1882. 1 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



259 



made of the different colors would be very 

 pretty. 



It may not be generally known that Rhyncos- 

 permum jasminoides is hardy in this climate. 

 I have one trained over the doorway, on the 

 north side of the house, which has been out four 

 winters, and has been, for several weeks, covered 

 with its lovely white blossoms. It is an object ol 

 universal admiration. 



YUCCAS. 



BY G. ONDERDONK, MISSION VALLEY, TEXAS. 



Recent references, in the Gardener's Monthly, 

 to the propagation of Yuccas by cuttings recall 

 some of my own experience. I have found the 

 leaves of the Y. gloriosa very valuable in the 

 vineyard for binding the young shoots to the 

 trellis. I like them for this purpose because 

 they give way just about the right time and thus 

 save trouble of removal, to say nothing of their 

 convenience and cheapness. We also use the 

 leaves at the packing house in making up pack- 

 ages of trees, plants, &c. Therefore an increase 

 of a convenient supply became an object. 



It frequently came in our way to bring an 

 entire shoot, or even a whole tree of yucca to 

 the packing ground at once. After using all the 

 leaves we have been in the habit of cutting each 

 shoot to about two or three feet in length, leav- 

 ing the terminal bud at the top. These shoots 

 were then set as cuttings, leaving the tops just 

 above ground. We never gave any after care, 

 and none ever failed to grow well. 



About fifteen years ago I carried a branch, 

 about two feet long, to the vineyard. I used the 

 leaves and left the wood lying on the ground 

 fully exposed to the sun. This was in May. 

 During the last part of the following August 

 (and it was one of our dry, hot summers), I 

 noticed that the terminal bud was putting out 

 new leaves. Turning the yucca over, I saw that 

 on the under side two or three small roots had 

 started. I dug a hole about eighteen inches 

 deep and planted it. It had no subsequent care, 

 not even the slightest stirring of the soil. More- 

 over, it was in a neglected fence corner where 

 the weeds held a continual mass meeting around 

 it. Although it grew slowly during the first 

 year, yet it became vigorous the year following. 

 It is now a fine specimen, and supplies a fine 

 yearly crop of leaves for our uses at the packing 

 house. 



In a former number I read of yuccas not seed- 



ing well. Every variety that has bloomed in 

 my grounds has produced seed, and the wild 

 gloriosa usually seeds very well. About fifty 

 miles west of us, on the Nueces River, there 

 exists in wonderful profusion a yucca which I 

 had always thought was the Y. filamentosa. 

 But the leaves are narrower and perhaps longer 

 than the Y. filamentosa here from northern 

 nurseries. This variety seeds abundantly. It is 

 scattered, more or less, all over Western Texas, 

 and I presume over the whole State. 



PROPAGATING HYDRANGEA PANICU- 

 LATA. 



BY E. WILLIAMS, MONTCLAIR, X. J. 



My eye has just met the note of Mr. Abbott in 

 your June number, page 166, on propagating 

 Hydrangea paniculata. My original plant was 

 obtained in this way : A friend commended the 

 plant to me some years ago as desirable, and 

 gave me some branches from which to make 

 cuttings, which I could try; he did not know 

 they would grow. 



I made thirty odd cuttings, planted them, and 

 only one grew, the one named above. I have 

 had better luck, and worse, since then, but to say 

 they will grow as readily as a willow, is putting it 

 too strong; neither will it be generally, that 

 "they will root as readily as a willow," for I 

 think it safe to say 90 to 100 per cent of the 

 latter will grow under any ordinary conditions, 

 while from one to ten per cent, of the former I 

 should consider a fair average under the same 

 conditions. 



I think Mr. Abbott happened to take his stakes 

 just at the right time and attended them with 

 favorable surroundings, and we may have as 

 good success when we learn what those favora- 

 ble conditions are. What is the experience of 

 others in this matter? 



ELBERON. 



BY MARJID DIGRAM. 



Elberon, on the New Jersey coast is a quaintly 

 picturesque place. It is a little town on a strip 

 of moorland, as full of sun and all the breezes 

 that blow as if its resting place was by the Firth 

 of Forth, or on the surf margined downs of the 

 South British coast. Some of its houses, that 

 have not been out of the builder's hands aa much 

 as ten years, might easily claim an antiquity of 

 half as many centuries. It is a conspicuously 



