December 6, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



503 



The merits and demerits of hedges, and the best plants 

 to use for them ill various parts of our country, are (jues- 

 tions which have often been discussed in Garden and For- 

 est. Therefore little need be said about them here, except 

 to note the fact that, while they are the most beautiful of 

 all fences where solidity is desired, they are the most difh- 

 cult to create, and much the most difficult to keep in order. 

 He who builds a fence of stone or wood does the work 

 quickly and need anticipate little trouble with it for years 

 to come. But he who plants a hedge must wait long for 

 it to attain the desired height, carefully coaxing it mean- 

 while into proper shape ; and when a good result has been 

 obtained, he must yearly take pains to keep it in proper 

 condition and always dread that individual plants may die 

 out, leaving gaps which, again, it will take years of growth 

 to fill. Our climate is less favorable to hedges than the 

 moister, more equable English climate ; and there is as 

 much to dread from the suddenly hot sun of early spring 

 and the drought of midsummer as from the excessive cold 

 of winter. Except in sheltered situations, therefore, it is a 

 risky experiment to try to raise a tall hedge. But low ones 

 are more easily managed, and accidental gaps in them are 

 more easily repaired. Of course, evergreen plants are much 

 more desirable for this purpose than those which shed their 

 leaves the first autumn ; but, as a finish to a retaining- 

 wall, even a thick little leafless hedge does not present a 

 bad appearance in winter. 



Notes on some of the Texas Trees. 



/EscuLUS ARGUTA is generally a shrub three to five feet 

 high, but sometimes a small tree twenty feet high, with a 

 thick trunk and a dense head. The leaves have five to 

 seven, and sometimes eight, leaflets ; the flowers are in 

 dense and erect racemes, covering sometimes the whole 

 bush ; they are of a pale yellow color, appearing in April, 

 at the same time as the leaves. The fruits, covered with 

 short prickles, are of a russet color, and the leaves fall early 

 in the season. The shrub is often really beautiful as seen 

 growing in the woods on limestone bluffs. Its popular 

 name here is Buckeye. [This is usually considered a form 

 of the Ohio Buckeye, ^sculus glabra.^ — Ed.] 



Sapindus marginatus is a tree sixty or seventy-five feet 

 high, as found in the rich bottom-lands, but generally of 

 much smaller dimensions in less favorable situations. The 

 flowers, which are small and white, are borne in large 

 compound racemes, terminating the boughs. They appear 

 in June, and are succeeded by large berries of a transparent 

 yellow when ripe, and remaining sometimes a whole year. 

 The leaves turn to bright yellow in autumn. The wood is 

 yellow also, but it never has been used to any extent, eco- 

 nomically. This tree has a fine appearance, as the flowers 

 and fruits are quite ornamental. It is very rarely seen in 

 cultivation, and is known all throughout Texas as the Wild 

 China-tree. 



Rhus copallina, var. lanceolata, seems to be quite dif- 

 ferent from the type, and may prove a distinct species ; it 

 is generally a shrub five or ten feet high, but frequently 

 reaches the height of twenty-five feet, with a trunk six 

 inches in diameter. The leaflets are elongated, the flowers 

 of a pale yellow color in July and August, and afford a 

 good pasture for bees at a time when flowers are scarce. 

 It grows abundantly on all the bluffs and prairies of lime- 

 stone formation. The true Rhus copallina here is a small 

 shrub, reaching hardly a height of eight feet at most, with 

 a body of one or two inches through. The leaflets are 

 ovate ; the flowers are in smaller thyrses and appear in 

 June, and the plant occurs only in the sandy regions. The 

 ripening foliage turns to a bright scarlet, so that the tops 

 of the bluffs where this Sumach grows in dense masses 

 fairly flame in autumn. 



