52 



GARDENING. 



Nov. i. 



the white snowberry, symphoricarpos. 

 The arching shoots of the red, freely sup- 

 plied with its fruit, make excellent mate- 

 rial lor the filling of vases. There are two 

 dwarf pyrus, arbutifolia, with red berries, 

 and melanoearpa, with black ones, which 

 are as ornamental bushes as one could 

 wish for. 



Eleagnus umbellata is the late fruiting 

 silver thorn. Its fruit is just ripe new, 

 long after all other species have passed 

 by. The mottled red berries are thickly 



that do not change at all, but keep up 

 their rich green foliage unchanged in spite 

 of freezings and winter storms. I think 

 there are others like me who are pleased 

 to see bright green leaves in winter, and 

 1 propose to name a few of the shrubs 

 and trees that bear them. I recall just 

 now about a dozen of this description. 



Readers will bear in mind that I am 

 writing of what is to be seen in this vicin- 

 ity. Some of the kinds I have in mind 

 may not be hardy farther north than 



EREMDROS ROBUSTUS. 



clustered along the stems. The foliage, 

 too, is pretty as is that of all silver 

 thorns. 



I will close the list of shrubs with Calli- 

 carpa purpurea. Its slender arching 

 branches are thickly clustered with lovely 

 violet colored berries. 



There are two vines I would like to 

 mention before closing, the Celastrus 

 scandens and the Lyciutn Chinense. Both 

 are decorated with scarlet fruit, and they 

 keep up the display for a long while. 

 Two other species of celastrus, punctatus 

 and articulatus, are equally as good as 

 the other if not better. 



Philadelphia. Joseph Meehan. 



GREBN FOLIflGED EVERGREENS IN WINTER. 



I am frequently asked to recommend a 

 number of evergreens which change in 

 winter to colors differing from their sum- 

 mer attire. There are a great many 

 evergreens of this description, and 

 there is mam' a place on a lawn which 

 they fill nicely. But to me, among 

 so many that change color, some to 

 pretty shades and others not, it always 

 affords great pleasure to look on some 



this, but wherever they would stand the 

 winters the foliage would keep green. 



Probably the best of all, because that 

 hardiness goes with it, is theNordmann's 

 fir (Picea Nordmanniana). This noble 

 evergreen is always a pleasure to look on. 

 No matter how severe the winter, the 

 beautiful deep green of the foliage is there 

 when spring comes. It seems defiant of 

 all kinds of weather, and it is certainly 

 entitled to a first place among large 

 growing evergreens. 



The Lawson's cypress ( Cupressus Law- 

 soniana) is^unrivalled in the deep green 

 of its foliage. And then how very pretty 

 is its somewhat conical habit of growth 

 and its drooping branchlets! I remem- 

 ber that some twenty years ago this fine 

 evergreen was deemed tender hereabouts. 

 I can say now that for ten years or more, 

 ot dozens of specimens unprotected, not 

 one has been injured in all that time. A 

 variety of the last named, called stricta 

 viridis, possesses all the good qualities of 

 the parent. Its growth is of stiff, upright 

 character, quite distinct and meritorious. 



Another evergreen of the deepest green 

 all the time is the arbor-vita; from the 

 Pacific coast, Thuja gigantea. In this. 



respect it is quite different from the east- 

 ern arbor-vita?, occidentalis, which be- 

 comes of a quite brown color on the ap- 

 proach of cold weather. Gigantea, be- 

 sides having lively green foliage, forms a 

 rather heavier tree than the other. There 

 is no trouble with it here from lack of 

 hardiness. 



Yews give great satisfaction to all that 

 use them. I do not know of any of them 

 that are not hardy. But the English and 

 its many varieties are the best for color. 

 This is Taxus baccata and its varieties 

 stricta and hibernica. Sometimes the 

 sun will scorch the southern side of the 

 hibernica in late winter. Planting it 

 where it gets shade in winter insures the 

 preservation of its deep green color all the 

 year through. 



Cephalotaxus Fortunei has much of a 

 yew look about it, excepting that it forms 

 a more bush-like growth. It is a most 

 valuable evergreen, and true to its color 

 at all times. 



Podocarpus japonicus forms an erect, 

 yew-like bush, and its foliage is oi the 

 dark green order. When of some size and 

 seen from a little distance it reminds one 

 very much of the Irish yew. 



I hope Gardening readers won't think 

 I have forgotten myself when 1 mention 

 English holly. It is so common to be 

 told by neighbors that they cannot grow 

 it. I can only say I can, and so can oth- 

 ers in Philadelphia. It needs shelter from 

 winds and hot sun, and a mulching to 

 keep out frost from the root in winter, 

 then it succeeds. Its lovely green foliage 

 is worth some trouble to have. 



Mahonia japonica is one of the best of 

 small shrubs, the light green color keep- 

 ing up all winter; and there is its dormant 

 panicle of flowers showing all the time, 

 waiting for the warm spring days to 

 come. 



There is no shrub with as beautiful 

 green foliage as the old Euonymus japon- 

 icus, but though hardy enough in the 

 shade with us, it cannot be depended on 

 in the full sun. 



I will conclude by mentioning some of 

 the buxus, or box. The one used for 

 edgings is not always of good color when 

 allowed to become a bush, neither is 

 arhorescens, the common tree box. But 

 it is different with a Japanese one, calle i 

 rotundifolia. This is of a pretty green 

 all the time, and it has larger leaves than 

 common. And how manure does help 

 keep up its color, as, indeed, it does that 

 of all evergreens. Joseph Meehan. 



Philadelphia. 



The Flower Garden. 



EREMURUS ROBUSTUS. 



This noble bulbous plant is as yet quite 

 rare in our gardens, but it is one that all 

 lovers of choice and beautiful flowers 

 should have. It has proved quite bardy 

 in the cottage garden at Mabwah, N. J., 

 where it has grown and flowered the past 

 two years. The illustration gives a fair 

 idea of how the plant looks when in 

 flower, although it scarcely does the sub- 

 ject justice. 



This is not a new plant but one of those 

 real good things which seem to be omitted 

 from our gardens. In a letter Irom Mr. 

 Falconer last June, in speaking about 

 Eremurus robust us he tells me it is just 

 19 years since he first flowered this plant 

 at the Botanical Garden in Cambridge, 

 and he says it was grand. 



This plant is a nativ; of Turkestan and 

 this spring came in flower the 20th of 



