MARCH. 141 



first year ; but the second the whole will make their appear- 

 ance. The second season the young trees may be planted 

 out in nnrsery rows and receive the same culture as other 

 trees. They may also be raised from layers which root with 

 tolerable facility, being ready to cut from the old plant in 

 the autumn of the second year after layering. These soon 

 make handsome trees. 



As an ornamental tree the Sweet Gam has the highest 

 claims upon the attention of the landscape gardener and rural 

 planter. The fine proportions of its somewhat pyramidal 

 head — the dark green of its glossy foliage in summer, and 

 the brilliant hues of its autumn tints — the refreshing aroma 

 exhaled from the opening leaves in spring, as well as the 

 beautifully starry form of their mature growth — all combine 

 to give it a distinctive character, and to render it a conspicu- 

 ous ornament of every pleasure ground, every lawn, or every 

 rural plantation of greater or less extent. 



^nttv'cil Hatices. 



Herbaceous PiEONiEs. — Herbaceous Paeonies flower early, and carry a 

 great deal of foliage, and that upon rather slender stems ; in order, there- 

 fore, to strengthen these and yet not to erect a forest of masts by tying 

 each flower stem to a separate stick, I had some iron rings made about 30 

 inches in diameter, of §-ths of an inch wire, and placed these under the 

 foliage, supported on three iron rods with hurdle claws ; this ring is raised 

 as the plants grow, and the flowers are thus supported, leaning gracefully 

 over their own foliage. 



Pffionia Moutan, var. papaveracea, is no doubt the normal form of the 

 Tree Pseony, and all the beautiful double- flowered varieties of P. Moutan 

 are evidently the offspring of this paternal stock, and since it has sported 

 so freely into beautiful varieties in this country there can be no doubt that 

 the beautiful kinds which Mr. Fortune and otlier parties tell us are grown 

 at Shanghae have mostly sprung from the same parent stock. It is highly 

 important, in future improvements of this genus by hybridization, that 

 shrubbiness of character should be secured, if possible, by one of the par- 

 ents being P. Moutan v. papaveracea; the deep colors of the late-flowering 

 herbiceous kinds might be selected, and plants possessing them, if neces- 

 sary, forced to get pollen early enough to fertilize with. This would secure 

 high color in the offspring, and if the fragrance of some could eventually 

 be extended by crossing to all, we should at no very distant day possess 



