THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[Apnl. 



way. Sometim&s I save the. old roots and put 

 them on some out of the way place, and they 

 soon push up young plants which arc taken off 

 in the spring and make nice plants. 



With Such things as geraniums, when taken up 

 in the fall, only the cuttings are saved, and boxed 

 up in the same manner in boxes of sand, and put 

 on a shelf all round, close to the glass, where they 

 are not much seen, and by the month of March are 

 all rooted and potted up ; by this time they can 

 be put in hot-beds, and are in the best order pos- 

 sible for bedding' in the latter end of May, which 

 is as early as we can put anything out with safety 

 here. Such plants as Salvia officinalis, Mesembry- 

 anthemum cordifolium and the Thymes are all done 

 in this way. Any amount of cuttings can generally 

 be got from them early in the spring in this way, 

 from which I make large quantities grown in the 

 hotbeds. Only in a very few cases do I ever keep 

 over the old plants, and that where plants grow so 

 slow that one year is not sufficient to grow them 

 large enough to be useful, such as Leucophyton 

 Brownii, &c. All this will be nothing new to prac- 

 tical men, but will be of benefit to many who are 

 not acquainted with this way of keeping over large 

 quantities in a small space, as to which I have 

 many inquiries. 



HOPE FOR CITY TREES. 



BV MARGID DIGRAM. 



A drug store on upper Broadway, N. Y., between 

 the squares — possibly it is directly opposite the 

 Union — may now be seen of evenings brilliantly 

 illuminated with electricity. The light is not fur- 

 nished in a large globular lamp, as we have here- 

 tofore seen it, but is broken up into a multitude of 

 jets, each of which is surmounted by a vase-shaped 

 shade, if I may so term it, of clear glass, which has 

 a broad line of ornament chased or ground upon 

 it.. This shade is especially mentioned because it 

 seems to be a helpful feature. The light given off 

 from the small jets is not silver colored as in the 

 spherical lanterns, nor of a rich gold color as in 

 the gaslight, but is somewhere between the two; 

 resembling, in fact, that which we see in the stars, 

 and casting off, like them, scintillating beams or 

 radiant lines of light. 



From this upper Broadway pharmacy, I suppose, 

 the new method will spread until every city, town 

 and village within the Union is as richly furnished. 

 Now this fact, it seems to me, is of some interest 

 to the arboriculturist, and to the lover of ornamen- 

 tal trees. With the actual departure of the gas- 



light, and its accompanying nuisance of gas waste, 

 the tree grower, if he is a lover of his kind, should 

 make an heroic attempt to again carry his vegeta- 

 tion within the city limits, and regain and plant 

 the streets which have too long suffered from his 

 absence. 



It would be well, if in the cost of each tree set, 

 should be included also a fee for the care of it for 

 a number of years, say five or ten, the oversight 

 to cover the two or three weeks immediately fol- 

 lowing its first insertion in the ground, and subse- 

 quently a semi-annual inspection and cleansing 

 from insects. Though the majority of town resi- 

 dents seemingly labor under the impression that 

 arboreal vegetation will take all necessary care of 

 itself, it is a mistake, and tree growers as a body 

 should see that they are better informed, and keep 

 them so by periodically refreshing their wonder- 

 fully short memories. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Strong-Rooted Perennials. — Many perennial 

 plants are betterfor being occasionally transplanted, 

 but there are others where the rule will not apply. 

 At a recent meeting of the Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society, C. M. Hovey said that "the Fraxi- 

 nella should be grown from seed where it is 

 wanted ; it makes strong woody roots, with no 

 fibres, and is very difficult to transplant. The same 

 is the case with the Asclepias tuberosa, which he 

 esteems the most beautiful of all our native plants." 



Failure in Narcissus and Daffodils. — A 

 Germantown correspondent last year asked us 

 about the failure of some old beds to make good 

 flowers. At a recent meeting of the Massachu- 

 setts Horticultural Society, Mrs. H. L. T. Wolcott 

 said that " her narcissus buds failed so that she 

 gave up in despair, but she took them up and 

 reset them, and every bud gave a flower." 



Rose Niphetos. — This, which has become so 

 popular with cut flower growers in America, is just 

 as popular on the other side of the world. It is 

 an old rose now, as it was raised by a Mons. Bou- 

 gere-Breton in 1843, and it is remarkable that its 

 merits should not have been noted till 1870 or 

 thereabouts. Surely " Hope on " might be the 

 motto of many a good rose which thought itself 

 neglected. 



Fine Old Judas Tree. — In the garden of Mr. 

 E. Harcourt, at St. Clare, in the Isle of Wight, 

 there is just now a Judas tree, Cercis siliquastrum. 



