158 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



in. a rich pulp as hardhj to be noticed. I think in 

 shape anil size they conijiare very well with the Hovey 

 Seedliiif!: strawberry. The A^'ew Rochellc blackbeiry 

 sends up annually larjie and viQ:orous shoots with 

 lateral branches, all of which, under common cultiva- 

 tion, will be crowded with fine fruit, a portion of 

 which ripens daily in moist seasons for six weeks, 

 commeneino^ about the middle of July. They are 

 perfectly hardy, always thrifty and productive, and I 

 have not found them liable to blijrht or injury by 

 insects.' " 



Wc copy the above from the Peoples Journal, 

 one of our most valued exchanges, published in the 

 city of New York at fifty cents a volume, giving two 

 handsomely illustrated volumes a year, by Alfred 

 E. Beach, 86 Nassau street. 



TEE TREES AND SHRUBS OF CALIFOR- 

 NIA AND. OREGON. 



JcDGixG from the variety of trees in general culti- 

 vation throughout our principal towns and cities, the 

 casual observer would suppose the United States 

 were miserably barren of ornamental trees. Passing 

 through any prominent nursery the same opinion 

 would be formed. Row after row of Norway Spruces, 

 Scotch Firs, Austrian Pines, Scotch Larches, Norway 

 Maples, English Limes and Mountain Ashes, cover 

 the ground ; trees are imported by thousands and 

 tens of thousands, and yearly the demand increases, 

 and fresh importations furnish a supply. Without 

 such a source to rejalenish as the English nurseries 

 afford, our pleasure grounds would remain mere open 

 pastures, and our gardens without shade or shelter. 



"How is it,"' asks an enthusiastic planter "that I 

 cannot find a Hemlock, a AVhite Cedar or a Jersey 

 Pine among all the nurseries to put into my grounds; 

 and while thousands of acres are covered with the 

 Rhododendron and Kalmia, two of the most magnifi- 

 cent of all evergrectf shrubs, why should I never meet 

 them in our cultivated grounds; and still further, the 

 fragrant Magnolia, the American Holly, the Canadian 

 Yew, and the Prinos glabra, each of remarkable 

 beauty, and all growing abundantly in our swamps 

 and pastures, yet why is it that I have looked for 

 thera withont success?" 



The question is easier asked than answered. It is 

 difficult to account for such a neglect of our own na- 

 tive trees and shrubs. The only solution we can give 

 Ls, that glowing abundantly and eveiywhere through- 

 out the country, they were altogether too common'to 

 attract notice ; and influenced as a taste for garden- 

 ing has been, like other tastes, by fashion, it was 

 pecessary to discard those easily to be had, for such 

 as were rare, or little known. To walk round a gar- 

 den filled with Hemlocks, Rhododendrons, Kalmias, 

 Magnolias, the fragrant Clethra, and all the beautiful 

 variety of our native woods and fields and hedge 

 rows, would afford nothing for admiration, nothing for 

 remark — they would be but common every-day things, 

 and the offspring of a common uncultivated taste. 

 But let the grounds be planted with Norway S])ruces, 

 Lilacs, Laburnums, Daphnes, &c., and then how much 

 praise would be elicited from the spectator; how fine 

 the taste tiisplajed in the arrangement, and how rai-e 



the knowledge that could gather from all climes the 

 combined treasures of each ! 



Too long has fashion had her sway in landscape 

 art. "W^e see its effects in the long lines of Ailanthuses 

 which border the streets of some of our cities, 

 making the air noisome by their profuse bloom, 

 and bringing an otherwise beautiful tree into disre- 

 ])ute, from its too great abundance in confined places. 

 We see it in the frecjuency of the Elm — unequaled 

 among all trees when judiciously introduced — which 

 is planted to the exclusion of almost every other kind 

 We see it in many other objects in gardening art 

 It was the prevalence of fashion which that dis- 

 tinguished master of landscape gardening, Mr. Rkp- 

 Tox, had to contend with, and which retarded its 

 progress, and rendered its practice difficult and often 

 pei-plexing to its professors. 



These remarks, though somewhat a digression from 

 our subject, have been forced upon us in viewing the 

 progress of rural art in our country. We are but 

 just beginning to aiipreciate the importance of g'i\'ing 

 it more attention, and that proper direction which 

 shall be guided by true taste, without being hampered 

 or influenced by fashion. 



It has been said by some that it is impossible to 

 create in this country the effects produced by English 

 landscape planters, for want of the variety of trees 

 which they can employ in that uiilder climate. We 

 are inclined to doubt this; indeed, we are certain that 

 in the greater portion of our extended territory more 

 striking, varied and grandly picturesque landscapes 

 can be produced than in Great Britain. For v.dierever 

 the Magnolia grandiflora arrives at its giganiic growth, 

 the cUmate admits of every beautiful shrub and tree 

 of the temperate zone. But even in our colder 

 northern latitude we are vain enough to believe that 

 we can produce the finest effects with wliat hardy 

 trees we may possess. The finest deciduous trees in 

 the world are the Magnolias, principally nal!\ i s of our 

 woods. "The grandest and most ornaminial ever- 

 green tree," says Loudon, "is unquestionably the 

 Cedar of Lebanon, and the most elegant and graceful, 

 the Hemlock;" the latter one of our coimnonest 

 species, and the former sufficiently hardy to grow in 

 any part of New England. "The most extensive 

 Pine forests in the world, and the most gigantic 

 specimens," says the same author, " exist in the United 

 States." 



The distribution of the Coniferes, according to 

 LouDox, is as follows: In Europe, /oi/rffcft kinds; in 

 Asia, nineteen kinds; in North America, /o/-^_y kinds; 

 eighteen in the United States, and twenty-two in 

 CaUfornia and Oregon. Thus showing that we ])os- 

 sess more than one-half of all that had been intro- 

 duced up to 1838. At least twenty-five of these aj-e 

 perfectly hardy in the latitude of 42°, and probalily 

 all but ibur or five will prove to be so v>-hcn fully IrieA 



The disparitj' in the number of evergreens we now 

 cultivate and the above list is great indeed, and the 

 question arises, AVhy have they not been introduced ? 

 We leave others to answer, while we proceed to put 

 a more important question: "Shall no effort now ha 

 made, with the present facilities of ra]ud communicar 

 tion with the Pacific coast, to speedily introduce the 

 magnificent trees of that fertile portion of our country; 

 or shall we rest contented with what we find imme- 



