fSgS. 



GARDENING. 



165 



care and skill are used every graft should 

 grow. We usually graft a few each year 

 as curiosities for our friends. 



Division of roots is the simplest way of 

 increasing a variety. It is best to have 

 the eyes started slightly although an 

 experienced person can readily distinguish 

 the perfectly dormant eyes. The eyes are 

 on the crown to which the tubers are 

 attached, and not on the tubers, hence 

 in dividing, care must be taken that a 

 portion of the crown containing at 

 least one eye remains attached to each 

 tuber or clump of tubers. This is the 

 original method of propagation, and still 

 used almost exclusively by amateurs and 

 many florists. 



Propagation by cuttings is now mostlv 

 used by all who grow dahlias in any 

 quantity. When this method is used too 

 much stress cannot be laid upon the 

 necessity of securing good healthy stock, 

 free from disease, and true to name. This 

 is at once apparent, for if the stock is 

 weak or diseased the plants will lack 

 strength, with a greater percentage of 

 losses. That the stock must be true to 

 name is of the greatest importance. Sup- 

 po>e you purchase ten roots of Nympba^a 

 and one should be Oban. Oban propa- 

 gates twice as fast as Nymphsea and out 

 of 100 plants you would have a mixture 

 of twenty Oban and eighty Nymphasa. If 

 the variety was Frank Smith, and one 

 Bird of Passage was mixed in, the result 

 would be still m re disastrous, as the lat- 

 ter makes five cuttings to one of the for- 

 mer. Having secured your stock it should 

 be planted in rich soil in a greenhouse 

 bench, with a night temperature of about 

 50°; 45° is better than 55° if you are not 

 in a hurry and want strong plants but of 

 course 60° night temperature can be used 

 if you are in a hurry, although at the 

 cost of vigor. Just barely cover the roots 

 in planting. When the cuttings have made 

 two to three pairs of leaves cut them off 

 — some prefer sprouting — takingcare that 

 they are cut at the base of two eyes, and 

 placed in sand in the cutting or propaga- 

 ting bench, with bottom heat of 55° to 

 60°. They will root more quickly in 

 greater heat, but will not be so strong. 

 The length of time required in rooting 

 depends on condition and size of cutting 

 and the variety, and varies from ten days 

 to four weeks, although the attention 

 given has a great deal to do with it. 1 he 

 sooner the cuttings are potted off after 

 being rooted the better, in fact we are so 

 careful that the cuttings are all in the 

 proper condition when struck that we 

 pot off in about two weeks, whether they 

 are rooted or not. Unless they have 

 received some check, they are by that 

 time either just rooting or ready to break. 



The cooler the plants are grown the 

 better they will be; 45° to 50° is warm 

 enough at night, although, thanks to a 

 rugged constitution, a vigorous strong 

 growing varietv will stand anything from 

 34° to 100°. The size of the pots does 

 not matter, but it is better to use 2-inch 

 and then shift up for strong plants. 



Dahlia plants can be planted as soon as 

 danger of frost is over, and the roots 

 about two weeks earlier; which, in the 

 vicinity of Philadelphia and New York, 

 is about the first of May for plants and 

 middle of April for roots. 



S. K. Peacock. 



TflE FROSTWEEDS. 



Tne name frostweed is commonly given 

 in the booksto Helianthemum Canadense, 

 also called rock rose — alow half shrubbly, 

 yellow-flowered plant resembling our 

 shrubby St. John's-wort. "Late in au- 

 tumn," says Dr. Gray, "crystals of ice 



shoot from the cracked bark at the root, 

 whence the popular name." This strange 

 phenomenon, which in the case of the 

 helianthemum is sufficiently prominent to 

 give the plant a popular name, becomes 

 really wonderful in some other plants of 

 more luxuriant growth. 



Mr. H. L. Freeman, of Cameron, Mo., 

 has in his garden a plant which has 

 attracted much attention in that town 

 during the past four or five years. The 

 plant was found by Mr. Freeman while 

 camping in the Ozarks, whence it was 

 transferred to its present location. The 

 remarkable feature of this plant is the 

 mass of beautiful white, feathery, moss- 

 like ice crystals some inches high which 

 appears at the base of the stems in the 

 fall after the first heavy frost. The deli- 

 cate tracery of the figures on a frozen 

 window pane will give some idea of the 

 way in which these crystals branch, but no 

 description can do proper justice to their 

 full beauty. The plant is known to bot- 

 anists as Verbensia Virginica (crown- 

 beard), but its production of frost crys- 

 tals has not been hitherto reported. 



We find in nature many strange mani- 

 festations of beauty in unexpected ways, 

 but none stranger or more wonderful 

 than this post-mortem inflorescence, as it 

 may be called, of plants in the very act of 

 breaking up their tissues. 



John Higgins. 



Trees and Shrubs. 



NOTES ON flOLLIES. 



It is in the winter season that hollies 

 and other broad-leaved evergreens please 

 the most. The holly because of its beau- 

 tiful berries and that it has been men- 

 tioned so often in song and story is known 

 to almost every one. It is unfortunate 

 that in the northern states the lovely 

 English holly, Ilex Aquifolium, is not per- 

 fectly hardy. It is, however, hardier 

 than supposed, as to my knowledge it is 

 flourishing in many places about Phila- 

 delphia, and yet I am often told by those 

 living here that this holly will not thrive 

 in this vicinity. 



Readers of Gardening will remember 

 the illustration of a fine specimen of a 



variety of the English holly which I fur- 

 nished a few years ago. It was of a spec- 

 imen growing in the Drexel lot, at Wood- 

 land Cemetery, and at that time the tree 

 was about twelve feet in height, accord- 

 ing to my recollection. It is an almost 

 spineless variety, and is in catalogues 

 under the nameof /. Aquifolium laurifolia. 

 This is thought to be hardier than the 

 type; at any rate this particular bush has 

 never been hurt in winter. 



The common one, I. Aquifolium, stands 

 very well anywhere in this city, save 

 where entirely exposed on all sides. Give 

 it the protection of other shrubs or of 

 anything and it will not be hurt. I read 

 recently, in what paper or book I forget, 

 that the variegated leaved English holly 

 was hardier than the normal form. This 

 is contrary to the rule, but it is worth 

 remembering. In many cases varieties 

 are hardier than their parents. 



A very desirable holly and addition to 

 our list of hardy evergreens, is the Japan- 

 ese species, I. crenata, which we have the 

 pleasure of illustrating herewith. The 

 bush from which the photograph was 

 taken is growing in Fairmont Park, Phil- 

 adelphia, where it has stood since the 

 time of the Centennial, in 1876. It is 

 about ten feet in height and the same in 

 d ameter. This species is perfectly hardy 

 in any situation about this city. The 

 foliage is not prickly, as in most other 

 hollies. It much resembles the myrtle, 

 Myrtus communis, so familiar to Euro- 

 pean gardeners. Nurserj'men should pro- 

 vide a stock of this, for it will surely be 

 in demand. 



A beautiful holly from China, I.cornuta, 

 is unfortunately, not quite hardy even 

 here, requiring a very much sheltered 

 place. It struggles along but does not 

 thrive. The foliage is like that of the Eng- 

 lish, but larger every way. Our native 

 hollies are hardy over a larger portion of 

 the country. What a pity they do not 

 possess the beautiful, green foliage of the 

 English holly! Still they are hollies, and 

 though their leaves are not of as bright a 

 gretn, they presents us with berries for 

 Christmas, and we thus have our true 

 holly berries. 



Great disappointment comes to many 

 from not knowing that all hollies are not 

 fertile. Some bear male flowers, others 



ILEX CRENATA. 



