224 Hardiness of the Clarke Raspberry. 



blooming in June instead of autumn, and of requiring the least possible 

 care and skill in their culture. They take care of themselves as nearly 

 as any garden-plant can be said to do so. 



The points were, to improve the color, and to make the flower double. 

 And this has been done ; not, as is popularly supposed in such cases, by 

 any mysterious and artificial process, but merely by the careful selection 

 of seedlings from generation to generation, keeping only the best, and re- 

 jecting all others. Thus the natural dull rose-color of the original 

 species has been changed into vivid red, and the single flower has been 

 gradually transformed by successive steps into one as double as the best 

 French asters. The shades of color in these improved varieties range from 

 pure white to crimson, including every shade of rose and flesh color. More 

 improvements are to be looked for in future, as the pyrethrum, regarded as 

 a florist-flower, is still in its infancy. 



It grows to a height of between two and three feet ; and sometimes, 

 though not always, requires the support of a stick. But there is a good 

 prospect that a race of dwarf pyrethrums not more than a foot high can 

 be produced. Out of about a thousand seedlings, I found this season eight 

 or ten dwarf plants, some of which formed dense tufts of foliage close to 

 the ground, with the flowers resting upon it not more than six inches above 

 the crown of the root. I have no doubt that the plants showing this ten- 

 dency can be so developed and improved as to form a very pretty and 

 desirable section of the pyrethrum family. F. Parkman. 



HARDINESS OF THE CLARKE RASPBERRY. 



An inquiry of a correspondent in the June number of the Journal, and 

 your request for information from different sections, induce me to say this 

 variety has stood the past three winters here, fully exposed, without injury. 

 The lowest temperature during that time was twenty-five degrees below 

 zero, Farenheit. Geo. W. Campbell. 



Delaware, O. 



