NoVKMIER 30, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



571 



that staminate variety. If these operations are bounded by 

 the limits of a garden, extreme care must be used to prevent 

 the intrusion of undesirable pollen from other near-growing 

 varieties. Nothing in nature is more subtle and penetrating 

 than this impalpable dust. If other varieties than the two to 

 be crossed stand within one hundred yards a sash should be 

 used as a protection. This may be placed just before bloom- 

 ing-time over half a dozen plants each of the chosen kind set 

 the autumn before. A camel's-hair brush is used by some 



fourth of an inch deep. In watering, a sprinkler with a fine 

 rose will prevent the washing up of the seed. Germination 

 should begin in two or three weeks. When large enough to 

 bear it, they should be transplanted, in wet weather, to good 

 soil. With good soil and attention these plants will probably 

 bear some berries the following spring, but nothing decisive 

 should be expected until the second bearing season. Mean- 

 while, all runners should be clipped as fast as they appear. 

 The result of an experiment of this kind will be curious and 

 interesting if it has no other value. While 

 the berries of every plant will in some 

 degree resemble one or both of the 

 parents, no two will inherit exactly the 

 same qualities or be precisely alike, and 

 each will have its own distinctive quali- 

 ties. 



The desirable plants should be marked, 

 or the undesirable ones may be de- 

 stroyed. Those retained can now be 

 allowed to produce runners at will, care 

 being taken to prevent those from any 

 two plants mingling, so that they cannot 

 be distinguished. The runners from 

 each separate original plant will bear the 

 same kind of berries and constitute a new 

 variety. 

 Kittrell, N. c. O. W. Blacknall. 



A few Notable Shrubs 

 November. 



m 



late 



Fig. 98. — Road through a Chestnut Wood on Broad Top. — See page 566. 



propagators to convey the pollen from the staminate to the 

 pistillate blossom, the plants being kept in pots. 



The berries once well "set," all danger of further intermix- 

 ing is past, and, of course, no other preventive measures need 

 be taken to keep out other pollen. From thoroughly ripe ber- 

 ries borne by these plants the earliest and largest should be se- 

 lected. After the pulp is expressed the seed should be sown in 

 rich, well-prepared soil, and covered with fine earth about one- 



'X'HE Thursday of the last week of 

 A November is now generally looked 

 upon as the Thanksgiving Day of the 

 American people. In the south the frosts 

 generally have not then caused any very 

 great destruction of vegetation, and late 

 autumn flowers may linger until Christ- 

 mas. But in northern gardens, Novem- 

 ber frosts are usually frequent, and often 

 very severe, and Thanksgiving Day brings 

 with it few fresh flowers to be found in 

 the open air. The Fall Dandelion (Leon- 

 todon autumnale), so common in our 

 flelds, is one of the most persistent plants 

 in continuing to produce flowers in 

 spite of frost, while Tansy and some 

 others of the Composite family are more 

 likely to maintain their freshness than 

 any other class. Precocious flowers, not 

 due until the following spring, are not 

 very rare, and we sometimes find Dande- 

 lions in cultivated ground. Daphnes in 

 our gardens, and, perhaps, Epigsea in our 

 woods bearing a few stray flowers. 



But it is the fruitage of certain shrubs 

 which will attract most attention as au- 

 tumn passes into winter, and probably the 

 number of species available which pos- 

 sess this quality is not generally appre- 

 ciated. Every one having any sense of 

 color admires the abundant fruit of the 

 common Barberry, which now grows so 

 commonly along many waysides. But 

 there are other species of IJarberry, as 

 yet unknown to the majority of gardens, 

 which surpass our common kinds in the 

 lasting beauty of their fruit. By far the 

 best of these is the Asiatic Berberis 

 Thunbergii, the bright red berries of 

 which, being comparatively dry and juice- 

 less, remain in perfect condition all win- 

 ter, while the "juicy fruit of the com- 

 ■ mon Barberry becomes shriveled by fre- 

 quent freezings and soon loses color and 

 lustre. 

 For brilliant red color we have our native deciduous Hollies, 

 or Black Alders, or Winterberries as they are also called. 

 These thrive as well under cultivation as the Barberries, and 

 may be taken directly from their native haunts and planted in 

 the shrubbery if necessary. As they are dioecious — the male 

 and female flowers being produced on separate plants— it is 

 necessary that care should be taken to select fruiting plants 

 in order to secure a crop of the showy berries. There does 



