HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 375 



have a commercial value for the supply of tannin, and its stems 

 make the best sap spiles for conducting maple sap from the trees 

 to the buckets of any wood that grows, their resinous quality pro- 

 tecting the sugar wood from evaporation at the boring. 



The prickly ash seems well adapted as a hedge for turning stock 

 as its spines, though short are thickly placed on the branches, and 

 are quite sharp and very strong. Cattle browse arouud it in the 

 woods, but do not run over it. Its bark has a commercial value 

 for medicinal uses, and hence this shrub disappears with advancing 

 civilization unless protected from the bark gatherer. 



The wahoo we have, but it does not recover and mature as quickly 

 as most other shrubs after the passing of prairie fires, which have 

 burned over all our gulches within a few years, and it is the favor- 

 ite browse of cattle and jack rabbits. I have not been able to find 

 it in full flower or seed bearing. On the lawn, or wherever pro- 

 tected, it is said to be one of our gayest trees, deserving its name 

 burning bush, from the high color of its seeds. 



The sweet elder we have. Its blossoms have a heavy, sweet 

 fragrance, and the fruit is edible and showy; worthy of a place on 

 the lawn. Wine from the sweet elderberry, is a favorite tonic. 



The diamond willow grows in all our gulches, always seeking the 

 lowest ground. It is usually of scrawny growth, and it is difficult 

 to find a stem straight enough for a walking stick; its wood takes a 

 fine polish, and a stick with a dozen or more diamonds to the lineal 

 foot is a very handsome curiosity when properly trimmed for show 

 purposes. The largest specimen I have seen was about six inches 

 in diameter. 



The common straight water willow also lines the gulches and 

 water courses, anl there is another, more of the tree form, with 

 rough darker bark than the others, growing to the size of the Cot- 

 tonwood, and adapted to similar ground. 



The native rose I have reserved to the last because it is a favor- 

 ite of mine, and a flower appropriate to grace either the greeting 

 or the parting scene. It' South Dakota wants a nickname, and 

 some of our newspapers are already suggesting their favorites, let 

 it be Rose State, and our people the Rose Bustlers, for the rose is 

 our one universal flower, and the toughest rustlers we have. It is 

 of all rose colors, the bush iu every rose form, and the bloom con- 

 stantly coming from June till October. Among the many sorts is 

 a tree rose that grows seven to eight feet high among small timber, 

 and often hangs out its pretty pink bloom among the tree branches, 

 offering the dainty illusion of rose bloom growing on the plum and 

 cherry, or other small trees among whose branches it leans for 

 support. Farmers have much trouble with the dwarf rose in their 

 cultivated fields, but there is always some bank if not a place on the 

 lawn, where all the native roses can be tolerated and where they 

 may well be welcome. 



I have brought here with me specimens of nearly all the trees 

 and shrubs mentioned in this article, cut this winter; some of them 

 may possibly be new to a portion of my hearers, and I hope they 

 may be to some extent more interesting from this poor attempt in 

 their behalf. 



