1867.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
327 
Petunias Then and Now. 
Do any of our old horticultural friends rec- 
ollect their first Pemnia ? Over thirty years 
ago, ive cherished our first one as a prized 
house plant. It was the old Pe- 
tunia nyctagyniflora, the first one 
introduced into cultivation. It 
had coarse white flowers, but then 
it produced them abundantly, and 
it was altogether a pleasing plant. 
Great was our surprise when we 
found that the plant could be 
grown as a garden annual, and 
greater still when we discovered 
that it would grow from self-sown 
seeds, and in fact become, in 
some places, a weed. After the 
common white species, came the 
purple one, greatly superior to the 
other. . Then began a course of 
improvement by the crossing of 
these two and with other species, 
and now we have the Petunia 
ranking as a florist's flower, pre- 
senting a great number of named 
varieties, both single and double. 
Some of the single ones are beauti- 
fully veined or blotched, and the 
habit of the plant is greatly im- 
proved as well as the texture and 
fineness of the flowers. For bed- 
ding purposes we much prefer the 
finer single varieties to the double 
ones. The choice kinds are prop- 
agated from cuttings, which strike 
root with the greatest ease, but 
seeds of good sorts will produce 
' nice plants, and there is a chance 
of getting fine varieties in this way. 
- The double varieties are now 
becoming numerous. Some of the 
flowers are enormous in size, 
beautiful in color, and very fra- 
grant. The variety, Abraham 
Lincoln, is one of the most gen- 
erally distributed and best known. 
Something after the same style is 
a new variety sent out this year 
by Mr. J. Kadletz, Staten Island, 
and named by him Mrs. Peter 
Henderson. The flower is large, 
of good shape, and very brilliant, 
the ground white, with a purple 
blotch on the tip of each petal. 
Mr. K. considers this the best of 
his numerous seedlings. Messrs. 
Frost, & Co., of the Genesee Valley 
Nurseries, Rochester, N. Y., have also sent us 
specimens of a fine new seedling, called Ed- 
ward Beach, from the gentleman with whom it 
originated. The flowers were full, rich in color, 
and quite equal to any that we have seen. 
Messrs. F. & Co. state that they have had 
blooms measuring over six inches in diameter. 
«-c — ••- «-• 
Tree Planting- by the Road-Side. 
— • — 
What traveler in the summer has not blessed 
the thoughtful man who planted, or spared from 
the original forest, the road-side tree, where he 
found rest and shelter for himself and his jaded 
beast? Why should we not have continuous 
rows of sueh trees planted through every farm? 
Why should not every village center in a town 
form its tree planting association, and line its 
streets with the beautiful indigenous trees that 
are to be had for the cost of digging in the 
neighboring forests? Why should not these 
rows of trees extend every year, along every 
thoroughfare, until the villagers meet in the 
honorable rivalry of meuding their ways, and 
beautifying the country ? We have a good many 
DOUBLE PETUNIA — MRS. PETER HENDERSON. 
model avenues in New England and in the 
older parts of the country, where the present 
generation is enjoying the results of the good 
taste and toils of their forefathers. Trees were 
planted wheu the village streets were first laid 
out, and their branches are now a crown of 
glory, affording shelter from the summer heats. 
We admire the arrangement of those early 
settled towns in the Connecticut River Valley, 
and elsewhere, where they had a common a mile 
long, and twelve rods wide or more, the houses 
arranged upon the sides, and looking out upon 
the village green beneath the shadows of noble 
elms. These trees are now the glory of the 
village, fondly cherished by the residents, and 
forming beautiful pictures never to he effaced 
from the mind of the stranger who visits them. 
We find hundreds of villages and towns in 
our occasional visits, and they are by no means 
confined to the more recent settlements, where 
the work of planting the road-side is yet to be 
done. One or two generations have gone by 
without developing public spirit enough to at- 
tend to this enterprise. The church, the acad- 
emy, the school-house, the inn, and the dwel- 
lings that cluster around them, 
stand through all the scorching 
heats of summer unblest with 
shade. And this is the case too, 
where there is no want of refine- 
ment among the people. The de- 
sirableness of the improvement is 
admitted, but there is great lack 
of public spirit, and no one pro- 
vokes his neighbor to this kind of 
good works. It is time some- 
thing was done, and we propose 
a familiar talk with the reader 
upon his personal responsibilities 
in the matter. If you live in one 
of these neglected districts, 3-011 
have missionary work before you, 
and it will require a good degree' 
of faith to undertake this ministry 
of the beautiful. Tou may not 
meet with violent opposition and 
personal abuse, but the big pagan, 
Indifference, will resist you at 
every step. The place has stood 
for fifty years, they will tell you, 
without any shade trees, and they 
have got along pretty well. They 
would give money or volunteer 
their men and teams if the}' could 
see any use iu it. But they don't 
see the need of it. This, and much 
more like it, will be your first sal- 
utation. Never mind. "There 
is no impossibility to him who 
wills." Get one man enlisted on 
your side, and if possible let that 
man be a woman. Take the mat- 
ter up and make a business of it. 
If you have a sewing society in 
the parish, get the ladies interest- 
ed. While they are laboring for 
the heathen, and for the starving 
South, and trying to make the 
wilderness bud and blossom, let 
them have an eye to the wilderness 
along their own street. Buds and 
blossoms are wanting there, and 
the desolate wayside can be made 
" a thing of beauty and a joy 
forever." This is a home enter- 
prise that has been neglected quite 
too long. Talk with the minister 
about it, and if he be a man 
of taste, as he is apt to be, get him to preach 
a sermon on the moral uses of beautiful things, 
text, St. Paul, "Whatsoever things are lovely," 
or, better yet, the Great Preacher, "Consider the 
lilies." There is a great dial of unapplied 
truth in the Bible that touches upon this mat- 
ter of tree planting. Stir up the Farmers' Club if 
you have one, and if not, form one. Get the 
Horticultural Society or County Agricultural 
Society to offer premiums for planting wayside 
trees. One resolute man in a place can carry 
this much needed reform, and make his name 
immortal. Hillhouse Avenue, in New Haven, 
with its lordly elms, will preserve the name of 
the planter long after his monument has crum- 
bled and his career as a Senator is forgotton. 
Edoings and Edging Plants.— Recently 
we saw some east iron edgings in use around 
beds cut in a lawn; they were of a rustic pat- 
