122 Editorial Miscellany. 



thus should be grown in the country, particularly on our Western prai- 

 ries, for timber ; he says that the wood of an old ailanthus tree is hard 

 and strong, and takes a polish as well as mahogany, and is equally hand- 

 some for furniture. Its rapid growth in a timberless country would be great- 

 ly in its favor ; and if the trunks of the grown trees are a good substitute 

 for costly mahogany, it should be grown where the country is open, and 

 not in city streets, and, what is very common, in small pent-up back 

 yards, where the peculiar odor of its blossoms will penetrate every room 

 in the house. The ailanthus should never be set along the roadside op- 

 posite cultivated fields, because every broken root will send up a sprout 

 and soon fill all the ground. The best way would be to make a planta- 

 tion of the trees by themselves, just as those do who grow locust timber 

 as a crop. For shade-trees we have the elm, maple, locust, black wal- 

 nut, sycamore — all rapid growing trees — and the American tulip tree, the 

 flowers of which are surpassingly beautiful, and for country road-sides we 

 would plant, as well for shade as fruit, apple and cherry trees — the first, 

 seedlings that grow large and strong — and the latter, of what we call the 

 old English cherry, the trees of which grow a great round top and last 

 healthv many years. In planting for shade or city ornament, or filling 

 up a park or open grounds, it is a great error of taste and judgment to 

 plant all one kind of trees, whether ailanthus or any other kind. The 

 greater the diversity of kind, both in form and size and date of putting 

 out or shedding leaves or blossoms, the more pleasing will be the efi"ect. 

 The old elms of New Haven are noble specimens of street-planted trees, 

 but there is a sameness, a sort of uniformity in appearance, that tires the 

 eve much sooner than when it rests upon various forms and shades of 

 color. 



HovEY & Co. of Boston exhibited 210 varieties of pear at the State 

 Show at Elmira, Elwanger & Barry, the renowned nurserymen of 

 Rochester, displayed 207 varieties of pear and 130 of apple, Mr. E. Dorr 

 of Albany showed 33 varieties of plum, Frost & Co. of Rochester ex- 

 hibited 74 varieties of pear. Besides these, a number of other nurserymen 

 made fine displays of fruit, flowers, <fec. Take it all in all, the fruit show 

 would be diflSeult to excel, even in France. 



At the October meeting of the New-York Horticultural Society, Dr. 

 Knight, the corresponding secretary, exhibited a rare plant in bloom, 

 which he found in Jones's wood, and which he says is the monotropa 

 unijlora, a parasite and perennial, and forms a connecting link between 

 the herbaceous plants and the fungi. By the way, Jones's wood is a 

 little copse, situated in the upper part of the city, and is doubtless the 

 abiding place of many rare plants which have not yet been introduced' 

 to technical phraseology -B. I. L.L. S.T.U.B.B.S. H. I. S. M. A. R. K. 



