486 
PARK AND CEME^TE-RY. 
Western San f loiter {HelUnthas ocddentalis) . 
I mention this species because it is a unique Sun- 
flower, nothing else much like it, and besides it flour- 
ishes in dry, sandy, barren land where few plants 
thrive. While it requires a dry, sandy soil it will 
thrive better if the soil is also rich in humus. Grows 
2 to 4 feet tall, branches spreading, all the stem-leaves 
very small and wide apart, not visible at a little dis- 
tance, the root leaves large, forming a rosette at base of 
stem. Flower-heads large, disk and rays, rich yellow. 
A double form would be elegant indeed, and find good 
use in dry, barren places. 
MISLEADING INSTRUCTION. 
It is hard to make people realize that this is a great coun- 
try, with a marvelous diversity of soil and climate, and that a 
system of horticulture adapted to one section will not fit 
another. 
For instance, “Country Life in America” gives good direc- 
tions for the planting and care of trees for a narrow strip 
of country lying along the Atlantic coast, but such advice, I 
fear, considering its popularity as an authority, is costing the 
people of the interior very heavily. Take, for example, the 
recommendation to plant trees in the fall. In the dry air of 
the West this is fatal. The August planting of evergreens is 
urged. I know both the East and the West, and while such 
advice is good in the East it is not for the West. 
A recent issue recommends the planting of broad-leaved 
evergreens. This is all right for the East, but it is an im- 
possibility in the West. We cannot raise holly, azaleas, 
rhododendrons and kalmias. I have lost hundreds and we 
cannot make them grow here in Nebraska. There is only 
one kind that we do succeed with and that is the holly- 
leaved barberry, Berberis repens, called the Oregon grape. 
This resembles the holly except in the fruit, and it grows in 
the Rockies and the Black Hills — the latter type does best on 
our prairies. The fruit is purple, ripens in August, is used 
in jellies and jams and is worthy of trial. It is a good 
decorative plant for the house at Thanksgiving and Christ- 
mas. It also has one of the most fragrant flowers that blooms. 
I have seen the Oregon type growing in the Arnold 
Arboretum, but it is not as hardy as that from the Black 
Hills. 
Many trees which are highly recommended in the East 
are worthless here. The tulips, the beeches and many kinds 
of evergreens we must discard. Many of the Japanese 
maples and evergreens will not stand no degrees in the 
shade. 
I have seen similar results in Colorado. I have lived there 
and know, yet many things do well, notwithstanding the 
dry air. Evergreens from the Black Hills and the eastern 
slope of the Rockies flourish well; the Austrian pine is a 
grand success. Deutzias are a failure and it is no use to 
bother wth them; yet in our State Experiment Station here 
in York we have twenty kinds of Philadelphus, Syringas, as 
many kinds of Spiraeas, and to the latter we can add our 
var. dumosa from the Rockies. We have over fifty kinds 
of lilacs and are sure we can raise all the 140 varieties now 
in cultivation. 
Most of the hardy perennials do well, no finer phloxes 
can be raised anywhere, and we are originating new sorts 
with single flowers larger than a silver dollar. Our five 
hundred varieties of pasony can challenge the world, and so, 
after all, we are not so badly off. 
York, Neb. ,C. S. Harrison. 
CUNNINGHAMIA SINENSIS AT WILMINGTON, DEL. 
TWO OLD TREES IN A CEMETERY. 
The two interesting old trees shown in the accom- 
panying illustrations are standing in Wilmington and 
Brandywine Cemetery, Wilmington, Del. They were 
both planted there 55 years ago, and the Cunninghamia 
Sinensis (C. Lanceolati) has attained a height of 30 
feet. The Cedar of Lebanon is 60 feet high and eight 
feet in circumference. 
Superintendent S. C. Penrose, to whom we are in- 
debted for the photographs, writes that he does not 
know of any other specimens of the Cunninghamia 
growing in this country, and would like to hear if 
there arc others. 
CEDAR OF LEBANON, WaLMINGTON, DEL. 
