184 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[May, 



belief that the failure was general, but a recent 

 number of the Garden says that thousands of 

 pouiids have been spent on these trees with but 

 " two or three spots " in which they succeed 

 "The tree is not really at home in England. It 

 wants a warmer and more genial climate ; other- 

 wise it will die. There are hundreds of dead 

 and half-dead specimens in our gardens and 

 parks now to prove it, and where they are not 

 dead, who cares for the aspect of a poor, thin, 

 half-leafless evergreen?" 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Rural Cemeteries.— " S." says: "The first 

 rural cemetery was Mt. Auburn, Boston ; sec- 

 ond, Laurel Hill, Philadelphia; third. Green- 

 wood, New York; fourth. Spring Grove, Cin- 

 cinnati." 



Bedding Pennyroyal.— Wm. P. Harding, of 

 Mount Holly, New Jersey, says : " My last sum- 

 mer's travel gave me many opportunities of 

 seeing numerous things made use of in the 

 modern style of flower gardening, as were never 

 thought of a few years ago. And, as in the 

 March Monthly, you observe of the Pilea 

 repens, * it is an excellent plant as a green base 

 to flower beds.' Its ' moss-like habit' eminently 

 fits it for such a purpose. But possibly it has 

 its equal, if not its superior, in the pretty little 

 Gibraltar mint— Mentha Pulegeum Gibraltica. 

 It is by nature a dwarf, of but two or three 

 inches high With its very small leaves of light 

 green color, and exceedingly dense habit of 

 growth, it seems to be 'just the thing' wanted 

 for either carpet beds or ribbon borders, and was 

 duly appreciated at Rangemore, Chatsworth, 

 Drakelowe and other places where immense 

 quantities were grown." 



Superior Hyacinth. — "R. B. D.," Edenton, 

 N. C, says : " I send you the first ' quadruple' 

 hyacinth I ever saw, thinking it may be a sight 

 even to you. The Gardener's Monthly is 

 always interesting." 



[This spike had the usual double flower in 

 twin sets, and presented a very grand appear- 

 ance.— Ed. G. M.] 



Extra Double Isabella Sprunt Rose. — "H. 

 R. A.," Saco, Me., says : " I cut a perfectly 

 double rose from I. Sprunt. Is it usual for that 

 to sport ?" 



[No, — but I. Sprunt is itself but a sport, and 



some of its own buds may be expected to follow 

 the parent's wayward ways. — Ed. G. M.] 



Rose, Etoile de Lyon.—" W. A. R ," Louis- 

 ville, Kentucky, writes : " We send you by thui 

 mail one of the first blooms of the new Tea 

 Rose ' Etoile de Lyon.' You can judge some- 

 what of its size, and that it has a fine form, but 

 it has not its usual color, which is much deeper." 



[Certainly a very fine yellow variety.— Ed. 

 G. M.] 



Violet Princess Marie de Savoy. — A corres- 

 pondent recently inquired about this. Mr. 

 Peter Keifer, the originator of the Keifer Pear, 

 places some flowers on our table. They are 

 very double, with deep violet petals, having a 

 white base, and of the great width of one and a 

 half inches. The odor is delicious. The stems 

 are verj"^ long, and altogether it is one of the 

 best varieties grown. 



Fremontia Californica.— " W. L. F." Han- 

 over, Mass., writes : " I would like to ask ' Col- 

 lector' in regard to Fremontia, about which he 

 writes so instructively, whether the plants he 

 mentions, as growing at the highest altitude, 

 dwarfed by the cold, ever ripen seed? If they 

 do, I should think plants raised from such would 

 be much more likely to prove hardy in the 

 Atlantic States. Also, whether 'Collector' has 

 any experience as to the seeding habits of the 

 Dendromecon and the Cowania Mexicana, two 

 other showy, yellow flowering shrubs of the 

 mountain region of the Pacific Slope, which, 

 however, would probably prove (tender?) in the 

 Middle or Eastern States ?" 



[We shall be glad to hear from "Collector" 

 as requested. So far as the writer's experience 

 goes, California plants do not like Eastern sum- 

 mers. They get half dead, and then become 

 tender during winter. — Ed. G. M.] 



Talk About Lilies.— "F. A. B.." Philad'a., 

 asks : " Can you not write out for the readers of 

 the Gardener's Monthly the talk you gave on 

 Lilies at the State Horticultural Society ? By an 

 abstract I saw in a Harrisburg paper, I am sure 

 it would interest us all. There seems to me 

 many novel points in it, you have not given ua 

 in the magazine." 



It is perhaps unfortunate that the editor has 

 not time to write out papers for public addresses. 

 Wherever a few verbal remarks are acceptable, 

 he does not mind offering them. This particu- 

 lar talk was taken down by a short-hand re- 



