105 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES OF TREES AND SHRUBS 
The American Peony Society 
The fourth annual meeting of the. 
society will be held June 27 and 28, 
1907, at the State College of Agricul- 
ture, Department of Horticulture, 
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 
The regular business meeting will 
be held at 3 p. m., on the first day, 
June 18, at which time the society 
will be welcomed by either President 
Schurman or Dean Bailey. 
An address will be made by Mr. J. 
E. Coit, of the Horticultural Depart- 
ment, who has had Immediate charge 
of the test collection, and a paper of 
much value is expected. 
Prof. Craig, the chairman of the 
Nomenclature Committee, will make a 
report on the progress of the work of 
that committee, which undoubtedly 
will be of much interest. 
As the test collection is now in its 
third year a fine opportunity is pre- 
sented peony growers for studying the 
varieties as they grow in the field, as 
nowhere else can so many varieties 
be found growing together under such 
favorable circumstances as will be 
found at Ithaca. 
Hedges of Ligustrum Japonicum 
The wish that the California privet 
was entirely evergreen is so often ex- 
pressed that it is certain there would 
be a good demand for a species, that 
is Ligustrum japonicum, were it better 
known. Having in mind the latitude 
of Philadelphia, the California privet is 
evergreen only in well sheltered places, 
where free from the severest cold and 
from cutting winds. In the same local- 
ity, L. japonicum is evergreen through 
the entire winter. Its foliage will be 
scorched when the weather freezes 
hard and the sun shines on the plant 
throughout the day, just as happens to 
rhododendrons under similar circum- 
stances, but it is nevertheless a good 
evergreen. Were it used in a hedge, 
as the California privet is, one would 
protect the other and in this way a 
beautiful evergreen hedge would be the 
result. 
How far north this evergreen privet 
will endure the winter remains to be 
seen. It has been' in collections here 
for several years, and in a few in- 
stances hedges of it have been set out 
which were satisfactory and attractive. 
While it has withstood the severity of 
our winters when standing alone, it 
has preserved the bright green of its 
foliage better when in a hedge, as it 
naturally would. 
Joseph Meehan in Florist’s Exchange. 
SINGLE PLANT OP RIBES GRACILE 
AT BASE OF AN OAK. 
Good Shrub for Shady Places 
It is often desired to establish a 
shrubbery growth under large trees, 
and I know of no better plant for this 
purpose than the Missouri Gooseberry 
(Ribes gracile). 
It is a graceful and attractive native 
plant, growing from five to six feet 
high. Its bright green leaves appear 
very early m spring, clothing the 
bush from base to summit. These are 
followed by small greenish white 
flowers and reddish-purple edible ber- 
ries. 
I am using it considerably in land- 
scape work, and consider it worthy 
of extensive cultivation. It likes a 
rich soil, but will do well in dry or 
rocky soil. 
The photographs show its healthy 
growth at the very base of large oaks, 
and it actually seems to prefer just 
such situations. 
St. Louis. L. P. Jensen. 
MASS OP RIBES GRACILE AT THE 
FOOT OF AN OAK. 
Some Danger Signals 
W. N. Rudd, president and superin- 
tendent Mount Greenwood Cemetery 
Association, Chicago, writes: “There 
ought to be some danger signals hung 
up around the article ‘Some Shrubs 
for Succession of Bloom’ in your last 
issue. Forsythia buds winter kill here 
five years out of six. Spiraea A. Wat- 
erer is pretty for about two days; 
then the blooms turn an ugly brown 
and persist for a long time. The 
Althzeas are not reliable. They win- 
ter kill nearly every year and die out- 
right about the third year.” 
Practical Tree Study at Amherst 
Comment was recently made in 
these pages on the course in tree cul- 
ture given at the Hatch Experiment 
Station of the Massachusetts Agricul- 
tural College, Amherst, Mass. Prof. 
George E. Stone, who is in charge of 
this work, writes as follows concerning 
the course : “At the present time we 
have seven senior students who are 
taking work in a course which I term 
the ‘Physiology and Pathology of shade 
Trees.’ So far as I know this is the 
only course given in this country or 
anywhere else, and we are turning out 
quite a few young men who are espe- 
cially trained to fill intelligently such 
positions as city foresters, or helpers 
in parks. Many of our men at the 
present time have established firms for 
the care of trees and all of them are 
meeting with remarkable succes, some 
of them employing as many as 200 men. 
I started this course ten years ago at 
the request of students, and have been 
surprised at the way in which it has 
developed. I am at present giving con- 
siderable attention to it and am im- 
proving it every year.” 
Tree Laws Passed in Vermont 
The last General Assembly of Ver- 
mont passed several bills pertaining to 
trees and forestry matters. Bill No. 
223, is entitled “AN ACT TO PRO- 
VIDE FOR THE EXTERMINA- 
TION OF THE SAN JOSE SCALE 
AND THE GYPSY AND BROWN 
TAIL MOTHS,” arid authorizes the 
governor to use such means as in his 
judgment are necessary to exterminate 
the San Jose scale and the gypsy and 
brown tailed moths whenever and 
wherever they may appear in the state. 
Bill No. 15 appropriates $500 annual- 
ly for five years to aid in the establish- 
ment and maintenance of a nursery for 
the propagation of forest seedlings of 
useful varieties at the Vermont Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station. 
