PARK AND CEMETERY. 
103 
tionable. As for the vegetable curiosities sometimes 
introduced under the guise of carpet bedding — they 
should not be tolerated, it is unfortunate that ex- 
pert practical growers ever allow their ingenuity 
and skill to in this way overshadow taste to the 
end of perverting the floral morals of the public. 
Most of the results of such efforts should be rele- 
gated to a Chamber of Horticultural Horrors acces- 
sible to the element that supports dime museums 
and out of the way of true lovers of legitimate 
gardening and landscape beauty. 
The work of improving the appearance of pub- 
lic ground and private premises facing the railway 
rightsofaway is just as important, perhaps even more 
so, as improving the station grounds proper, and 
is rather more difflcult of accomplishment. This 
is especially true of private grounds, for there are 
more individuals to be dealt with. 
Railway corporations are popularly supposed to be 
soulless yet they are always awake to their own in- 
terests and can usually be relied on to exhibit a 
fair degree of public spirit, which is more than can 
be said of the average individual. 
In the outset as many old buildings and fences 
as possible should be removed and after that the 
greatest immediate good will follow a generous 
use of vines. A Virginia Creeper, Ampelopsis 
Ouinquifolia, set against the base^ of every build- 
ing no matter how old and dilapidated, and at 
intervals along every fence will alone do wonders 
in altering the appearance from passing trains, but 
the effect will be greatly improved by using a vari- 
ety of hardy vines such as Clematis paniculata, C. 
Jackmanni, C. Virginiana, C. graveolens. Trumpet 
Creeper (Bignonia radicans and where hardy, B. 
grandiflora ) , Bitter — sweet (Celastrus scandens), 
wild Roses and wild Grapes. 
Small trees and shrubs should also be freely in- 
troduced to shield the grounds from the passing 
public as well as to screen unsightly objects. 
By this means a double good will have been ac- 
complished, the general appearance of the place 
will be raised to a higher plane, and individual 
back yards transformed into habitable gardens, 
while the chances are in favor of other good results 
following in the wake of this, as of every kind of 
unselfish movement. F. C. S. 
THE WITCH HAZEL. 
//( j m a HI clis Virgin ica . 
This peculiar shrub, or small tree is of the 
Hamamelacaea family. It differs from Hazel-nut, 
filbert, or cob-nut, which are all of the Corylaceae 
family. 
The Witch Hazel is common in damp woods all 
over the United States and its peculiarity of pro- 
ducing flowers in the autumn is the same irrespec- 
tive of climates. From the shores of Lake Michi- 
gan, south, the bushy, many angled little tree will 
clothe itself in light yellow flowers after the leaves 
have fallen from all 
the trees of the forest 
surrounding it; and al- 
t ho ugh Gray and 
Wood are good 
authorities, and- both 
say, in their botanies, 
that “the Witch Hazel 
blooms from Novem- 
ber to January,” ob- 
servation has shown 
the writer that the 
blooms begin to open 
in September before 
the leaves are cast. In 
October the leaves fall 
and still more flowers 
appear, and in November every leaf will have been 
stripped from the tree and the full flush of blooms 
will clothe the branches from end to end. The flow- 
ers are perfect, or merely polygamous and in clus- 
ters on the curiously and sharply angled branches, 
and the stamens and petals show plainly how they 
are inserted in the 
calyx. Now, after 
November the stamens 
appear deadened, but 
the petals retain their 
golden hue, which is 
the reason our botanists 
have for saying it 
blooms till January. 
By a right combina- 
tion of circumstances 
the Witch Hazel in 
yellow blooms will be 
covered with snow and 
the Holly ice, when The Flowers of Hamamelis. 
side by side with it is bright with berries. Until 
after January the flowers cling to the leafless 
branches, and then another curious phenomenon 
appears. At this stage the fruit, or seed is edible, 
and hangs on the branches until spring. The little 
fruit consists of an oblong, woody case, about half an 
inch in length, inclosing two hard nutlets somewhat 
resembling the seeds of an apple. These seeds are 
expelled with a snapping sound, and any one 
curious to witness the phenomenon may stand near 
the Witch Hazel on a warm, dry, sunny day, and 
see it sow its seeds. The case splits nearly to the 
base, and after the seeds have been sent bounding- 
O > 
the appearance of the seed cases is like the wide 
Reduced in size 
From Vick' s Mas^azine, 
