214 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



vated bush in St. Paul. If you unexpectedly come upon a grove of 

 these shrubs displaying- their autumn flowers in a thicket near the 

 river's edge, as I have found them, you will admit that in color 

 and in delicacy of form they are the rarest beauty of the autumn 

 woods. 



None of the shrubs and vines briefly described in this paper are 

 poisonous; all are perfectly hardy, and their cultivation should 

 receive much more attention. 



Mr. C. F. Gardner, (la.); I would like to state that I con- 

 sider the last two papers that have been read as interesting, to 

 me, at least, as any papers I have heard here during this ses- 

 sion. I think it is a good plan to try to have our people under- 

 stand that it is not best to neglect our own native trees and 

 shrubs and go to hunting around foreign countries for some- 

 thing to take their place. Let us set home trees out, native 

 deciduous trees, evergreen trees and shrubs that are practically 

 adapted to almost any situation. In regard to the oak, I could 

 not quite understand what was meant, but I understood this 

 much, that it was a fact that once in a while the oak would die. 

 It might be well to call the attention of the members of the 

 society to the fact that the oak generally is quite sensitive to 

 the ground being trod upon, and I have never yet seen an oak 

 tree that died apparently from any cause but what if a careful 

 examination was made that that was found to be the cause of 

 death. 



Mr. C. L. Smith: We are a little ahead of St. Paul; we are 

 using the shrubs Prof. Lange describes for ornamental pur- 

 poses. I have been asked the question many and many times 

 during the past few years: "What shall I plant for a hedge?" 

 I said: "Take the red osier; get the little clumps that are 

 growing around the marshes." There are hundreds of clumps 

 of red osier growing around our marshes, and those that have 

 tried it think it is the nicest thing for a hedge they ever saw. 

 Bittersweet grows clear up to the Canadian border, and grows 

 on any kind of soil. The professor forgot to mention that it 

 has the finest foliage of any plant growing. It has rich, glossy 

 leaves, makes a very rapid growth and is very nice to run 

 around a porch or a trellis. The moonseed, I will say, re- 

 sponds very heartily to cultivation, and the leaf increases in 

 size in proportion to the richness of the soil and the depth to 

 which it is stirred and the thoroughness oE the cultivation. I 

 have some pressed specimens of moonseed leaves that measure 

 eight and three fourths inches across. I have some trans- 



