222 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 274. 



bad condition through neglect and improper treatment. 

 There is a broader question involved than the condition 

 of these trees; and the community which has just saved 

 its beautiful and historic pleasure-ground from dismember- 

 ment at the hands of a street-railway corporation by ener- 

 getic and well-directed efforts and a remarkable display of 

 public spirit, is naturally unwilling that the venerable trees 

 which Boston owes to the forethought of Mayor Quincy 

 should be sacrificed by a public official whose only claim 

 to the office he fills is the fact that he was once a success- 

 ful commercial florist. The citizens of Boston properly feel 

 that if the Common trees must be cut the advice of trained 

 experts should be sought before the irremedial injury is 

 done, and that the whole question of the management of 

 the city's trees is a matter of such importance that it should 

 be entrusted to more responsible hands than those of the 

 present city forester. 



The life of an old and apparently feeble tree can often 

 be prolonged for many years and its beauty and usefulness 

 restored by a system of careful and judicious pruning and 

 by renewing the soil from which it derives its nourish- 

 ment ; and the inhabitants of Boston are not unreasonable 

 in demanding that such remedies should be tried and that 

 the best advice should be obtained before the unity and 

 beauty of their shady malls are broken into and the old 

 trees removed to make room for saplings whose future, 

 surrounded and overshadowed as they must be by large 

 trees, is, to say the least, problematical. This is a question 

 which does not interest Boston alone. In every city there 

 is need of the services of tree experts to decide important 

 questions relative to the trees growing in parks and on 

 public thoroughfares ; and probably there is not a pleasure- 

 ground in any American city on which the trees are not 

 suffering from ignorant or timid management, or a park 

 superintendent really interested in his w^ork who does not 

 feel the need of the support and advice of a committee of 

 experts in whom the community would have confidence. 

 In nine public parks out often there are too many trees by 

 half, but their removal ought not to be undertaken thought- 

 lessly or in ignorance of all the conditions essential to the 

 health and longevity of trees. 



We have often spoken of the value of deciduous 

 shrubs for planting in the climate of our northern At- 

 lantic states, and now while the snowy bracts of the flow- 

 ering Dogwood are brightening every wood-border, and 

 the Lilacs are blooming in every village door-yard, we are 

 specially reminded of the effectiveness of masses of 

 shrubbery. Shrubs have the advantage of being beau- 

 tiful all the year round. Many of them bloom in late sum- 

 mer and autumn, and, in addition to their flowers, have sin- 

 gular beauty of foliage throughout all the growing season. 

 Others have showy fruit which persists well into winter, and 

 even in that leafless season a halo of soft color from the bark 

 of the small branches envelops them like a mist. But this is 

 the season of their most abundant bloom, and the sudden 

 coming of spring this year has brought into flower together 

 various kinds which are often separated by some Aveeks in 

 the time of their blooming. One rarely sees the Forsythia 

 and the Lilac, the Shad-bush and the Dogwood, the Peach 

 and the Apple blooming together, as they have done during 

 the past week ; but what we have in the mass this year we 

 can have in succession every year, for there is no climate in 

 the world in which deciduous shrubs thrive and flower bet- 

 ter. The heat of our summers and our long dry autumns 

 ripen up the wood, so that these plants come out of the win- 

 ter with a vigor unknown in climates with more moderate 

 changes. The very conditions which make it difficult to cul- 

 tivate broad-leaved evergreens and conifers in this country 

 are the ones which exactly suit hardy deciduous shrubs. 

 Again, they are of a size which can be adapted to the most 

 modest garden, ranging as they do from the form and 

 stature of small or shrub-like trees to low-growing plants 

 like the Rhodora, Trailing Arbutus and Daphne Cneorum. 

 We have often spoken of the beauty of our native Cornels, 



Viburnums, Thorns and of some smaller shrubs, but the en- 

 tire temperate zone can be laid under contribution, for the 

 shrubs of Asia and Europe flourish here as well as our own. 

 A mere catalogue of the names of desirable species and va- 

 rieties would include hundreds, each with a distinct use and 

 beauty, but careful descriptions of all the most important 

 ones can be found in the well-indexed volumes of Garden 

 AND Forest. As a rule, they are easily propagated and 

 cheaply raised. They increase in beauty every year they 

 live, and they live for a long time. 



