THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



271 



VALUABLE INFORMATION CONCERN- 

 ING VERY HARDY TREES. 



The readers of the Canadian Horti- 

 ddturist are aware that Mr. Chas. Gibb, 

 of Abbottsford, Province of Quebec, 

 spent last summer in visiting the horti- 

 cultural establishments of Europe, and 

 that in a special manner he investi<^ated 

 the fruits and trees of Russia in tlie 

 hope that he might be able to finri some 

 very hardy varieties of good quality 

 which could be introduced into Canada, 

 that would be valuable acquisitions, 

 particularly in Quebec, the Algoma dis- 

 trict of Ontario and in Manitoba. From 

 his published notes and letters we here 

 bring together some of the most valu- 

 able items of information, which strike 

 us as being specially worthy of atten- 

 tion. 



The Scotch Pine, Pinus Sylvestris. 

 At the ancestral house of the Vilmorins, 

 those well known seedsmen and nursery- 

 men of France, he found a variety of j 

 this Pine of great value, differing in its 

 habit of growth from those that have 

 been imported into this country hither- 

 to, and well worthy of attention. Its 

 habit of growth is upright and straight; 

 the first plantation was large enough 

 for masts of sloops and small schoon- 

 ers. There were jdaiitations from the 

 seed of those j)lanted down to the third 

 generation, and even the third genera- 

 tion of them were from twenty to 

 tiiirty feet high and as straight as 

 can lies. This form of Pinus Sylvestris 

 does not seed as abundantly nor does 

 the seed germinate as certainly as that 

 of the other forms which are compara- 

 tively of little or no value, hence the 

 seed of commerce is that of the poorer 

 sorts. This form of the Scotch Pine 

 should be imported and grown in this 

 country that its valuable timber may 

 become a source of national wealth. 



The White Poplar, Populua Alba, 

 var erecta. This variety is nearly as 



erect in its habit of growth as the 

 Lombardy Poplar and is thought by 

 Mr. Gibb to be very important both as 

 a timber and an ornamental tree. Pro- 

 fessor Budd, of the Iowa Agricultural 

 College, who accompanied Mr. Gibb, 

 says that the best forms of this White 

 Poplar will yet become our leading 

 lumber tree for hundreds of economic 

 uses. Already a very considerable de- 

 mand has sprung up for such wood for 

 purposes of paper making. Cuttings 

 of this Poplar have been ordered from 

 Ru.ssia for trial at the Ontario Agricul- 

 tural College. 



The Weeping Birch, Betula alba 

 verrucosa, seems to be a variety of 

 drooping birch, with foliage like our 

 common white birch, which Mr. Gibb 

 thought to be specially desirable. He 

 saw it growing upon the dry soil of the 

 Petrovskoe Park, near Moscow, in 

 which the avenues and groves of this 

 birch foimed the most attractive feature, 

 presenting a charming vista of bright, 

 translucent, white barked trunks. 



The Apple. To his surprise, Mr. 

 Gil b did not find what we call the 

 Siberian Crab in Russia, save in some 

 botanical collections. The apples that 

 prove hardy in their colder sections are 

 quite dilfennit nices from those grown 

 here or in Western Europe, and he has 

 come to the conclusion that the kind of 

 hardiness we require in an apple tree, 

 that it may thrive in our extremes of 

 hot summers and cold winters, is not to 

 be found in occasional individuals of 

 the races we have, but by introducing 

 the races of North-easteni Russia which 

 there grow in climate so very similai" 

 to our own. There seems to be two of 

 these races there, one of them known 

 under the generic name of Anis, of 

 which there are many varieties. This 

 Anis apple he says is the leading apple 

 of the Volga ; that in latitude 55^ 

 North, in a climate of great extremes, 



