266 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



January, 1913 



MEEH ANS' means GARDEN SERVICE, plus 



Whenever an}' perplexing problem arises in the beautifying of your home grounds, remember that you can secure 

 the service plus of America's nurserymen by simply addressing your request for information to Thomas 

 Meehan & Sons, Germantown, Philadelphia. 



State your problem, we shall answer fully and frankly — back of our answer will be the wealth of practical informa- 

 tion gathered by a deep rooted organization, 58 years old, drawing upon an inexhaustible fund of experience in all 

 parts of the country. An organization that knows your needs because it has practical men personally studyiug the 

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evergreens and perennials that the}- know are best suited. 

 The Meehan Catalog is authentic, accurate and so definite in its 

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 hard}' plants for your grounds. But it cannot cover the 



A limited number 



Rare 



Historic 



English 



Elms 



from such historic points of England and Scotland 

 as Tower of London, Stirling Battlefield, 

 Cambridge University, Eli Cathedral and 

 Litchfield (Home of Samuel Johnson), etc. 



are now offered for the first time to the American 



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Not seedlings, but actual living wood from the 



famous old elms grafted to roots of the common 



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A full list of these historic trees, with description, 



terms of sale and price— sent on request. 



rare, unusual plants that give 



your property individuality 



— many of which are gathered from the far comers of the earth, 



and thoroughly proved out in our own nurseries before being offered 



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These items are more largely covered in our 1913 Specialty Book 



"H," free on request. 



The Meehan shipping service assures better delivery to distant 



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Box 17 



Germantown, Phila.,Pa. 



Thomas Meehan & Sons 



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Ornamental Shrubs, Hardy Plants, Deciduous and Evergreen Trees. 



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MM- 



a fifteen-footer that stood on the south side of a 

 Connecticut house, with plenty of morning sun but 

 shaded later in the day by the branches of a tree high 

 overhead. Thus placed it had the double advant- 

 age of complete development of form and adequate 

 protection against summer's heat and winter's cold. 

 The most laburnums I saw on the north and south 

 shores of the easterly part of Long Island and all 

 apparently doing well, though none was very large. 

 Because of the moisture in the air and other climatic 

 conditions, I fancy that the tree takes to Long 

 Island better, perhaps, than any locality within a 

 radius of a few hundred miles. One tree overhung 

 an old gate with excellent effect and most had 

 complete, or partial, protection from the north. 

 Some isolated trees on lawns were good to look 

 upon, but I rather fear for their injury or demise 

 in years to come. Besides the laburnum does like 

 some shade. 



There are laburnums and laburnums, and here 

 I confess to being puzzled — as I was when first 

 I failed to find them in a nursery catalogue under 

 the letter L. They are Cytisus nowadays and 

 whether I have been observing C. vulgare or C. 

 alpinum I do not know. The common laburnum 



The North American papaw. showing the curiously 

 trilobed. chocolate-colored blossoms, which develop 

 before the leaves 



is the Cytisus Laburnum of Linnseus and has the 

 popular names of golden chain and bean-tree. It 

 is a native of Switzerland and other parts of Europe 

 and its maximum height is given as fifteen or 

 twenty feet. The Scotch laburnum is C. alpinum, 

 which grows as high as thirty feet, has longer ra- 

 cemes, a little later blooming period than the other 

 and the reputation of being hardier. One authority, 

 however, says alpinum is the hardier and that vul- 

 gare is "almost hardy in Massachusetts." Parks's 

 golden chain, listed as Laburnum Watereri and L. 

 Parksi, is a small horticultural variety that is 

 claimed to be nearly as hardy as the Scotch. 



I paid a dollar for a good, lusty five-footer, but 

 small trees of vulgare and alpinum may be had as 

 low as fifty cents. Parksi costs a dollar and a half 

 for a four-foot tree. It is better to begin with a 

 height of five or six feet and get a little bloom a 

 year or so after planting. At the most it is not 

 much to pay for even beauty in the making. That 

 is the way I look at it; and if, in years to come, I 

 cannot truthfully quote from "I remember, I 

 remember" the familiar laburnum line, "That 

 tree is standing yet," I shall at least be able to look 

 back on a garden experiment that was distinctly 

 worth while. 



For two springs also I have been observing a tree 

 that is still more rare in the north: so far I have 

 found it only in one spot, suburban New York. 

 This is the papaw (Asimina triloba).. Its normal 

 range is north to New York and west to Kansas 

 and Michigan, but it has been known to prove 

 hardy in Massachusetts and even so far north as 

 Ontario. The specimen referred to has had no 



