of Rural Art and Taste. 



271 



The Trumpet Creeper. 



nV S. MII.LKK. 



IN your Portfolio in the June number you 

 refer among other things to the Trumpet 

 Creeper and Morning Glory. Both favorites 

 of mine from ray youth ; but which can be 

 viewed here from very diiferent standpoints. 



Few things are more grand than to see a 

 Trumpet Creeper cover an immense space of 

 bare rock along our cliifs here. When in 

 bloom and the sun shining, the sight is daz- 

 zling. Where the cliffs face the south, these 

 show to the best advantage. I could show you 

 them now, over one hundred feet high, cover- 

 ing a thousand square feet in all their glory. 



This is the bright side ; now for the other. 

 When in late autumn you walk along beneath 

 these naked clifts, the Bignonia looks like a 

 gray serpent attached to the wall, with here 

 and there pods dangling and flapping against 

 the rock, giving the already sad scene a more 

 gloomy look. 



But the worst is to come, when the hus- 

 bandman is taken into account. These 

 bursting seed pods send their contents out to 

 the winds and are spread all over the bottom 

 lands, where they are a most abominable 

 nuisance. They come up in thousands and 

 are almost invulnerable. Sythe, hoe, plough 

 and all else seem unavailing for one or two 

 years. And even if destroyed, one season's 

 lying idle of land will fill it again. 



The Morning Glory, of which we have 

 millions on an acre, are pretty enough, but, 

 where corn is to be cut in the fall, they are a 

 little too much attached to the corn for con- 

 venience. To give you an idea of how weeds 

 grow m these rich bottom lands, will tell you 

 that up to this date I have cleared one patch 

 five times this season and expect to give it 

 two or three more. 



Last season it was kept clean, but there 

 seem to be seeds enough in the ground still. 

 But if weeds grow, other things do also. 

 Corn will grow fifteen feet high. 



Bluffton, Mo. 



Verbenas. 



BY JOHN (JUILL. 



AMONG a collection of choice verbenas 

 ordered last spring, we discovered one of 

 the newer sorts, labeled Hybrida, presenting a, 

 vigor similar in character to none of its com- 

 panions. The robust attitude and remarkable 

 beauty exhibited by this new verbena after a 

 few months' cultivation, received the unani- 

 mous approbation of floral critics in this 

 locality. And at the recjuest of co-workers 

 in the garden, we will attempt a plain descrip- 

 tion for The Horticulturist. 



Branches from three and a half to four feet 

 long, very strong and robust with a natural 

 tendency to spread, and almost entirely cover- 

 ing the whole area of surface three to four 

 feet from the center each way. Each branch 

 divides itself at mid-way into lateral shoots, 

 that keep pace in growth and vigor with the 

 main branches, and spread in masses as they 

 near the end. Numerous suckers form a 

 bushy, upright column in the center, giving 

 the whole a finish that is both unique and 

 attractive. Leaves dark green, long and 

 lanceolate, deeply veined, and of a thick, soft 

 texture, edges deeply notched, each alternate 

 notch larger and deeper, and tapering gently 

 towards the top. Petals pure white, quite 

 durable and shaped like the letter B. 



The plant at the time of this writing dis- 

 plays forty-seven trusses of blossoms with 

 almost a corresponding number hastening 

 to maturity. Each truss averages fi*om two 

 and a half to three inches in diameter, and 

 rounds off compact and solid like the large 

 end of a very large egg. 



An out-of-the-way corner of our flower 

 garden is termed the reservation, where various 

 kinds of bedding plants are sunk with pots in 

 tan bark, and there reserved to fill vacancy, 

 decorative purposes, etc. The tan bark is 

 kept in continual moisture with strong solu- 

 tions extracted from fresh manures, chicken 

 mould, etc. A portion of this fluid is de- 

 signed to soak through the pots and convey 

 to the plants pure and moderate nourishment. 



Scientists perhaps would be slow in approv- 

 ing this mode of artificial manuring. The 



