108 



JOUKNAIi OF HOETICULTDEE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEK. 



I February 11, 1 



despicable object at this season — of course it will require some 

 time to get the plants prepared. 



For the centre of the bed plant a distinctly silver-edged Holly ; 

 plant round it Rhododendron dauricum, nest it Jasminum nu- 

 difiornta, then Rhododendron variegatum, next the deepest- 

 coloared Mezereon, then Viburnum tinus, next the lighter- 

 coloured Mezereon, then Arbutus unedo, and then the white 

 Mezereon, finishiug witli Erica carnea. If the plants are in 

 pots they can be easily plunged, or, if grown otherwise, they 

 can be removed to the reserve ground. The various-coloured 

 Mezereons make a fine bed by themselves. 



Bat to return to the Mezereon. It is not uncommon to see 

 its lovely blooms peering through the pure white snow. When 

 so seen it is a charming sight, compared by some to a nymph ; 

 hence the name Daphne, who in the midst of winter seeks 

 admiration in her summer robes Its flowers appear in 

 January and February, and one of its chief recommendations 

 is that they continue long in perfection. In all their various 

 colours the flowers are very beautiful in the early spring, and 

 so is the autumn-blooming variety. It is said by some the 

 plants will attain the height of 5 or G feet, and may be fre- 

 quently met with near Andover in Hampshire, and Laxfield in 

 Suffolk, but I have not had the good fortune to see them in 

 their native habitats. 



The Mezereons are of easy culture, and may be increased by 

 division, grafting, or seed. The seed at times will not vegetate 

 until the second season, sometimes causing those not acquainted 

 with this habit to think it is not going to make its appearance, 

 and so it is destroyed ; but patience is required. When the 

 seedlings have remained a season in the seed bed they may 

 be treated as the operator may think best for the purpose 

 they are intended for. They are good subjects for pot culture 

 for in-door decoration, where flowers are in great demand in 

 winter. 



Good loam with a little fibrous peat, a little leaf mould, and 

 a sprinkling of charcoal and coarse sand, as well as good drain- 

 age, are essential to the successful pot culture of these plants. 

 Plunged in a shady situation during summer, and attended to 

 with water as they require, they will bear gentle forcing, and 

 amply repay any care bestowed upon them.— il. 3l., Ackliim 

 Hall, MiddlcshroUfjh-on-'Tecs. 



GARDENING IN THE WEST.— No. 0. 



Fbom what has been said of the severe atmospheric aridity 

 which the gardener must frequently encounter in the " Land 

 of the West," it is clear that many items of common practice 

 hare are quite impracticable there. I will refer to some of 

 these cases. 



In England it is common to see trees and plants exposed for 

 sale in the markets with the roots quite bare, and often so 

 continued night and day even in the winter months, and 

 with apparently but httle apprehension of their being injured. 

 Even evergreens are sometimes exposed in this way. The 

 digging-up of trees, packing, shipping, and planting go on 

 through all the winter months with but little check. All this 

 is very diSerent in the States. There no roots of any kind can 

 be safely trusted to the uncertainties of the weather and the 

 rail, over a night after November 15th until near the end of 

 March. Indeed, the ground is sealed up during most of that 

 period, buried in trackless snow, or stony with impenetrable 

 ice, or both. Of course, a vast deal of out-door work accumu- 

 lates, and crowds into the five or six weeks between the setting- 

 in of mild weather about March 2l8t and the unfolding of buds 

 and blossoms about May 10th. Daring this brief season the 

 ground is generally wet and soft, and always cold. Often there 

 are night frosts, which wring the moisture, as it were, out of 

 the Boil, and leave a cold slippery slush on the surface during 

 the next day. 



There is, however, a time in the lovely Indian summer of 



October, when the air and the soil are balmy as if wafted from 



Paradise ; and thus we do have glimpses of Paradise, in one 



way or another, everywheie ou earth, if only in youthful love — 



" That tne sweet plant wLich, pitenus Heaven agi-eeing, 



Man brought with him through Edeu's closing gate."' 



A time — I begin again — to plant, and I will speak of it pre- 

 sently ; but while we have our feet in the chill mire of Ameri- 

 can May I will say out my say about it first. This is our only 

 time to remove aad plant out trees with thin bark, tender roots, 

 or leafy (evergreen) trees with thin open bark ; as the Peach 

 will shrivel before spring if planted in the autumn, so that if 



the roots survive to supply sap, the stems cannot convey it. 

