4 
FLORA AND SYLVA 
however. One of your new English hybrid- 
teas, Lady Moyra Beauclerc, has proved very 
satisfactory, and so has Gladys Harkness. Why 
do people plant such sorts as Hermosa, and 
Clothilde Soupert, with its muddy outer petals, 
when there is such a galaxy to choose from ? 
Madame J. P. Soupert is a splendid white 
among the hybrid-teas, but it does not always 
open well. Bessie Brown is grand; Lady Clan- 
morris has too much of the " Annie Laurie " 
neck. Aimee Cochet^ Madame Moreau, Antoine 
Rivoire, Souvenir du President Car not ^ Comtesse 
de Breteuil^ Lady Mary Fitzwilliam, Madame 
Cusin, Souvenir of Wooten^ Liberty^ and Grace 
Darlings are all fine with me. Grilss an Teplitz 
grows too rank ; Meta is a small, drooping, 
non-lasting flower ; while Souvenir de "Jeanne 
Cabaud, S. de Victor Hugo, and S. de Gabrielle 
Drevet, are too weak-necked, and the flowers 
split badly in the two first named. Souvenir 
d" un Ami, too, always hangs its head and has 
no distinct colour, so I have rejected it. 
Conrad Strassheim is very fine, while among 
the polyanthas, those I like best are Anna 
Marie de Montravel, Comtesse Antoine d" Oultre- 
mont. Miniature, and Perle d' Or. 
GEORGE H. ELLWANGER. 
Rochester, New York. 
The Trailing Arbutus [Lpigcea repens). — On 
this loth day of April I have been out on the 
hills near Elmira, to see what is going on 
among the citizens of the vegetable kingdom. 
The ground was white in spots with half- 
melted snow. A few whirls of snow had come 
down in the night, and the air was too cold 
to change it to rain. Some green leaves, in 
sheltered nooks, had accepted the advances of 
the sun, and were preparing for the summer. 
But that which I came to search after was the 
Trailing Arbutus, one of the most exquisite of 
all Nature's fondlings. I did not seek in vain. 
The hills were covered with it. Its gay whorls 
of buds peeped out from ruffles of snow, in 
the most charming beauty. Many blossoms, 
too, quite expanded, did I find, some pure 
white, and a few most delicately suffused with 
pink. For nearly an hour I wandered up and 
down, in pleasant fancies, searching, plucking, 
and arranging these most beautiful of all early 
blossoms. Who would suspect by the leaf 
what rare delicacy was to be in the blossom 1 
Like some people of plain and hard exterior, 
but of sweet disposition, it was all the more 
pleasant from the surprise of contrast. All 
winter long this little thing must have slum- 
bered with dreams, at least, of spring. It has 
waited for no pioneer or guide, but started of 
its own self, and led the way for all the flowers 
on this hillside. The odour of the flower is 
exquisite, and as delicate as the plant is modest. 
Some flowers seem determined to make an 
impression on you, stare at you, and dazzle your 
eyes. But this sweet nestler of the hills is so 
secluded, half covered with russet leaves, that 
you would not suspect its graces, did you not 
stoop to lift it up. If you smell it, at first it 
seems hardly to have an odour. But there 
steals out of it at length the finest, rarest scent, 
that rather excites desire than satisfies your 
sense. — Henry Ward Beecher. 
THE GREATER TREES OF THE 
NORTHERN FOREST. — Con- 
stable's DRAWING OF THE FlELD ElM. 
Engraved on wood for Flora and 
Sylva. 
We are happy to issue in this number 
an engraving of Constable's fine draw- 
ing of the Field Elm (from the South 
Kensington Museum), engraved v^ith 
much skill for Flora and Sylva by 
M. Pochon. The story of Constable's 
life is too well known to need re-telling 
here, the main fact of it being that he 
was an artist of fine insight into nature, 
and among the first to render the whole 
effect of a landscape and its atmosphere. 
One of Constable's pictures went to 
Paris, and being seen by the young 
painter Corot, its influence grew in his 
mind, and led to some of the most 
beautiful landscape work ever painted 
by that great master. The account of 
the Field Elm is in our September 
issue of Flora and Sylva, Volume 11. , 
page 266. * * * 
