342 [AsSEMBLT 



all the purposes of basket making, and every other form in which 

 the osier can be employ edjwas cultivated several years ago bvMr. 

 Bement. The specimen here presented has been cultivated for 

 the purpose of having an example of the true osier for the exam- 

 ination of all who come to the Institute for information. The 

 foreign osier is sold here at seven cents a pound. 



Ambrose L. Jordan — late Attorney-General, of this State, sends 

 to the Club specimens of the true basket willow — nine feet long — 

 grown on his place on the Hudson river. 



NEW PLANTS GENEiiALLT. 



Judge Van Wyck, the Chairman. — The introduction of new 

 plants, that is the useful and beautiful, into every part of our 

 country where they will grow^ and prosper, ought to interest 

 strongly the farmer, planter and gardner. The farmer of the mid- 

 dle and eastern States, knows pretty well what new fruit, flower, 

 or forest tree, he has not upon his premises, and from the best in- 

 formation from experienced individuals, agricultural journals and 

 periodicals, endeavor to procure and cultivate such as would be 

 the most profitable to him. Profit means not only things that can 

 be used for the table, and gratify the palate, like fruits and vege- 

 tables, or such trees as can be used as timber, but such plants and 

 trees as produce the sweetest and most beautiful flower, and larg- 

 est leaf and most dense foliage. These last make the finest shades 

 for dwellings and home-steads and ornament the ground adjacent 

 to them. The eye, now-a-days, must be pleased and gratified, as 

 well as the palate ; this increases the value of the mansion farm 

 and grounds attached to it. Tliese reasons will apply with equal 

 force to the planter or farmer of the south. Our gardners, too, 

 of both sections, north and south, should pay some attention to 

 ornament in laying out these, as well as great attention to the 

 quantity and qualify of their products. The French have shown 

 great attention, as much so, and perhaps more than any nation in 

 the world, to the introduetion of new, beautiful and useful plants 

 into their country, they have great taste, acuteness and science in 

 everything relating to arboriculture, floriculture and Jiorticulture. 

 In Louis Phillipe's time, w^hich embraced 18 years, they introduc- 

 ed about 15,000 new plants into France, consisting of fruits, trees. 



