6 4 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



In the neighbourhood of a tree that has been cut down the entire surface, to a 

 distance of 65 or 80 feet is covered with a nursery of suckers. A fact that should 

 be borne in mind is that the White Poplar dreads the wind, and therefore we 

 should avoid planting it in isolated lines or as a margin of trees, or on a south- 

 east slope. There is the greater reason for giving it a good place in hollows, at 

 the bottoms of slopes, and within woods where underwood is grown, where it 

 can develop to the full its fine and erect habit. In parks, with its rapid growth, 

 majestic port, and silvery foliage, it plays an important part. This may be seen if 

 in the spring one surveys the masses of great trees from the grassy slopes above 

 the lake in the Bois du Cambre. 



"Timber. — The wood of the White Poplar is much valued. The grain is 

 fine and lustrous, and the annual markings very regular. The heart-wood is 

 yellowish-white and the perfect wood light red in colour, light and durable. It 

 is the most enduring of all white woods, and is much sought after for all kinds 

 of construction and cabinet work, carriage and boat building ; as a fuel it has 

 only a middling value. Owing to its various forms of usefulness the timber 

 fetches a good price. 



"Attempts to propagate the White Poplar from seed seldom succeed, and 

 only by layering is there any chance of success. When good seed is to be had 

 it is advisable to mix it with damp sand immediately after collecting and then 

 lightly cover it over. The seedling plant is unknown in nurseries, the tree being 

 propagated by cuttings and suckers. Cuttings, however, take badly, and of all 

 the Poplars this and the Aspen are the worst to increase in this way. The easiest 

 mode of increase is by suckers. Choose the best plants, lift with a small portion 

 of the root, and transplant to the nursery. The plants readily take root, and the 

 practice is to cut them down at the end of a year. Of the new shoots that arise 

 with great vigour only one is kept and grown for two or three years. This 

 method of propagation being intended to produce plants identical with the parent 

 tree, it is important to take them from the best trees." 



IN AMERICA. 



and form the magnificent German RedBietigheimer. 

 To taste the Newtown Pippin in perfection and see 

 its golden beauty, it should come from the Blue 

 Ridge of Virginia, just as the turkey, which Brillat- 

 Savarin pronounced the finest gift of the New World 

 to the Old, attains its supreme excellence in the 

 little state of Rhode Island. 



Of new varieties the most striking, perhaps, 

 is the Bismarck, from New Zealand, a handsome, 

 showy sort, as well as a hardy and prolific Novem- 

 ber apple. 



Pears. — Among newer pears of good quality 

 are the following: — Dorset, an attractive, large, 

 golden-yellow, very late-keeping variety, with sweet, 



NEW FRUITS 



New fruits still continue to multiply in this 

 country ; but while varieties increase, quality is not 

 always an accompaniment of novelty. 



Apples. — The Western States in particular 

 have been prolific of new apples, some of which are 

 not without their merits in the regions of their 

 origin, even if they do not find equal favour in the 

 great garden of the Genesee Valley of New York. 



The past decade has produced no new variety of 

 the fruit that tempted Eve to compare with that apple 

 of apples, Northern Spy, which was raised and dis- 

 seminated at Rochester, as well as the Spitzenberg, 

 Jonathan, Mother, Snow, and Newtown Pippin. 

 Nor does any new apple equal in beauty of colour 



