PARK AND CEMETERY. 
272 
CHRYSANTHEMUM DISPLAY, FAIRMOUNT PARK, 
PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
The chrysanthemum is a plant which could not 
well be dispensed with, as it presents us with its 
attractive flowers at a season of the year when there 
is, practically, nothing else in bloom. There is 
such a great variety of colors among them that it 
affords the opportunity of making nice contrasts. 
Some of the most popular exhibits in the horticul- 
tural line are composed almost entirely of chrysan- 
themums nowadays. The superintendent of Horti- 
cultural Hall, Fairmount'Park, does not aim to have 
immense plants, with immense heads of flowers, 
such as are seen in the halls where plants for 
competition are exhibited,- but to grow a good as- 
sortment of small-sized plants, to make a beautiful 
picture for the gratification of visitors, and in this, 
I think, he certainly succeeded the past season. 
Herewith is an illustration of a portion of the house 
in which the plants were arrayed, and it certainly is 
a pretty picture. 
The vine which hangs down so prettily from the 
table, and which is so fittingly used as a facing to 
the chrysanthemum plants, is the large-leaved, 
variegated periwinkle, a vine largely used in green- 
houses, and whether in positions as shown in the 
picture, in a pot, or a hanging basket, is always 
pretty. Though nearly always seen indoors, it is 
quite hardy; in this vicinity, at any rate. 
The large-flowered chrysanthemum shown in the 
illustration, while not as hardy as the old-fashioned 
pompones, once so familiar in gardens, are fairly 
hardy with us. If well covered with leaves, they 
are all right. But growers nowadays prefer young 
plants to old ones, and florists who grow a few favorite 
sorts to sellout flowers from universally use freshly 
rooted plants. The old plants are preserved through 
the winter under cover in any corner of the green- 
house, where it is comparatively cool. About 
March, or April the plants are placed on the stage, 
in the light, and watered and tended. In a short 
time quite a number of shoots spring up about the 
base of the old stem. These are cut off and placed 
in sand, in a gentle heat, and very soon make roots, 
and are in condition to be potted and start life on 
their own accounts. Where cut from the old plants, 
other shoots will push forth, and these in turn can 
be rooted. And if not enough are had in this way 
the tops of the young plants may be utilized, doing 
no injury whatever to the plants, as they have to 
be topped several times in the course of the season 
to make them bushy. As the young plants grow 
they must be shifted on from time to time to larger 
pots. When May comes, bringing warm, settled 
weather, place the plants out of doors, in the full 
sun, and see that they neither lack water nor ma- 
nure. Old plants may be divided and made several 
of, and planted , j ust as they are, in the open ground. 
Joseph Meehan. 
RAPIDITY OF GROWTH IN THE OAKS. 
It has been protested time and again by those 
who know that the popular reputation of the oak as 
to slow growth and difficulty in transplanting is not 
necessarily a true one. A little care and proper 
treatment, it is said, make them as satisfactory to 
handle as cheaper looking trees of less beauty and 
greater spontaneity. For the past two or three years 
the writer has had the curiosity to look somewhat 
into the matter and see how true the popular preju- 
dice was. The surpassing beauty of the oak is ac- 
knowledged, but their use as an ornament has been 
neglected, for the obvious reason that they have 
been thought not to succeed. 
An inquiry into the rapidity of growth of the 
oaks was made. The universal statement was, that 
while oaks in their natural state do grow more 
slowly than many other trees, in cultivation and 
under proper treatment, they grow as rapidly as do 
they. Samuel Moon of Morrisville, Pa., has given 
me the benefit of his rich experience. “The oaks,” 
he says, “are rapid growers. The pin oak is prob- 
ably the fastest and in fifty years will outgrow sil- 
ver maple, Carolina poplar, and most other cheap 
trees which are considered the fastest growers. The 
latter grow very rapidly when young but after a 
few years get tired and lose vigor. The oaks keep 
on growing vigorously much longer. I have a pin 
oak in my nursery fifty years old and nine feet five 
inches in circumference, a bur oak forty years old 
and six and one-fourth feet in circumference, a 
Swamp white oak of the same age, similar in all its 
measurements, and an English oak about thirty-five 
