i 9 7 
PARK AND CEMETERY.. 
FALL FLOWERING SHRUBS. 
The beauty, generally speaking, of flowering shrubs 
and their use in landscape gardening has given to their 
cultivation and care a large importance. In American 
Gardening Mr. Edward J. Canning gives the following 
notes on autumn flowering shrubs from the Botanic 
Gardens of Smith College, Northampton, Mass.: 
Desmodium penduliflorum is one of the very best 
autumn flowering shrubs we have. It is of dwarf bushy 
habit, being not more than four or five feet in height. 
The stems are well clothed with trifoliate leaves, the 
lower leaflets being some three inches long by one and 
one-half inches wide, while the upper leaflets are small, 
not more than an inch in length. The rosy purple, pea- 
shaped flowers are produced in the greatest profusion 
on long, leafy drooping panicles, and are very showy at 
this date (September 26). The variety alba is also good, 
but with us it is not as free flov.-ering as the penduli- 
florum. Both die back to the ground each winter, but 
seem to come up more vigorously every spring. x It is a 
most useful subject either in masses or in the ront line 
of the shrubbery border. 
We have a mass of the Groundsel tree (Baccharis 
halmifolia) in flower just now on a grassy hillside, and 
it is very effective. It is called the Groundsel tree be- 
cause the flowers are like those of the common Ground- 
sel, consisting chiefly of a white pappus. It also be 
longs to the same family (compositae). It is of an up- 
right, bushy habit and grows about five feet in height 
with us. The leaves are small, obovate in outline, with 
coarsely-toothed edges. The flowers are borne in large 
terminal panicles and flowering at this season it is worth 
a place in every collection. 
Comanthospace sublanceolata is a sub-shrub belong- 
ing to the Mint family, and a native of Japan. The 
leaves are opposite, lanceolate, four inches long by one 
and a half wide. The stems are much branched towards 
the summit and about three feet in height. The flowers 
are yellow, and are produced in spikes three to six inches 
in length on the ends of all the branches. I believe it to 
be perfectly hardy, but as we only received it last year, 
we gave it a slight protection last winter until we could 
prove its hardiness. For the front line of a shrubbery 
border, or planted in a mass, we consider this a useful 
shrub. 
Berchemia volubilis, the common Supple Jack, is 
attractive just now with its terminal panicles of cream- 
colored flowers. It is a good subject for climbing over 
stone walls or fences, or covering up unsightly places. 
On a hillside, where we have a number of ericaceous 
plants grouped, a mass of the Scotch Heath (Calluna 
vulgaris) has been very attractive for some time 
past; the bright green foliage and tiny bell-shaped 
flowers ai^ very pretty. Erica vagans is also 
a charming plant for grouping; it is of much stiffer 
habit than the Scotch Heath, With pink flowers rather 
longer than those of the Scotch Heath. We protect 
these two Heaths in winter with a few leaves among 
them and a few Hemlock or Pine branches over them. 
For propagating we lift and pot two or three plants of 
each, cut them back, and after they have become estab- 
lished in their pots place them in a moderately warm 
greenhouse. Fresh young growths soon appear, which 
as soon as the tips become just “firm,” are taken as cut- 
tings and inserted thickly in shallow pans filled with 
white sand and pressed firmly. The pans are plunged in 
the propagating bed, and a bell glass placed over them. 
The moisture which collects in the bell glass must b e 
w iped out once or twice a day. As soon as the cuttings 
begin to make roots, admit air by tilting the bell glass 
and as soon as rooted remove altogether. The cuttings 
generally take about three weeks to root. We propa- 
gate all our Heaths in this manner, and although there 
may be other admirable methods of propagating Heath, 
we can generally root 99 per cent in the way I have 
stated. 
Although this garden has only been established little 
more than four years, we have now growing over 4,000 
shrubs in about 375 species. They are grouped in fami- 
lies in natural sequence around the college buildings in 
other parts of the campus. In addition we have planted 
some 200 different species of trees and conifers, and 
about 1,200 different species of hardy flowers. Seven 
greenhouses h^ve been built, including a large Palm 
house, and are now well filled with a large variety of 
plants botn of botanical and ornamental interest. 
Fall Planting of Perennials. 
Amateurs in gardening naturally feel some hesitancy 
about transplanting herbaceous plants in the fall; there 
is an uncertainty that is only dispelled by the results of 
experience. Those plants that are understood to be per- 
fectly hardy have but one thing to fear, viz.: The con- 
tinual upheaval of the soil in the action of freezing and 
thawing. The roots are not damaged by being frozen 
so long as they remain unexposed to air and light, that 
thawing may take place gradually. 
Dealers occasionally receive boxes of plants that 
have been “caught” en route by severe weather. Upon 
opening the box the presence of frost is at once noted, 
and instead of unpacking the goods, the lid is closed and 
the whole thing placed in a shelter devoid of artificial 
heat, yet sufficiently mild to permit of a gradual thaw- 
ing of the frozen contents. In a few days time the 
plants, uninjured, may be removed. If, on the other 
hand, they had been at once removed and exposed to 
a rapid process of thawing by heat, they would almost 
certainly be seriously injured. 
It is a similar case when shallow-rooted plants are 
“thrown up” by the continual freezing and thawing in 
the soil, finally becoming partly exposed to the air and 
sun-heat. Then it is that the damage is done. 
Mulching is a perfect safeguard. The roots are 
placed further from the reach of frost and sun-heat, re- 
sulting in a more even temperature. 
The choice of material to use for mulching is greatly 
a matter of convenience. Stable manure containing 
plenty of straw is perhaps the most generally used for 
the purpose. Dried leaves weighted down by boughs of 
trees are excellent; corn-fodder is likewise used. The 
transplanting of most plants may take place in any fall 
month, though an early one is preferred, with a few ex- 
ceptions, as they become better established before win- 
ter weather sets in. — Meehan's Monthly for October. 
The crocus is one of the most ancient floral names. 
It was used by Theophrastus, born about 372 B. C. He 
gives the name as of Chaldean origin. 
The forest area of the United States, according to a 
recent official report, is 500,000,000 acres, not including 
Alaska. 
