NATIVE TREES, ETC., FOR ORNAMENTAL PURPOSES. 215 



planted in boxes that measured over six inches in diameter and 

 attracted a great deal of attention. The vine is perfectly hardy, 

 grows in sand or clay soil and in the gravel of railroad tracks, 

 so that I consider we should certainly plant these wild vines 

 for ornamental purposes instead of spending our money for 

 vines secured somewhere else. I have noticed this bur oak in 

 different places about the state, and it is the one tree that blue 

 grass never kills. 



Mr. Benjamin. There ia one plant that was not mentioned, and 

 that is the buckthorn. It can be trained to any height, and it makes 

 a beautiful hedge. I think it is one of the most beautiful things for 

 hedges we have in the northwest. A great many have set out plum 

 trees in hedge row for a windbreak, but they make a very unsightly 

 hedge, and they are also very disagreeable in that they come up 

 from the root, but the buckthorn does not sprout from the root like 

 the plum tree. You can plow and cultivate right up to your hedge, 

 and you can cut off all you want to, it will never come up from the 

 root; it can only be grown from the seed. Prof. Pendergast has a 

 beautiful hedge at his home in Hutchinson. 



Prof. Hansen: In going over the earth I found there was no plant 

 more generally grown than the Virginia creeper. You will find our 

 Virginia creeper in festoons in private grounds, cemeteries and 

 parks, and you find immense archways and pillars, in fact, I found 

 it used in a great number of ways, the like of which nothing can 

 approach in the United States. Others know how to use the Vir- 

 ginia creeper to better advantage than we do. In that case the 

 saying is true that " a prophet is not without honor save in his own 

 country." Of all ornamental plants planted there, it is the most 

 honored. They take all they can get from us, but if we were to 

 take only that which comes to us from Europe we would not have 

 much left. My idea is that we should get all we can from river 

 banks, from the woods, from the prairie country, all we can of the 

 native species and all we can anywhere else. We want to search 

 the world, we want the earth. It is the idea in all our fruit work, in 

 all our ornamental work, in all our tree work, we want only what 

 will stand our climate. We ought not to confine ourselves to native 

 species, we want the earth. (Laughter.) 



Prof. Lange: There are a number of other species I did not men- 

 tion, not because I forgot them, but I understood I was only to have 

 a short paper. The so-called thorn apple I believe would make a 

 good hedge plant. I do not know to what extent it has been tried. 

 There is also a native crab apple that would make a nice hedge. 

 There are also the dogwoods and other native plants. At the Phila- 

 delphia exposition the former received a prize. It grows wild in 

 our state. It has an umbel of unique, rich colored flowers. I think 

 it would improve with cultivation. I mentioned simply a few native 

 vines and shrubs. Another good shrub is the bladderwort. Some 

 of them have large triangular seed pods that remain on after the 

 leaves have fallen and present rather an odd appearance. 



