PARK AND CEMETERY. 
03 
time as the grouping is treated other details will 
be noticed. 
I would like to say in entering upon this section 
of the work that it is not incumbent upon anyone 
to adopt the classified grouping. They can go 
SYMPLOCARPUS FOBTIDUS. 
through it and select anything they please, just as 
they do from any catalogue. If they adopt it, 
they will find it a convenience, for the near allies 
are sure to be within reasonable distances for pur- 
poses of comparison, or maybe for the work of the 
hybridiser. 
So much has been written about springtime and 
the awakening of Nature in northern climates, that 
everyone has an intelligent appreciation of the 
subject. Unless sadly bereft of their senses, their 
very instincts will teach them that nature is now 
making her supreme effort in the work of rejuven- 
esQpnce and clothing herself with exquisite beauty. 
Of what the beauty in a garden consists will be 
briefly set forth in the following pages. The fig- 
ures in the margins pertain to the groups of the 
conspectus, as the genera under such figures per- 
tain more or less in structure to all others of the 
group independent of size. 
I. — Symplocarpus is a genus which few will ad- 
mit to the garden unless it be for purposes of illus- 
tration. It yields one of the earliest of highly but 
not agreeably odorous flowers, and should be 
planted in moist out-of-the-way ground. Arisaema 
triphyllum may also be planted in shady places 
near it, and if there be water Arontium aquaticum 
or golden-club may be introduced as a further illus- 
tration of a curious and widely diffused group 
which are especially well developed in the tropics. 
Lemnas or duck-weeds, and especially Wolffias, 
are the smallest of all flowering plants, and it is 
interesting to imagine the evolution of all flower- 
ing plants from these humble aquatics, some of them 
less than half a line in diameter, floating at the 
surface of stagnant shallow water, gradually build- 
ing up soil, or leaving for ages untold, deposits to 
be changed into peats. 
5 - — Trilliums or wake-robins are liliaceous plants, 
generally found in woods and doing best in shady 
places. They are handsome and quite early to 
flower in many cases. The purple sessile, the vari- 
ously shaded erectum, and the white grandiflorum 
may all be looked for early in the season. 
Tradescantia Virginica bears blue or white or rose 
colored flowers on tufted narrow-leaved plants and 
are excellent for planting in small beds in the grass 
in front of dwarf conifers. There is^no better sit- 
uation for monocotyledons than among the fir 
tribes, nor does their light green, sometimes mas- 
sive, foliage show to better advantage anywhere 
than with a backing of the commonly dark small 
foliage of conifers. A very attractive group of 
beds may be planted to flower at this season ; Bulboco- 
diums, Colchicums, Erythroniums, Tulips, Fritilarias. 
Scillas, Chionodoxas, Puschkinias, Hyacinthus, Mus- 
cari. Alliums, Anthericum, Asphodel, Hemerocallis 
angustifolia, Lily of the Valley, and for foliage a 
few of the Smilax and Asparagus may be planted, so 
also may Veratrum viride, and southward the Ruscus 
or butcher’s brooms. James MacPherson. 
A PATENT WEED CUTTER. 
The weed cutter shown here was patented by 
John Killefer, of Los Angeles, Cal. 
The cutters are fastened to the frame i by bolts 
or clips (indicated at lo), with their shanks 6 ex- 
tending rearward at an angle, the bends 8 extend- 
ing downward from the shanks and being through- 
out substantially parallel to the line of draft and 
the cutting portions 7 extending from the bends 8 
rearward at a reverse angle to the shanks and with 
a slight forward dip. As seen in the cut the 
draft-frame i is drawn over the ground the cutters 
and cutting portions 7 of the cutters will be drawn 
along slightly below the surface of the ground 
