETT. 



This is one of the most showy plants we grow, 

 and we find it very easy to handle. When one 

 has a wet corner to plant in, it will require no 

 care except planting ; but we take either the 

 small offsets that grow at the base ot flowering 

 plants or sow seed as soon as ripe in summer and 

 pot in very small pots and keep in the shade, tak- 

 ing care not to let them suffer for want of water. 

 These can be wintered under the benches by be- 

 ing plunged in the ground and carefully covered 

 with brush or coarse mulch. In spring, after 

 they get well started, we transfer to 5-inch pots 

 and place on the north side of a building, and al- 

 ways keep thoroughly watered. It is surprising 

 to see what a large plant will be produced from a 

 little offset in this way, and one will be in bloom 

 several weeks. Hammonton, N. J. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



and it has recently been christened "the Chinese 

 Guelder Rose." 



Guelder Rose, we are informed is from its " Rose- 

 like balls, " and it was originally introduced into 

 England from Gueldres, in France. It was a 

 brilliant fancy that saw much like roses in a 

 bunch of Snowballs. 



Evergreen Hedges for the South. — While 

 Northern gardens pride themselves on the beau- 

 tiful hedges made by the Hemlock Spruce, or 

 Arbor VitiB, Southern gardens revel in beauty by 

 the wealth of broad-leaved evergreens which they 

 can use for the purpose. Imagine a hedge of 

 Cape Jasmine with its fragrant blossoms, or of the 

 beautiful shining green leaved, Japan Euonymus. 

 Then the Chinese privet makes one of the grandest 

 of hedges. Some people use the Chinese tea plant 

 for hedges, and tind it does admirably. Thev may 

 use the clippings to keep down the grocer's bill, for 

 anything we know. The tree box is often used, 

 and we believe a number of other things. There 

 is nothing adds so much to the interest of a garden 

 as well kept hedges in appropriate places, and the 

 South is to be envied for the great choice it can 

 have among so much pleasing variety. 



The Beauty of Oaks. — It is conceded that on 

 a variety of points being considered no class of 

 tree has so many good ones as the oak. They are 

 growing in favor with ornamental planters. So 

 far the English Royal oak has had the palm for 

 beauty of acorn, at least the peduncled or stalked 

 form of acorn, for there is one that has no stalk to 

 the acorn. But we think the American Chestnut 

 oak, Quercus Prinus, is quite as interesting in this 

 respect. It is in many respects a beautiful oak' 

 and planters are fond of it. 



The Japan Snowball. — The misfortune of 

 common names is, as we have often suggested, that 

 no one feels bound to adopt a name already com- 

 mon to a plant, but feels privileged to give it 

 another name or as many names as he likes. In 

 this country the great merits of the Viburnum 

 plicatum as an ornamental plant have been some 

 time known, and it is being planted everywhere as 

 the Japan Snowball. In England they are only just 

 beginning to appreciate its great merits, and getting 

 "to run" on it. They think it time it went by a 

 common name. One would think that a name 

 already adopted by millions of people speaking 

 their own tongue, would be "common" enough in 

 all conscience, and that Japan Snowball would be 

 good enough under the circumstances. Hut we 

 see that it is to have a wholly new common name, 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Red-flowered Elder A correspondent 



notes that a friend riding about Crystal Springs, 

 Yates Co., N. Y , noticed Elder flowers quite pink. 

 The red-berry Elder sometimes has flowers shaded 

 with pink, and it may be some would come very 

 dark. It would be worth while for some one 

 living in the vicinity to select and cultivate the 

 darkest cases. 



Hardiness of Alstrchmeria. — "M. M.," St. 

 Paul, Minn., asks : "Will you kindly give me in- 

 formation in the next number of the (Iarueners' 

 Monthly as to whether AlstrcEmeria Errembaultii 

 and Fritillaria pnccox alba arc hardy here? They 