Notes from West Virginia. 



T AST year I was warned that, perhaps, my Cedrella might 

 -*— ' be an Ailanthus, and I have been trying to satisfy my 

 mind as to its identity by a comparison of its leaves with those 

 of the Ailanthus. I find that the latter have "obliquely-lanceo- 

 late leaflets, coarsely toothed at the base, with a gland on the 

 lower side at the point of each tooth." The point of the leaf- 

 lets is entire. The Cedrella, on the contrary, has slight serra- 

 tions near the tips of the leaflets which the Ailanthus-leaves do 

 not have, and they are without glands at the base. I quote 

 from Apgar's description of these trees. Cedrellas are now in 

 leaf and g^rowing rapidly, but have not yet bloomed at Rose 

 Brake. They seem perfectly hardy, as they were uninjured by 

 the very unusual and long-continued cold of the past winter. 

 The only plant killed outright from this cause was a fineChaste 

 Tree (Vitex agnus-caster). Callicarpa purpurea, which in Eng- 

 land is treated as a greenhouse shrub, was unhurt, although 

 unprotected. Deodar and Lebanon Cedars and an Evergreen 

 Magnolia, which were tied up with straw, have escaped se- 

 rious injury, while a small Magnolia glauca, var. Thompsonii, 

 was half-killed. 



Evergreen Evonymusesand Mahoniashad their foliage badly 

 scorched, but Ilex opaca and the beautiful Osmanthus illicifo- 

 lius were unhurt. Abelia rupestris and Zizyphus vulgaris were 

 covered with dead leaves. The Abelia lost some of its last 

 year's growth, but is now doing well. The dps of the branches 

 of the Zizyphus are dead. 



Perhaps there is no more beautiful shrub now blooming at 

 Rose Brake than Berberis aquifolium. The new leaves are 

 not green, but have coppery shades of brownish red. These 

 have pushed off all the persistent, but scarcely evergreen, 

 leaves of last season, which in their scarred and shriveled con- 

 dition marred the beauty of the plant. The heads of bloom 

 are bright yellow, the individual floret shaped like those of the 

 Barberry, but they stand stiffly erect upon the stems instead of 

 drooping, like the other blossoms of their class. No broad- 

 leaved evergreen is more beautiful at this season. 



Lilacs and Wistarias are blooming profusely. A large pur- 

 ple Persian Lilac stands near a Wistaria, which has climbed 

 nearly to tJie top of a tall Locust-tree. The effect of the two- 

 color tones IS discordant in the extreme, and should serve for 

 a warning to all who use these plants for landscape-effects. In 

 this instance both the Lilac and the Wistaria have the sanctity 

 which attaches to great age. They have been in possession of 

 the soil much longer than we have, and it is hard to decide 

 which to destroy for the general good. 



After four weeks of continued cloudy weather, with super- 

 abundant rain and cold western gales, we are now, May 12th, 

 enjoying perfect days, clear skies, warm sun and light refresh- 

 ing breezes. Phlox divaricata is common in this neighbor- 

 hood and is very easy to transplant. We take it up in bud or 

 in full bloom, impartially, with a ball of earth clinging to its 

 roots, which we are careful not to disturb, and transfer it as 

 speedily as possible to its new quarters. Treated in this man- 

 ner it goes on blooming contentedly in our garden and does 

 not seem to care whether its new home is in sun or shade. 



Clumps of Senecio aureus are pretty in the herbaceous bor- 

 ders. The under-side of some of the young leaves is bright 

 purple and the flower-heads are golden in the sun. The lyrate- 

 primatifid cauline leaves and the ovate radical leaves present 

 an endless diversity of shape and are a beautiful light green. 

 This plant is native to our woods, but is not very common. It 

 is valuable in the herbaceous border, as one of the first of the 

 Compositse to bloom in the spring. 



A group of Exochorda grandiflora in full bloom is a beauti- 

 ful sight. Tlie flowering period of this shrub lasts about a 

 fortnight in favorable seasons. 



Red-buds and Dogwoods, associated together in so many of 

 our woods and copses, are in their prime and give the strong- 

 est accent to our landscape at this season. 

 Rose Brake, w. Va. Dattske Dundridge. 



