13 Retrospective View of the 



Hovey & Co., from New Mexico ; it will prove one of the 

 greatest novelties of recent introduction to our gardens. 



Arboriculture. 



Ornamental gardening is receiving a much greater share of 

 attention than heretofore. A lively interest is manifested in 

 the introduction not only of foreign trees and shrubs, suita- 

 ble to our climate, but in the acquisition of our native trees, 

 which yet remain, to a great extent, wholly unknown in our 

 gardens. Of all the beautiful hardy oaks which Michaux 

 so elegantly iigures in his beautiful Sylvia, not more than 

 three or four are at all made use of for ornamental planting. 

 Other American trees, of great beauty, not so abundant as 

 the oaks, yet sufficiently so to be better known, are rarely, if 

 ever, seen in the grounds of our villa and suburban gardens. 

 The fault of this, to a certain degree, is owing to the inabil- 

 ity of our nurserymen to supply them, and partly to the igno- 

 rance of purchasers who know nothing of their beauty, 

 and will try nothing but what they have seen everywhere, 

 for fear they may disappoint their expectations. The only 

 way to overcome this feeling and diffuse a taste for fine trees, 

 is for nurserymen to plant out a few single specimens where 

 they may be examined and their attractiveness at once estab- 

 lished. 



The introduction of many new evergreen trees will event- 

 ually change the character of our grounds. The constant 

 recurrence in plantations of the Balsam Fir, Norway Spruce, 

 and Arbor Vitce, will soon be varied by the acquisition of the 

 Black Austrian Pine, Scotch Fir, Pinus excelsa, P. cembra, 

 yl^bies Smithza?ia, A. Webbz«7icr, and others equally beautiful ; 

 the two first being admirably adapted to the most exposed 

 and bleak situations on the seashore, where they thrive in a 

 thin soil with great luxuriance. Nearly all the pines and firs 

 which succeed in England will grow freely south of Phila- 

 delphia; but in the New England States it is necessary that 

 experiments should be tried to find out which are hardy, 

 before risking the loss of such as are yet high priced and dif- 

 ficult to procure. We shall endeavor to supply all the infor- 



