VARIETY IN TREES 99 



as this was IVIr. C. B. Blair's at Grand Rapids where beneath 

 several of the very fine elms, for which all that valley of the 

 Grand River is renowned, one of the most brightly glowing 

 flower gardens of all my experience — made of course in fresh 

 rich soil — has persisted for years. 



Where flowers are grown below trees for some seasons, if the 

 garden after a time (as undoubtedly it will) deteriorates, change 

 its character. As it fails a little, plant more shrubs; make over 

 the spot into* a place of grass and foliage — a green garden. 

 Certain shrubs do marvelously well under large trees: Salix 

 pentandra, Philadelphus, for instance, and the matrimony vine. 



For those interested in experiments with less familiar trees 

 there are certain magnolias, perfectly hardy in northern gardens, 

 such as M. stellata and M. conspicua. In my opinion such trees, 

 because of the shining dark green of their leaves, should be used 

 mainly where the foliage is in the same key with evergreens, ivy, 

 and such. It is in such company too that their white or pink 

 flowers are most dazzling in spring. ISIr. Wilson commends the 

 sourw'ood (Oxydendrvm arhoreum), a beautiful tree from the 

 Appalachians, with white urn-shaped flowers, which are pro- 

 duced while the tree is yet very small. There are, too, the Varnish 

 tree (Koelreuteria paniculata), the Pagoda tree {Sophora japon- 

 ica), and the Acanthopanax {Kalopanax ricinifolium) . The first, 

 originally from Russia, but much used in Chinese gardens, Mr. 

 Wilson holds a capital subject for our own. Its height is from 

 twenty to thirty feet, its flowers in midsummer (please notice 

 that) are many and of a bright yellow among its large and glossy 

 green leaves. 



Anyone who has grown locusts and more especially the black 

 locust knows their ready foe, the borer. Sophora, the second of 

 these trees, is locust-like in appearance and has flowers of white, 

 but no borer will attack it. This tree grows to a great height 



