i8g8. 



GARDENING. 



117 



BEGONIA GLOIRE DE LORRAINE. 



evergreen holly, the Magnolia glauca, the 

 deciduous cypress and many other trees 

 common north and south, have not sprang 

 from a common centre, one wing going 

 south and another north. In this case 

 the one advancing northward pushed on 

 into colder regions gradually, accustom- 

 ing itself to the climate. Perhaps a seed- 

 ling varied in hardiness at times, as we 

 know weeds do, and the hardier one 

 would hold on and form a parent stock 

 for others of the advanced line. My own 

 opinion is that trees can accustom them- 

 selves to a climate different f om their 

 own. It has been my good fortune to 

 have observed for many years the behav- 

 ior of oak trees and sweet gums raised 

 from seeds received from near the sea 

 coast in Georgia. 



As your southern readers know, these 

 trees grow to a late period in the fall, 

 well into what is thought winter in the 

 North. But in the North, growth is over, 

 the wood ripened and leaves off before 

 freezing weather comes. It is interesting 

 and instructive to see seedlings of the 

 sweet gum from the two sections side be- 



side. The northern plants will be be- 

 reft of foliage wbile the southern ones 

 are as green as midsummer. This is why 

 they are not hardy. The first freezing 

 weather finds the southern plants with 

 immature wood, and this is killed back 

 nearly to the ground. I have seen this 

 occur often, not only in the case of the 

 sweet gum but also in that of pignut, oak 

 and cypress. But the instruction is not 

 all received in one season. The next sea- 

 son and many more, witnesses the same 

 thing, but the seedlings gain intelligence, 

 so to speak, year by year, and the evi- 

 dence is unmistakable that they are mak- 

 ing more of an effort every year to 

 accomplish their growth in a shorter 

 time. 



Eventually they succeed in this, and 

 then there are no more killed back shoots, 

 and the tree is as hardy thereafter as its 

 northern representative. It is this inborn 

 tendency to keep up growth late that 

 causes the loss of so many southern trees 

 in northern gardens. There stands to-day 

 in Philadelphia a nice tree of Quercus 

 aquatica, the southern water oak, large 



enough to bear acorns, which to my 

 knowledge was partty winter killed year 

 after year for a term of some ten years. 

 It is now twentyyears since the seed was 

 sown, and for many years past not a 

 twig has been hurt by freezing. I have 

 asked men of much prominence in horti- 

 cultural matters whether in their opinion 

 a southern tree growing in the north did 

 not in time become hardier, and have 

 been surprised to have for their answer 

 that they did not so believe. I am confi- 

 dent that trees do, in the way described, 

 viz., by accustoming themselves to our 

 seasons, ripening their wood earlier, and 

 being thus enabled to withstand freezings 

 which heretofore killed them. 



I have not yet got as far as the raising 

 of seedlings from such trees, but I am 

 firmly of the opinion that such seedling* 

 would be hardier than their parents in 

 their early years, and that they would 

 ripen up their young shoots and shed 

 their leaves in good time, as northern 

 trees should. The subject will bear inves- 

 tigation. Joseph Meehan. 



Philadelphia. 