SoPHORA AFFiNis is an elegant small tree, twenty or twenty- 

 five feet high, with a trunk six to eight inches thick, 

 though it does not generally reach these dimensions. I 

 have seen specimens with a trunk not exceeding two inches 



in diameter reaching the height of thirty or forty feet, by 

 taking for support neighboring trees, such as a Red Cedar 

 or Oak. The leaves, with numerous leaflets, are a very 

 dark green and persevere late in the season. The flow- 

 ers resemble those of Robinia Pseudacacia, and are dis- 

 posed in simple pendulous racemes, to which succeed long 

 black and moniliform pods that are quite as ornamental as 

 the flowers and remain on the tree more than a year. Al- 

 though that tree has many points to recommend it for dec- 

 orative purposes, it is not in cultivation in Texas, and if it 

 has a common name I have never heard of it. 



Prosopis jULiFLORA, the well-known Mesquit-trce that grows 

 all over the prairie region of Texas, where in many local- 

 ities it affords the inhabitants their only fuel, is generally 

 small and scrubby, although it may grow to the height of 

 thirty feet, with a trunk two or three feet thick. The black- 

 ish wood is compact and nearly incapable of decay. It 

 makes excellent charcoal, and is used for posts, though 

 invariably crooked. The principal streets of San Antonio 

 have been paved with blocks of Mesquit-wood, and a good 

 road-way it makes. Generally, twice a year the IMesquit 

 bears a heavy crop of beans, full of saccharine matter and 

 very nutritious. They are relished by horses, cattle, sheep 

 and swine alike, and in many instances they constitute the 

 only attainable food in dry seasons. The tree endures any 

 amount of dry weather, and it never fails to bring its crop. 

 I have never seen it in cultivation, although its pendulous 

 compound leaves and racemes of yellow flowers are quite 

 elegant. It would not be a good shade-tree. 



BuMELiA LANUGINOSA is a thomy bush in dry Upland, and 

 in rich bottom-land a tree forty feet high, with a short trunk. 

 As an ornamental it has nothing in particular to recommend 

 it ; but its dense yellow wood, with peculiar marking, is 

 likely to prove of great value to the cabinet-maker. It is 

 ■here known as Shittim. 

 Dallas, Tex. /■ Reverchoit. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Chrysanthemums. — There are more exhibitions of Chrys- 

 anthemums than ever in England this year. Our horticul- 

 tural journals are entirely taken up with reports of the 

 shows, and cultural and other information about the plants. 

 Every park and public garden of any pretensions hold a 

 special exhibition of Chrysanthemums ; even Kew taking 

 a leading part by providing a show of plants, grown on the 

 "natural system," and it is evident from the crowds of 

 visitors who throng the houses where the Chrysanthemums 

 are, discussing the points, the colors, the decorative value 

 and the extraordinary variety in the form and size of the 

 flowers, that such exhibitions have considerable value in 

 affording pleasure, if nothing else. A prominent nursery- 

 man remarked to me a few days ago that the Chrysanthe- 

 mum is the poor man's plant, by which, no doubt, he 

 meant that the Chrysanthemum is the plant which, above 

 all others, every one can grow with ease and be certain of 

 a certain amount of floral display, however poor the treat- 

 ment be. This universal interest in Chrysanthemums finds 

 expression in the numerous exhibitions held, and in the 

 crowds which visit them. The National Chrysanthemum 

 Society, whose exhibition took place this week in the Royal 

 Aquarium, Westminster, has had its hands full in prevent- 

 ing the crush of spectators from wrecking the exhibits. 

 Some of my friends who went to see the exhibition came 

 away without having obtained more than a bird's-eye view 

 from the gallery, not daring to venture among the crowds 

 that surrounded every exhibit on the floor below. "At 

 least equal to any Chrysanthemum exhibition ever held in 

 England " was the general verdict with regard to this last 

 one, and after the favorable season we have had, together 

 with the value of the prizes competed for, this is only what 

 might have been expected. The bad features which spoil 

 such exhibitions were prominent enough this year; I al- 



