198 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



The shrub which our correspondent refers to is the Kalmi'a glauca : one 

 could hardly fail to recollect so beautiful a plant. It would no doubt thrive 

 Avell in Canada West, and would certainly add to the beauty of any garden. 

 No doubt most of our nurserymen have it for sale. Messrs. Hovey & Co. 

 have a stock of many hundred beautiful plants, mostly raised from seed or 

 imported seedlings. — Ed. 



Grafting Hickories and White Pine Seeds. — Will you not favor us 

 with a little gossip in your next number about grafting hickories ? I have 

 been unsuccessful by any of the common modes for several years. What 

 is the best treatment of white pine and Deodar cedar seeds two years old 

 and dry to ensure their growth ? — Yours, respectfully, James Weed, Musca- 

 tine, Iowa, Feb., 1856. 



We can give but little information in regard to the grafting of hickories, 

 in addition to what has already appeared in a previous volume, (XX., pp. 78 

 and 4G0,) where two methods are detailed of grafting the English walnut, 

 which will apply with equal force to the hickory, and we must refer our cor- 

 respondent to that volume. We recently read some account of grafting 

 the hickory successfully by using the two-year old wood, but we do not at 

 this moment recollect the authority. It would be an experiment wortli 

 trying. The French, who are skilful in propagation and adopt various meth- 

 ods of grafting, according to the habits and character of the trees, recommend 

 the walnut to be propagated by " tubular budding," as described in our 

 volume for 1854, (XX., p. 391). It is a nice operation, but is usually suc- 

 cessful with the walnut, hickory, &c. 



White pine and Deodar seeds, two years old, are apt to lose their vitality 

 if taken out of the cones. They do not, however, require any other prepar- 

 ation than to sow in boxes in the greenhouse or in a frame in the open 

 ground, and treating them as fresh seed. Soaking with water is more likely 

 to be injurious than beneficial. We have found the seeds of some kinds of 

 pines to vegetate well the second year, but most of them fail, particularly 

 the Deodar. In the cones the seeds remain fresh two to four years. — Ed. 



portitultural Operations 



FOR APRIL. 

 FRUIT department. 



Cold, chilly winter still " lingers in the lap of spring." The month of 

 March, though remarkably pleasant and unusually free from storms and 

 cutting winds, has yet been a cool month, with only one night in which the 

 thermometer did not fall below the freezing point. The average tempera- 

 ture, however, notwithstanding the zero night of the 10th, has been warmer 

 than the March of 1855, which was exceedingly blustering and characteristic 

 of this variable month. Great quantities of snow still cover the ground, in 



