THK CANADIAN HOKTIOULTUKIdT. 



83 



it to be the sentiment of the majority 

 of our readers, and not from any ill- 

 feeling toward any individual. 



J. H. WiSMER. 



Pt. Elgin, Feb. 8th, 1886. 



Note by the Editor. — Our friend 

 is quite right, and we trust correspon- 

 dents will accept the criticism. 



.^UME INTERESTING LAWN TREES. 



Dear Sir, — In sending my sixteenth 

 yearly subscription, I think I ought to 

 write a few words on what I have seen 

 and experienced in fruit and horticul- 

 ture. I see by the report of the Win- 

 ter Meeting that the third subject was 

 shade trees, &c. Had I been there, I 

 should have advocated four shade trees 

 that I have taken much interest in : — 

 The Tulip tree, Catalpa, Widben Pear, 

 and Monkey's Puzzle. The Maple is 

 the standard shade tree of America, but 

 we want a variety. We should not 

 like to cultivate only one flower be- 

 cause we thought it the best and pret- 

 tiest. In visiting England a few years 

 ago I saw long rows of our Maples 

 planted in Kew Park, near London. 

 When I first came to Canada, over 

 forty years ago, I saw several Tulip 

 trees in blossom. In visiting St. Louis, 

 ill the latter end of June, several years 

 ;tgo, I saw a number of beautiful shade 

 trees in blossom. On inquiry, I was 

 told that they were Catalpa trees, but 

 Too tender for Canada. I hope the 

 \Mriety that has been sent out to the 

 members will prove hardy. It will be 

 a fine sight to see them in full blossom. 

 The Widben Pear is a tree that grows 

 wild in Buckingliamshire, in England. 

 1 1 has some appearance of the Mountain 

 Ash, and I should think it was a species 



f it. It has bunches of berries like 

 the Mountain Ash, but they are sweet 

 and good enough to make preserves of. 

 The leaves are a good deal like a beech 

 leaf, only white underneath. It ap- 



pears to be perfectly hardy. I have 

 seen two trees of them in Toronto ; one 

 in the Horticultural Gardens, which 

 came through last winter without the 

 least injury. I do not know its bota- 

 nical name. The Monkey's Puzzle, so 

 called from its sharp points all over 

 the tree, has scales on both trunk and 

 branches, like pine apples, so that a 

 monkey would require boots on to run 

 about it. In appearance, it is greatly 

 like the Austrian Pine. It is not iron 

 clad ; it suffers sometimes in England 

 in severe frosts ; it will grow in the 

 western j)art of Canada, and as far 

 north as Toronto. As a lawn tree, I 

 thought it was the finest in England. 

 It requires great pains in planting, and 

 not to be exposed too much. 



EGLI^TON. 



CHANGE OF NAME NEEDED. 

 When one is ordering trees or shrubs 

 from a nursery it is important that he 

 should be able to make himself clearly 

 understood ; therefore, it is essentially 

 necessary that there be but one common 

 name for each species, because more 

 leads to misunderstanding and disap- 

 pointment. For instance, I received 

 an order for six Syringas of sorts. I 

 kept ruminating in my mind for a time 

 as to what I had better send, but 

 knowing the gentleman from whom the 

 order came to be somewhat scientific, 

 I finally decided that he must be using 

 the technical name for *' Lilacs." So 

 I sent him six Lilacs, two of a sort, 

 with both technical and common names 

 attached. They were quickly returned 

 with a note stating that he did not 

 want " Lilacs," bnt " Syringas," com- 

 monly known as such ; so then I knew 

 he wanted Philadelphus, or Mock 

 Orange. With many, Syringa is still 

 the common name for Philadelphus ; 

 while the proper generic name for LiUc 

 is Syringa. Hence, in order to avoid 

 confusion, would it not be better to 



