THE GENESEE FARMER. 



87 



HAHDY EVERGREENS. 



Xorway and Hemlock Spruce, Siberian and Amer- 

 ican Arbor Vitfc ; Savin, Red Cedar, Black Austrian, 

 Scotch, Corsican, Pyrennean, Cembrian and White 

 Pines; Balsam Fir, Frazer's Fir, European Silver 

 fir; Douglass Spruce and American White and 

 Black Spruce; Swedish, Irish, Himalayan and Chi- 

 nese Junipers; Japan, English and Irish Yews; 

 Euroi)ean and American Holly; Mahonias, and the 

 varieties of Box. 



MOKE tli.NDKR EVEROREENS FOR SHELTERED LOCALITIES AND 

 THE SOUTHERN STATES. 



Deodar and African Cedars, Cedar of Lebanon, 

 Japan Cedar and Japan Yew; Funereal, or Weep- 

 ing Cypress, Euonymus Japonica, Magnolia Grandi- 

 tiora and Glaucia, Rhododendrons, Kalmias, Thuja 

 siganrea and pendula, Torreya taxifolia, Cyrilla 

 Raceiiiosa, etc. 



HARDY DECIDaOUS TREES. 



Silver Maple, Coffee Tree, Magnolia acuminata, 

 American Linden, European and American Larch, 

 Deciduous Cypre.'^ses, Elms in varieties, Tulip tree, 

 Oaks in varieties, Beach and Ash in varieties, Ca- 

 talpa. White and Black Birch, Red Birch, Cornus 

 in varieties, European and American Hawthorn, 

 Rlius Cotiuus or Mist tree, Acacias or locust of the 

 hardy varieties. 



TENDER DECIDnOUS TREES. 



Laburnum, Koelruteria, Pawlonia Imperialis, Ja- 

 pan Sophora, Salisburia, Virgilia lutea, and several 

 of the most handsome Magnolias. 



Of the weeping trees, there are now quite an 

 assortment, very appropriate to the purpose among 

 which are: European Weeping Ash, Gold Barked 

 Asii, Weeping Black Ash; also. Weeping Beeches, 

 Elms, Larches, Lindens, Sophorte, New American 

 Weeping and Babylonian Willows, Weeping Arbor 

 Vit;c, Junipers, Cypresses, etc. 



In planting these or other trees, the irregularity 

 and happy combinations of nature should be ob- 

 served, and the best management they could receive 

 after [ilanting would be to imitate nature in lier 

 annual dressings of leaves and decaying vegetable 

 matter. Nothing more will be required. They 

 need no patent fertilizers. 1 would recommend 

 nothing but a top dressing of leaf mold to keep up 

 the requisite moisture about the roots, and the 

 planting of moderate-sized trees. As regards prun- 

 ing, I should leave that chiefly to nature also. 

 Clipped and formal trees always look to me like 

 monstrosities, as if nature could not form anything 

 beautiful. I would use pyramidal trees, or those that 

 are naturally so, but would spare them the shears. 

 It is difficult to retain the form by shearing when 

 the trees grow large, and then they are neglected, 

 looking much worse than those that have been left 

 to form themselves in a natural way. 



Mt. Victory, 0. W. C. HAMPTON. 



CULTIVATION OF FLOWERS. 



I THINK that a few leisure hours may be spent 

 very agreeably and very healthfully in the cultiva- 

 tion of flowers, that we may corhbine the orna- 

 mental with the useful. Flowers, of all things, are 

 the most innocently simple, and most superbly 

 complex objects of study. Flowers unceasingly 

 expand to heaven their gratetul odors, and to man 

 their cheerful looks; they are patrons of human 

 joy, soothers of human sorrow, fit emblems of the 



victor's triumphs and of the young bride's blushes. 

 Flowers are in the volume of nature, what the 

 expression "God is love" is in Revelation. What 

 a desolate jjlace would be the world without a 

 flower! It would be a face withont a smile — a feast 

 without a welcome. 



" I deem it not an iiile task, 



These lovely flowers to rear. 

 That spread their arms as they woujd ask, 



If sun and dew are here; 

 For simple wants alone are theirs, 



The pure and commcm too — 

 The beauty ol refreshing airs, 



The gift of liquid dew. 



"Nay, 'lis no idle thin^r, I trust. 



To foster beauty's birth — 

 To lift from out the lowly dust, 



One blossom of the earth ; 

 Where barrenness before bad been, 



A verdure to disclose, 

 And make Ihe desert rich in sheen, 



To blossom like the rose." 



How much flowers resemble the young heart, in 

 its bright morning, before it has stained the foliage 

 of its sinless years. A tradition of them tells us 

 they were once like youth, in this: that they loved, 

 and talked, and had passions like ours. How often 

 and how fondly the poet revels in the field of 

 flowers. Do they not talk to him? Who has ever 

 heard the soft, low whisper of the green leaves and 

 bright flowers on a spring morning, and did not 

 feel gladness in his heart? Like beauty in the 

 human form, flowers hint and foreshow relations 

 of transcendant delicacy and sweetness, and point 

 to the beautiful and unattainable. From the gar- 

 den favorite to the dainty wild flower of the 

 mountain, all have an inexpressible charm, an 

 unapproachable beauty. How sweetly and instruc- 

 tively the flower bows its head to the breath of 

 night, or the rude storm. Thus the heart learns 

 to bring a holier oftering to the shrine of all good. 



" Heart comforts are ye, brifrht flowers, and 

 I love ye for your pentle ministry. 

 And for the arnjile harvest of sweet thoughts 

 My soul has garnered in for future use." 



We hope our fair friends Avill not overlook the 

 delightful employment of the cultivation of flowers. 

 Every one may have a few; and when the taste is 

 once acquired, it will not readily be relinquished. 

 A woman destitute of the love of flowers seems to 

 us a mistake of nature. The delicate and the 

 beautiful should have sympathy with all in nature 

 that possess the same qualities. The time spent in 

 the cultivation of flowers is not wasted. They 

 contribute to our pleasure; they add to our know- 

 ledge of nature; they unfold to us the beautiful, 

 and tend to elevate the mind. 



"They in dewy splendor, weep without woe, and blush without 

 crime." 



Although every part of a plant offers an inter- 

 esting subject for study, the beauty of the blossom 

 seems, by association, to heighten the pleasures of 

 scientific research. 



Flowers are indeed lovely ; yet they are destined 

 for a higher object than a short-lived adiniration ; 

 for to them is assigned the important office of pro- 

 ducing and nourishing the fruit. Like youthful 

 beauty, they are fading and transient; and may 

 our youth so improve the bloom of life, that, when 

 youth and beauty shall have faded away, their 

 minds may exhibit that fruit which it is the impor- 

 tant business of the season of youth to nurture and 

 mature. L. N. 



Windsor, 0. ' 



