i8 97 . 



GARDENING. 



135 



in a garden of this character than it they 

 were gravelled. Along the back of the 

 grounds, which is the western side of the 

 lot. extends a tight board fence. This is 

 to be covered with hardy flowering vines, 

 principally clematis, and in front a long 

 border is made lor hybrid perpetual roses, 

 which gives them an eastern exposure 

 and protection from the west. 



EXPLANATION OF PLAN'. 



1. Magnolia soulangeana. 



2. Magnolia conspicua. 



3. Rose flowered weeping Japan cherry. 

 4-. Flower garden with beds for herba- 



baceous plants, spring flowering bulbs, 

 summer-blooming bulbs and annuals, 

 with grass walks between beds. 



5. Malus liorabunda. 



6. Magnolia stellata. 



7. 7, 7, 7, 7, 7 Shrubs deciduous and 

 evergreen planted in masses with groups 

 of strong growing herbaceous plants and 

 lilies in the margins. 



8. Japan snowball. 



9. Pin oak. 



10. Mahis toringo. 



11. Exochorda grandiflora. 



12. Magnolia Lennei. 



13. Group Kalrnia latifolia. 



14. Group Berberis Thunbergii. 



15. Group Rosa Wichuraiana. 



16. Group Kalmia latifolia. 



17. California privet hedge. 



18. Japanese maples. 



19. Malus Parkmanni. 



20. Specimen rhododendron. 



2 1 . Magnolia s tella ta . 



22. White-leaved weeping linden. 



23. Magnolia parviflora. 



24. Cut-leaf birch. 



25. 25, 25, 25. Posts for clothes line. 



J. Wilkinson Elliott. 

 Pittsburg, Pa. 



Trees and Shrubs. 



GERClDIPHmUM JflPONlGUM. 



This is a Japanese tree of recent intro- 

 duction into our gardens and but little 

 known among us. Although it is one of 

 the commonest forest trees in its native 

 country and we have had it in cultiva- 

 tion here fir most twenty years, and 

 occasionally find it in pretentious and 

 connnoiseurs' gardens, it isn't at all a 

 common tree in this country and is never 

 likely to be. As with Kcelreuteria panic- 

 ulata, that beautiful little Chinese tree, so 

 is it with this Japanese handsome giant, 

 its ungainly nan.e will ever kill its popu- 

 larity as a garden plant. 



Cercidiphvllum Japonicum is the only 

 species of the genus It is the largest and 

 one of the most important deciduous trees 

 of Japan where it inhabits the foothills of 

 Vezo, and the Viigh mountains of the more 

 southern islands, and it has recently been 

 found in China. In its best estate it 

 reaches a height of 100 feet, but seldom in 

 clear shaft-like trunks, it rather breaks 

 into several branches near the ground and 

 these reach up in large trunk proportions. 



The tree has a tall, slender, much- 

 branched form, and is well clad with red- 

 bud-like foliage which it holds well 

 throughout the year and which assumes 

 a crimson tint in fall. Although it is 

 nearly allied to the magnolias (its family 

 name is Trochodendracea?) and mature 

 specimens flower freel3- there is no beauty 

 at all in its blossoms, it is simply an 

 elegant tree with pretty leaves, and we 

 have never known it to be touched by 

 insects. 



In cultivation here it is very hardy and 



GBRCIDIPHYLLTJM JAPONICDM. 



it usually assumes a pyramidal form more 

 or less acute, sometimes it is almost 

 columnar, and not infrequently broad 

 and round headed; you will find an illus- 

 tration of a tree of this latter shape in 

 that lovelv Dosoris picture in Gardening, 

 page 5, September 15, 1892. We had 

 some plants on high, dry ground, but 

 they refused to be comforted so we trans- 

 planted them to a lower situation where 

 the ground was deep, friable and moistish, 

 and there they grew admirably. Like 

 many of our Tapanese plants it is a shal- 

 low rooting tree, hence unfitted for culti- 

 vation in hot, thin, dry soils; give it rich 

 deeply worked soil and plenty moisture 

 if you wish to see it in its most elegant 

 thrift and beauty. It is always branched 

 to or near to the ground, therefore well 

 adapted for a lawn side specimen, but of 

 little avail as a street tree. Another 

 point, it dislikes contact with salt water. 

 At Dosoris there was a beautiful pyra- 

 midal specimen that an unusually high 

 tide reached out to and killed, whereas 

 oaks, beeches, silverthorn and some other 

 trees whose roots were inundated at the 



same time showed no evil effects from the 

 Atlantic brine. It is readily increased 

 from seeds imported from Japan, or from 

 cuttings. William Falconer. 



PRUNING EVERGREENS TOO CLOSE. 



As early spring is approaching rapidly 

 and it is the proper season for pruning 

 evergreens, a few hints on the subject at 

 this time will be appropriate. It is 

 known to many who have had a great 

 deal of planting to do that in the plant- 

 ing of deciduous trees late in the spring, 

 after they have pushed into leaf, while 

 proper to shorten in the young shoots 

 considerably and to partly defoliate them, 

 it is almost certain death to them to strip 

 off every leaf. They certainly do very 

 much better if a few leaves are left undis- 

 turbed. 



And though b ;t few ever give it a 

 thought, it is just as true in the case of 

 evergreens. Evergreens shed an annual 

 crop of leaves in the fall, just as deciduous 

 trees do. The difference is that there is 



