August S, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest 



315 



little or no preparation. The loss was not more than three or 

 four plants in a hundred, possibly even less. The planting 

 was done late in September. 



Some years ago I had a lot of plants, two to three feet high, 

 brought from a distance of a hundred and sixty miles. These 

 were at once planted in a well-prepared bed. They were 

 watered twice and mulched as soon as winter set in, and out 

 of two hundred plants I do not think that two died. 



The Mountain Laurel is very hard to kill. One year I set 

 five hundred of these shrubs in a bed, and as the season was 

 late they were covered with leaves and brushes. In the spring 

 I could'not find even one of the plants. The moles and field- 

 mice had nested in the litter and had eaten them all off close 

 to the ground. Having already given so much care to the 

 plants, I did not like to throw them away, and therefore set 

 them between nursery-rows. Before the end of the summer 

 the greater portion of them had broken into growth, and in 

 two years' time they were well-grown, stocky plants. When 

 once well established a Mountain Laurel plantation may be 

 burned to the ground, and it will soon recover and make a 

 better appearance than before. 



No more suitable plant can be found for the border of a 

 wood or as an undergrowth to plantations than the Mountain 

 Laurel. It is always attractive, whether in flower or not, and 

 it will bear more cutting than any other shrub. 



some parts of Europe; and the very general damage to the 

 fruit by the attacks of a fungus or mildew, Erysiphe Mors-uvae, 

 proves a serious obstacle to the successful cultivation of the 

 fruit in many parts of this country. 



Our American species seem less liable to have their fruit 

 badly affected by this disease, and the few improved and 

 valued varieties already derived from them have given great 

 satisfaction. About the only complaint that is generally made 

 against such varieties as Houghton's Seedling, Downing and 

 others is the small size of the fruit when compared with the 

 best imported or so-called English varieties, although the dis- 

 crepancy in size may be made up in the greater abundance of 

 the berries. 



By many persons Houghton's is regarded as a hybrid be- 

 tween our native Ribes oxyacanthoides and some garden 

 variety of the foreign species rather than a simple improve- 

 ment of the R. oxyacanthoides orsome otherspecies, as some- 

 times stated. Whatever its origin, it is a good illustration of 

 the line in which progress may be made. 



Ribes oxyacanthoides, or R. hirtellum of some botanies, is 

 one of our commonest native Gooseberries. It is a medium- 

 sized bush, with rather slender stems and slender prickles. 

 The berries are produced on short stalks, and usually have a 

 sweet, pleasant flavor when fully ripe; they are purple and 

 have a perfectly smooth skin. On account of the small size of 



Fig. 51. — Populus Monricola, in Lower California. — See page 313. 



Notes on Trees and Shrubs. 



WHEN we look back to the original or wild type of the 

 common Gooseberry of European gardens and imported 

 into our own, we ought to have much hope of evolving some 

 excellent horticultural varieties from our native species by 

 careful selection and cultivation, although this process may 

 take many years before we achieve any success as marked 

 as that which the patient cultivators of the Old World 

 have won after centuries of work. Beginning- with a much- 

 branched prickly shrub bearing small yellowish or greenish 

 berries, usually sprinkled over with stiff hairs, but occasionally 

 glabrous, or nearly so, and usually less than half an inch in 

 diameter and a quarter of an ounce in weight, the European 

 cultivators have so improved their native Gooseberry, Ribes 

 Grossularia, that some varieties bear fruits two inches in 

 diameter and an ounce and a half in weight, while the innu- 

 merable varieties are classed according to color as red, yellow, 

 green and white. It may be argued that having already at- 

 tained such variety and seeming perfection in the European 

 species it is scarcely necessary to start out on a new and pos- 

 sibly parallel line, especially as the European Gooseberry is 

 quite hardy in cold climates, though probably not so resistant 

 as some of our natives. But the imported Gooseberry in this 

 country does not seem to grow to such perfection as it does in 



the wild fruit, however, this species is not as promising as 

 some other kinds of native Gooseberries. 



Ribes Cynosbati, for instance, seems to have been almost 

 totally neglected by horticulturists, although somegood results 

 might be expected from a comparatively short series of care- 

 ful experiments and selections. To start with, the wild fruit 

 is commonly twice the size of that of R. oxyacanthoides, large, 

 nearly round berries fully half an inch in diameter not being 

 unusual. When fully mature the berries, although rather 

 thick-skinned, are often sweet and very pleasant to the taste, 

 being usually at that time of a brownish purple or greenish 

 purple color. Ordinarily these berries are covered by numer- 

 ous long, stiff, formidable-looking prickles, which, if they could 

 not be eliminated, would prove a permanent objection to the 

 cultivation of the fruit. But plants with perfectly smooth ber- 

 ries are not rare in a wild state, and individuals with or with- 

 out prickles on the fruit may be raised from the same lot of 

 seed collected from one plant. The berries are produced 

 either singly or two or three together on slender forked stalks 

 an inch, more or less, in length ; and they are often very 

 abundant. This species is perfectly hardy, being found wild 

 far north into Canada and west to Minnesota. Its stems are 

 not so prickly as those of the European Gooseberry, and 

 varieties practically without prickles should be easily pro- 

 cured. Hybridizing with the best forms of the cultivated 



