44 
(Brower 
March, 1920 
flower desired to be clearly portrayed, 
and a stop of f22 or f45 (U. S. 64 or 128) 
used to bring into focus the flowers 
nearer the lens by reason of the small 
stop used. Care must be taken not to 
move or jar either camera or flower 
while the shutter is open, thus avoiding 
blur of picture. I have found that the 
hours from ten o’clock morning to two 
o’clock afternoon, with bright or hazy 
sun, to be the best for this work; but 
pictures may be made in almost any 
light, only taking more care and 
carrying a greater chance for failure. 
By fastening finished prints in an 
album with art corners, and making a 
note on the black sheet of the album 
with white ink or pencil of such points 
as color or habit or peculiarities of the 
variety, a lasting record is made. For 
even more artistic results, the prints 
may be colored in oil or water-color, 
though, obviously, this will take greater 
artistic skill than the average person 
possesses. But, colored or not, the 
likenesses of the flowers we have 
worked so hard to bring to perfection 
will well repay us for the additional 
time spent in their composition; and 
many an otherwise dull hour of winter 
will be made brighter'by their presence, 
when memory steals a backward glance 
into the days of warmth and sunshine 
and growing things. 
The Passing of The Barberry Bush. 
The Barberry bush— the poor man’s bush. 
Its yellow blossoms hang. 
—Caroline Gilman. 
A close observer of nature, accustomed to 
the cheerful dashes of color once furnished 
during autumn and winter by the bright, 
red berries of the common Barberry (Ber- 
beris Vulgaris) cannot but miss this once 
familiar, ornamental native, and regret that 
necessity has demanded that it be exter- 
minated. 
The common Barberry was not only prized 
as a hedge plant by our forbears but it was 
useful for other purposes. From its berries 
many thrifty housewives made preserves, 
and from its bark a yellow dye was extracted 
and used by manufacturers of textiles. 
It developed, however, after study and ob- 
servation by Government entomology ex- 
perts that the common Barberry was harmful 
to our national economy, for it was the favor- 
ite harbor of the rusts, which are so de- 
structive to our grain crops. These experts 
tell us that to complete the cycle of its life, 
from egg to moth the organism, responsible 
for the stem rust on wheat, rye, oats and 
barley, must pass a part of its life in the 
common Barberry bush. By demonstration 
the experts showed plainly that with removal 
of the common Barberry from near the 
fields in which the above mentioned grains 
are grown, that the damage to the grain is 
materially lessened, and these experts tell 
us that if the common Barberry is com- 
pletely exterminated, that within a few 
years the destructive grain rusts will entirely 
disappear. 
Because of this knowledge, widely spread 
by the Agricultural Department, many 
owners of homes and gardens have destroyed 
their common Barberry hedges at consider- 
able inconvenience and financial loss. 
Patriotically disposed nurserymen also de- 
stroyed many thousands of these plants in 
their nurseries, and ceased to propagate any 
more of the plant. Farmers joined in the 
campaign for rust-free grain, and eradicated 
old stands of the common Barberry about 
their farms and woodlots, so now we may 
feel that our old Barberry bush is but a 
memory— it has practically ceased to grow. 
Happily the Japanese Barberry (Berberis 
Thunbergii) a hardy exotic relative of the 
common Barberry is not considered a carrier 
of the destructive rust and so this beautiful, 
hardy, ornamental hedge plant remains for 
those of us who loved the old Berberis Vul- 
garis to plant as a reminder of the honest 
old bush of a former day when we did not 
know much about rust and the causes for its 
prevalence. I felt that a brief word should 
be said in passing about the friend of yes- 
terday.— (Bertha Berbert-Hammond in 
Park’s Floral Magazine.) 
Spiraea Van Houttei. 
There are many shrubby Spiraeas that are 
worth classing as first- rate flowering shrubs, 
the plant under notice being one of the most 
attractive. Its parents are said to be S. 
trilobata and S. cantoniensis, the former a 
widely-distributed shrub in N. China, S. 
Siberia, and Turkestan, producing closely-ar- 
ranged umbels of white flowers in June, 
while the latter is a Chinese and Japanese 
shrub better suited to the warmer climate of 
the Riviera than to the British Isles, for it is 
rarely seen at its best here. S. Van Houetti 
grows quite 6 feet high, forming a large, 
shapely bush with semi-pendent branches. 
The leaves are deeply notched at the mar- 
gins and sometimes distinctly three-lobed, 
while the white flowers, each about '/$ inch 
across, are borne in compact umbels each 
1 J4 inches to 2 inches across, the flowering 
time being June. It blossoms with the 
greatest freedom and never fails. Propa- 
gated by cuttings of short shoots 3 inches or 
4 inches long inserted in sandy soil in a 
close frame in July, it forms a nice flowering 
bush in the course of two seasons. It 
should be planted in good loamy soil and be 
allowed plenty of room to spread, for it is 
one of the kinds that is able to continue 
year after year without pruning. In ad- 
dition to forming a useful isolated specimen 
it is excellent for groups. — Gardening Illus- 
trated (English.) 
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The above photograph illustrates a good way of staging Gladioli. It was sent to us by our good friend 
Geo. Churcher of England, and shows the award card of the Royal Horticultural Society, in the center. We 
would call special attention to the terraced arrangement of the benches for showing. There are two rows ap- 
parently of vases on the first terrace at ordinary table height and only a single row on the second and third 
terrace, each terrace apparently about fifteen inches high. 
To Gladiolus growers who are accustomed to showing on fiat top tables this will convey a suggestion 
which ought to be appreciated. 
Laurel Philology. 
In ancient days, the Greeks made use of 
wreaths to reward heroes, poets and victors 
in the Pythian games. These wreaths were 
usually made from the laurel tree of Southern 
Europe, known botanically as Laurus nobilis. 
In the course of time, such wreaths came to 
be used to distinguish the successful in any 
endeavor, whence the expression “to win 
one’s laurels.” In a similar way the word 
laureate indicated one who had won the 
coveted wreath or crown. Apparently laurel 
was also in favor for indicating academic 
honors and when loaded with its berries 
(Latin, baccae,) is reputed to have given 
significance to the word baccalaureate if it 
did not, in fact, directly suggest it. The 
word bachelor seems to have been derived 
from the same general source — though it is 
hard to see how a bachelor is entitled to 
any sort of laurels. Many who are familiar 
with the laurel in literature, are quite un- 
aware that it is the very same plant that 
yields the bay leaves, so frequently used in 
cooking. In the Old World, the firm, ever- 
green leaves of this plant, intertwined with 
holly, were used for Christmas decorations 
from ancient times. In America the bay is 
a very common plant, though few who see it 
recognize it as the laurel so highly regarded 
by the ancients. As a tub plant it is ever 
present in hotel lobbies, restaurants and 
courtyards, though in such places it is so 
clipped and trimmed, that the phrase “under 
the green bay tree” would apply only to the 
tub in which it grows. — American Botanist. 
The Springtime Call. 
There’s a pulling at my feet. 
There's a tingling in my fingers, 
When morn’s birds carol sweet. 
When the evening sunlight lingers. 
The air is soft outside. 
Gay sunbeams gently fall. 
And days of beauty untried 
To the tiny green things call. 
And something is calling to me. 
Earth, air, and budding twig 
Call irresistibly, 
“ Come out, come out, and dig.” 
— Mary Graham. 
From lack of space much valuable 
matter is necessarily held over until 
the April issue. 
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