38 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[February, 



power of endurance — is the oak ; and, as if to add 

 additional beauty to its majestic form in the 

 last days of autumn, it is clothed with the most 

 gorgeous dress of crimson, bronze and green, 

 which makes it the glory of our autumn 

 forest. However, their foliage is in time seared 

 and browned from the effects of the continuous 

 frosts and crisping autumn winds, and although 

 often attached to the tree for a long time, still, 

 by the middle of November or first of December 

 their beauty is gone for the season. Were it 

 not for an insignificant, and (by the landscape 

 gardener) rejected native vine, our forests would 

 be entirely devoid of green foliage after the first 

 of December. This despised vine, our native 

 Smilax, or as it is popularly called by the 

 country people, the Bramble or Greenbrier, 

 comes nearer being a true evergreen than any 

 of our native deciduous plants. Holding as it 

 does its large glossy green leaves until late in 

 the winter, it forms a very conspicuous feature 

 in many a thicket and grove, especially if it be 

 in a warm and sheltered position. In our 

 enquiry among those living near its native 

 habitat, no one seems to know It by the names 

 of cat brier China brier, rough-bindweed, or 

 even sarsaparilla as the popular name is some- 

 times said to be applied to it in some botanical 

 works. 



Our standard botanies enumerate fifteen 

 species as natives of the United States, all of 

 which are found growing wild in the great Mis- 

 sissippi Valley, and all of which are worth culti- 

 vating; but I do not remember to have ever 

 seen a single specimen under cultivation. I 

 very much doubt there being a half dozen plants 

 so grown in the country. All portions of the 

 world furnish a proportionate number of spe- 

 cies, many of which are of great economic 

 value in their contributions to medicine ; while 

 a few foreign tropical species are among our 

 choicest greenhouse plants. Perhaps it would 

 not be amiss to say that Sir Joseph Paxton, in 

 his Botanical Dictionary, reduces the whole 

 species of Smilax to six, four of which are found 

 in North America and two in China, while the 

 remaining forty species he classes as varieties or 

 eynonyms of valid species. This is without 

 doubt too conservative a view of the subject to 

 meet the ideas of the botanical student of 

 today. 



As Smilax rotundifolia, or the large round leaf 

 Bramble would be to our notion the handsomest 

 and most desirable of all our native species for 



cultivation, we will call particular attention to its 

 many good qualities, with the hope that it may 

 stimulate a desire on the part of those want- 

 ing plants of actual merit for ornamental pur- 

 poses, to make a trial of this native vine ; for the 

 effort certainly will repay all cost and trouble. 

 As seen in its uncultivated condition, we find 

 this species growing in moist, rich ground, 

 usually in a thicket of underbrush, where its 

 long and flexible stem often reaches the length 

 of thirty feet; not usually, however, growing 

 more than ten or fifteen feet high, but creeping 

 from branch to branch, holding fast to each one 

 by its wire-like tendrils thrown out from the 

 base of each leaf-stem. While the whole upper 

 portion of the stem is thickly covered with large 

 round-ovate or heart-shaped leaves. Sometimes 

 it prefers a location in a neglected fence corner, 

 when it trails along the fence, occasionally grasp- 

 ing a stray weed or shrub for additional support ; 

 and rarely it is seen climbing to the height of 

 twenty or twenty-five feet from limb to limb on 

 a thorn-apple bush or something of similar 

 habit, where its glossy foliage makes it an object 

 of great beauty after the tree has dropped all its 

 leaves and fruit. Now, if we only follow nature's 

 instruction and plant in deep rich soil and ^ow 

 them to cover a fence, frame, or even on a low- 

 growing tree, and to make up for their natural 

 lack of branches, plant a number of specimens 

 near together, we have from our own fields what 

 we cannot procure from the nurseryman, i. e., an 

 evergreen vine, hardy, and most certainly adapted 

 to our climate. One serious objection to its 

 popularity with many will be its inconspicuous 

 greenish flowers, but its bunches of bluish 

 black fruit in autumn will more than compen- 

 sate for the loss of flowers in spring when all 

 nature seems to be alive with flowers. 



A FEW HINTS ON THE CHRYSAN- 

 THEMUM. 



BY WALTER COLES, BELVIDERE, N. J. 



Having received several inquiries respecting 

 the Chrysanthemums I exhibited at the Ger- 

 mantown Horticultural Society, probably a 

 short article on their culture would be interest- 

 ing to lovers of this beautiful Fall flower. I 

 have been asked what varieties they were, and 

 where they can be obtained. There were only 

 four in number, which were George Glenny, 

 Venice, Virgin Queen, ' and Eve, which I got 

 from Mr. Peter Henderson of New York ; there 



