THE CANADIAN HORTICULTUKIST. 



iO 



older botanists regarded the cranberry 

 ti-ee as a distinct species, and gave it 

 the name of Vibtcrnum oxy coccus or 

 Viburnum edtde ; but hiter researches 

 have established its identity as a culti- 

 vated form of the cranberry tree. It 

 makes a large massy bush, whose 

 branches bend gracefully to the earth 

 beneath their load of showy snow- 

 balls. 



The American Wayfaring Tree or 

 Hobble Bush ( Viburnuiri lantanoides) 

 is deserving of more attention as an 

 ornamental shrub than it has received. 

 Its leaves are somewhat heart-shaped 

 and hoary, its flower cymes very bi-oad 

 and flat, and its fruit of a rich dark 

 red when ripe ; so that both in fruit 

 and flower and leaf it is highly orna- 

 mental. It is found in cold, moist 

 woods as a straggling shrub. 



Perhaps the time may come when we 

 shall have somewhere in Ontario a col- 

 lection of at least our native trees and 

 shrubs, where the families shall be so 

 grouped and the several genera and 

 species planted together in such a man- 

 ner that the student can at a glance 

 perceive their points of similarity and 

 contrast, and become so familiar with 

 their several characteristics as to be 

 able at once to recognize them where- 

 ever he may chance to meet them. It 

 was natural to have expected tliat such 

 a collection would by this time have 

 been planted in the grounds of our 

 Agricultural College, Vjut although 

 some little beginning has been made in 

 this direction, the realization of such 

 an arboretum is apparently in the re- 



mote future. To the writer's mind it 

 appears likely to remain there until 

 some more pei-manent Governor shall 

 be invested with control than the Com- 

 missioner of Agriculture foi- the time 

 being, or the Government of the day, 

 which may be wise or otherwise. Why 

 the farmers of Ontario, in whose intei-- 

 ests the Agricultural College is sup- 

 posed to have been established, have 

 not taken this matter into their own 

 hands and insisted that this institution 

 shall be fully equipped, properly offi- 

 cered, and controlled by men of well 

 known ability in the several branches 

 of agricultural pursuits, remains an 

 unsolved mystery. This will never be 

 done until they do. 



But we were writing of the snow- 

 balls. There is yet another member of 

 this genus which, though not native to 

 our climate, seems to bear it well, and 

 which on many accounts deserves to 

 find a place among our ornamental 

 shrubs. It is called the Viburnum 

 plicatum. It comes to us from north- 

 ern China. Its plaited leaves <i,re of a 

 most beautiful bright green, and its 

 flowers are of pure white. Were it 

 permitted us to give it an English 

 name we should suggest that it be 

 called the Plaited-Leaved Snowball. 

 It is this species that the artist has 

 tried to represent in the colored plate 

 which accompanies this number ; but 

 it is qttite impossible to shew foi'th the 

 purity of the whiteness of its flower 

 as they appear in natui-e contrasted a 

 heightened in Vjeauty as they ar 

 the surrounding foliage. 



