// you are planning to build, the Readers' 

 Service can ojlen give helpjtd suggestions 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



September, 1910 



One Telephone, 

 Dumb; 

 Five Million, Eloquent. 





If there were only one telephone 

 in the world it would be exhibited 

 in a glass case as a curiosity. 



Even in its simplest form tele- 

 phone talk requires a second instru- 

 ment with connecting wires and 

 other accessories. 



For real, useful telephone service, 

 there must be a comprehensive 

 system of lines, exchanges, switch- 

 boards and auxiliary equipment, 

 with an army of attendants always 

 on duty. 



Connected with such a system a 

 telephone instrument ceases to be a 

 curiosity, but becomes part of the 



great mechanism of universal com- 

 munication. 



To meet the manifold needs of 

 telephone users the Bell System has 

 been built, and today enables twenty- 

 five million people to talk with one 

 another, from five million telephones. 



Such service cannot be rendered 

 by any system which does not cover 

 with its exchanges and connecting 

 lines the whole country. 



The Bell System meets the needs 

 of the whole public for a telephone 

 service that is united, direct and 

 universal. 



American Telephone and Telegraph Company 

 And Associated Companies 



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Choice Ever§:reens Zll 



SPECIMEN TREES 

 For 

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Also DECIDUOUS TREES and SHRUBS 



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ARTHUR J. COLLINS. Box T MOORESTOWN. N. J. \ 



A Beautiful Spirea 



I SAW one hardy shrub in England so beautiful 

 that hundreds of my readers would be eager 

 to plant it, if pen and camera could only do justice to 

 it. For it seems to me that the spirea type of 

 floral beauty reaches its climax in this species. 

 Draw a long breath and I will tell you its name — 

 Schizonotus discolor, var. aricejolia. 



"Hasn't it any " 



No. I invented an English name for it, but no 

 one has ever used it and I suppose no one ever will. 

 I published two pictures of this shrub in The 

 Gakden Magazine for July, iqo8, and proposed 

 the name white beam-leaved spirea, to distinguish 

 this species from the ash-leaved spireas, since my 

 plant has leaves like that well known European 

 tree, the beam. 



I rather shrink from enthusing about any new 

 or rare plant, because I make myself no end of 

 trouble. For example people ask me where 

 they can buy that plant. Then I have to take an 

 hour off, and hunt through stacks of catalogues 



Th.e wMte beam-leaved spirea is loaded with 

 plumy white iiowers during July. It is hardy as 

 far north as Boston if heavily mulched 



till I find one that lists it. A week later I get 

 indignant letters saying that So and So does not 

 have that plant. Alas, cataloguing a plant and 

 having it are such different things! 



But I must grit my teeth and tell the truth about 

 this lovely bush, even if I get a pack of letters and 

 have to say to each person, "Well, if that particular 

 firm that advertises it hasn't it, I'm afraid you'll 

 have to send to England for it." 



Now, then, this beam-leaved spirea blooms in 

 July, and, as you can see by the picture, it is loaded 

 with plumy white flowers. These gracefully 

 drooping clusters are sometimes ten inches long. 

 The bush averages five feet in height, but will grow 

 ten feet high in cultivation, and in the wild it attains 

 twenty feet. It is native to the Pacific coast all the 

 way from Guatemala to Oregon. Whether the 

 form in cultivation is the hardiest, and whether it 

 comes from the northern limit of its range, deponent 

 saith not. But he must warn his readers that 

 Pacific Coast species are not hardy in the East, as 

 a rule. This bush, however, is known to be hardy 

 as far north as Boston, provided the ground is 

 heavily mulched. Moreover, it must have extra 

 good drainage and full sunshine. 



Don't hunt in your catalogues for Schizonotus. 

 I doubt if any American nurseryman is up-to-date 

 enough to know the name and have the plant, too. 

 But ask for Spircsa aricefolia. They may know 

 that and have it, too. 



New York. W. M. 