 Fleshy tender roots, as of Tulip trees. Magnolias, Gleditsohias, 

 &o., decay under the long stagnation, even if frost does not 

 reach them. Evergreens planted ia autumn in open unshel- 

 tered places, are sure to huve their leaves burned off by the 

 combined attacks of the wiuter winds, the March snn, and the 

 torpor of the ice-cased roots. They are usually planted in 

 May, after all planting of deciduous trees is over. It must 

 be remembered that the sun in the middle States has 11^ 

 higher altitude than in England, and that the sky obscures it 

 less. 



So the gardener has pretty strong motives for taking time 

 by the forelock ; and in that sweet October time to which I 

 have referred, full six months before the chill season just 

 alluded to, he goes earnestly to work to relieve the pressure of 

 the spring. Everything that will endure covering up with soil, 

 all deciduous cuttings, are made and put in, or should be 

 made and put in, as soon as natural ripening or the effects of 

 early frosts have taken off the foliage. All trees and shrubs 

 capable of enduiing the wiuter are planted so early in the dry 

 warm soil that new roots often form. Of course, close packing 

 and moulding-up of the ground is necessary to keep all dry 

 and warm. This is rendered essential, because, if the earth is 

 left loose and becomes charged with water, " heaving-out " is 

 sure to occur. Stakes, posts, and taper fusiform roots, if not 

 entirely covered svith soil, are drawn out and laid over on the 

 surface of the soil, as if done by hand. The powerful March 

 sun strips off the protective mantle of snow, and, by thawing 

 the soil daily which has been " heaved " by the expanding 

 influence of the previous night's frost, allows it to subside ; bat 

 the plant, unless held down to the unfrozen substratum of soil 

 by good strong side roots, goes up with the soil, but has not 

 gravity enough to come down again with it. The preventives 

 of this evil are good drainage and early compacting the soil 

 before winter, with the complete covering-over of all cuttings 

 or seedlings liable from their forms to be lifted out. Soils on 

 which it is apt to occur are best avoided. 



It should be added in regard to evergreens, that when they 

 are to be removed but a short distance it is often practicable 

 to remove them in the latter part of August, about the time at 

 which occur the fall rains, that end the droughts of summer. 

 The same season serves for the division and eetting-out of 

 herbaceous perennials, and for sowing Wheat and Rye, planting 

 Strawberry beds, &c., all of which plants must have time to 

 root well and grasp the soil firmly before winter, in order to 

 retain their hold till spring. 



Very few indeed of the broad-leaved evergreens which shelter 

 English homes so charmingly in wiuter, can endure the Ameri- 

 can climate at all in the open air, although many Firs are finer 

 than here. The Laurels, Hollies, Aucubas, Bay, and Laurus- 

 tinus fail entirely and are never seen. Even the Ivies, Yews, 

 Box, Mahonias, Lavender, and Rosemary perish, excepting in 

 moist sheltered places, and where well protected from the winds 

 of winter and the sun of spring. Many of the tenants of the 

 coldest driest hills in Great Britain, and the humble tenants of 

 dry hedgebanks, perish as of consumption when their lungs — 

 their leaves — are exposed to American air. Such are Heaths, 

 Primroses, and European Gooseberries and Grapes. It would 

 be interesting to hear a microscopist's report on the difference 

 of leaf-structure between American and EngUsh species of the 

 same genus. In mountain gaps where streams of water supply 

 moisture to the air, and overarching trees and rocks yield 

 shade, and where the mineral soil is simple argil and sand. 

 Rhododendrons, Kalmias, trailing Yews, and dwarfer evergreens 

 hold court in splendour under the shade of luxuriant Firs and 

 Hemlock Spruces, such as are not to be seen here but in cari- 

 cature, and are there rare sights treasured in Nature's recesses 

 in the wilderness, and enjoyed by " campers-out " in the hunt- 

 ing season in the lovely Indian summer time. — Pennsylyanu. 



LICHENS ON FRUIT AND OTHER TREES. 



The rapid increase of Lichens on trees has been fairly 

 pointed out by one of your correspondents. Having lived in 

 countries where they are found in far greater abundance than 

 in England, perhaps a few remarks upon the subject may not 

 be uninteresting. 



I question very much if there is any country in which so 

 much Lichen is met with as in New Zealand. No one who 

 has been in the bush can ever forget the picturesque appearance 

 produced by the hanging Lichens, and the pendulous fronds of 



