MONTEVIDEO TRIAL STATION. 5 I 



MONTEVIDEO TRIAL STATION. 



LYCURGUS R. MOVER, SUPT. 



Licium halimifolium is hardy and vigorous but spreads badly 

 "by creeping rootstalks, so as to become a nuisance. Its red fruit 

 toward autumn is more showy than its rather inconspicuous lilac- 

 colored flowers. 



Lepargea argentea (buffalo berry) has made itself at home in 

 our shrub border. It is the earliest shrub to bloom in the spring, 

 opening its rather inconspicuous flowers about April 20th. Its 

 silvery foliage looks best before a background of dark foliaged 

 trees. The pistillate bushes are abundant bearers of bright colored 

 berries. At this writing, Nov. 12, the bushes are still covered with 

 them, dried and cured. The bees frequent the buffalo berry blos- 

 soms, and it is likely that they assist in the fertilization of the 

 flowers. Pistillate bushes at a distance of several hundred feet 

 from pollen-bearing bushes produced this year a full crop of fruit. 



Elaeagnus argentea (Russian oleaster) continues to make a good 

 record. The older trees are now about twenty feet in height. The 

 flowers have a pervasive perfume; the leaves are larger and more 

 whitened than even the buffalo berry, and the shrub is hardy on 

 the bleakest and most wind-swept prairie. The fruit is insipid and 

 inconspicuous, but remains on the tree nearly all winter. 



Morus alba Tartarica (Russian mulberry) has become pretty 

 well established with us now. The older trees zre about sixteen 

 feet in height and produce annually immense crops of rather taste- 

 less fruit. The berries are dearly loved by all fruit-eating birds, 

 and as long as the mulberries last the cherries are safe. The birds 

 take the entire crop of mulberries and make no complaint rs to 

 the quality of the fruit. 



Spiraea Van Houttei stands at the head of spring flowering 

 shrubs with us. The flowers are of a pure dazzling white, and 

 are produced in such profusion as to bend over the branches and 

 give the shrub a "weeping" effect. The half-tone following shows 

 how the shrub succeeds on the prairies of western Minnesota. 

 There are other good spring-flowering spiraeas, such as Spiraea 

 hypericifolia and Spiraea trilobata, but the color of their flowers is 

 rather greenish. Where there is room for but one spiraea it is best 

 to plant spiraea Van Houttei. 



Spiraea sorbifolia, a Siberian species, is with us a thrifty laige- 

 growing shrub producing fine panicles of white flowers early in 

 summer. The leaves resemble those of the mountain ash. It is a 

 valuable and interesting shrub for prairie planting. 



