PARK AND CEMETERY. 
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THE ARBOR- VITAE AMERICANA. 
THUJA OCCIDENT ALIS. 
This beautiful native evergreen is the hardiest 
of the class, which numbers many that are unique 
and exquisitely lovely. Art&r Vitae Americana is 
called the “ white cedar” in some sections, but is 
not, by any marks of similarity, a juniper, but a 
true thuja. 
Growing wild on the banks of the Hudson river 
and in the Eastern states, and producing seeds in 
cones that germinate rapidly, the tree has become 
widely disseminated over the United States. It 
naturally grows from ten to twenty feet high, in 
conicaM shape, branching low down on the trunk, 
but it was so popular for yard, garden, park and 
cemetery planting that it has been trained and 
pruned into as many sizes, styles and shapes as the 
various tastes and places it occupied may have de- 
manded. 
Allowed to attain height, the trees form wind- 
breaks for other shrubbery that combine beauty 
and utility. Isolated Arbor Vitae trees naturally 
incline to pyramidal shape, gracefully spreading 
their broad, fern-like, flat branches at the base and 
without losing the characteristics of the foliage, as- 
suming a more upright form toward the summit. 
Like other balsamic conifers, it assumes a dark, 
somber shade of green, sometimes of a brownish 
cast, during the winter, but contrasted with the 
surrounding dearth of verdure, and snow-covered 
ground, the scenic effect is fine. And early in 
springtime the new growth begins, changing the 
somber foliage to bright green. 
The Aibor Vitae is subject to but few diseases, 
and Mr. P. J Berckman, the well-known President 
of the Pomological Society of America, says it is 
only the Biota aurea nana and others of the Asiatic 
section that are attacked and injured by the red 
spider, but Mr. Seelye, of Vick's Magazine , says 
the Arbor Vitae Americana in Rochester, N. Y. , 
has been depredated upon by insects that have des- 
troyed the comely appearance of the plants without 
causing death and destruction. 
The experience of the writer is similar to Mr. 
Berckman’s. In the course of thirty years none of 
the Arbor Vitae trees, hedges or wind-breaks has 
shown tendency to disease, and with one exception 
all have been free from the attacks of insects. 
(This applies to the one hardy variety under dis- 
cussion.) The one instance occurred in 1888, in 
Mississippi and Alabama, when Cedars and Arbor 
Vitms were covered with what entomologists called 
the “ basket” worm. It wove itself securely in a 
small cocoon that was fastened to the tender 
branches or leaves. The substance of the trees was 
sapped and hundreds in various sections were 
killed. So insidious was its approach that the first 
knowledge of its existence was the yellow, sickly 
appearance of evergreen trees. 
Such depredations can hardly occur in well 
tended arboretums, parks or private grounds. As 
soon as the cocoons were discernible swinging from 
the under side of the branches, pruning scissors 
and other effective agents were employed to dis- 
lodge them. It was in the forests, waste places, 
and on old home sites where gardens had once 
been decorated with Arbor Vitaes and cedars that 
the basket worm destroyed so many fine trees. It 
never returned, and this was its first advent in 
these two states. Arbor Vita; Americana stands in 
the front rank of hardy, handsome evergreens, avail- 
able over many sections of the country, or 
to quote Mr. P. J. Berckman, “from Canada, 
South.” 
G. T. Drcnnan. 
THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY OF MEN. 
The gardener is the most extraordinary man in 
the world, because no man has more business upon 
thyme, is m ister of the mint, and raises his celery 
every year. And it is a bad year indeed that does 
not produce a plum. He meets with more boughs 
than a minister of state. He makes raking his bus- 
iness more than his diversion, as many fine gentle- 
men do, but he makes it an advantage both to 
his health and fortune, which is the case with few 
others. He indulges in his own pleasures, and 
though he is plain in his own dress with his bache- 
lor’s buttons, yet he encourages his cox combs with 
prince’s feathers, greatly admires the pride of Lon- 
don, and with pleasure admires his love lies 
a bleeding under a weeping willow. His wife, 
notwithstanding, has as much of lad’s love and 
heart’s ease as she can desire and never wishes 
for weeds. Distempers fatal to others never hurt 
him, for he walks the better for the gravel and 
thrives most with a consumption. He is nature’s 
assistant, and is as famous for his balm of Gilead, 
female balsams and genuine drops as an apothecary, 
and his thrift abounds by his honesty. He is a 
great antiquary, having in his possession Adam’s 
needle, the tree of life, Jacob’s ladder, Solomon’s 
seal, the holy thorn, Venus’ looking-glass, the 
arms of P'rance, and crown imperial. He is well 
acquainted with the globes, and has crossed the 
line oftener than any mariner in Great Britain. He 
is 'king of spades, and is happy with his queen, has 
more laurels than Alexander the Great, and more 
bleeding hearts than your beautiful Queen Mary. 
He can boast ladyship, but his greatest pride and 
this world’s envy is that he can have yew whenever 
he pleases . — New London Magazine. 
