1877.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
263 
ready mentioned, as material for a satisfactory trial 
has not been available. But, probably, its resem¬ 
blance to one of the common trees of the East will 
work against its general popularity, while its alpine 
character, and consequent habit of starting to grow 
in very early spring, will render it unfit for culti¬ 
vation, save in the extreme Northern States. In 
St. Petersburg, as I am informed on the best 
' authority, Abies Englemanni succeeds perfectly, in 
spite of the extreme cold of the Russian winters, 
and as heretofore the only conifers available for 
planting in northern Russia, have been the Scotch 
Pine and the Siberian Spruce, its general intro¬ 
duction there is considered of the greatest value 
and importance. By far the most valuable of the 
Colorado Spruces, as a timber tree, and the equal 
in this respect to the Black Spruce, it is not im¬ 
probable that Englemann’s Spruce will some day 
form an important element in the formation of 
artificial forests in Northern Europe. 
Notes from the Pines. 
If you who sit at Editorial and Publishers’ desks 
at 245 Broadway, would see “a sight to behold,” 
make an excursion to “The Pines,” and I will 
show you a “ thing of beauty,” which, if you love 
trees as I do, shall also be to you a “ joy for 
ever ”—at least so shall be the memory of it. What 
a pity it is that people who have a place in which to 
plant trees—often people of abundant means, do 
not appear to know how many 
Beautiful and Hardy Trees 
there are besides the Maples, the Elms, the Horse- 
chestnuts, and a few other things that every one 
plants. I do not know whether the nurserymen 
are to be blamed for not telling tree-planters of 
these trees, or if those intending to plant insist on 
having just such trees as are in their neighbor’s 
grounds. Be the fault where it may, the fact is 
painfully evident to those who go much about tbe 
country, that there is a wonderful sameness in the 
tree-planting. With a few rare exceptions, one 
place is like another in the kinds of trees, not but 
what the kinds are good enough in themselves, but 
one does not want tonjours perdrix, even if part¬ 
ridge is good eating. How rarely do we see a 
good specimen of that finest of trees, the American 
White Ash !—How seldom that most picturesque of 
all, the Weeping Beech, or that embodiment of 
lightness and grace, the'Cut-leaved Weeping Birch ! 
Still more rare than either of these, is the prime fa¬ 
vorite I have asked you to come and see, 
TJic Yellow-wood, or Virgilia, 
as most of the catalogues have it. Michaux refer¬ 
red it to Virgilia, a South-African genus, but Ra- 
finesque, finding that it differed from that in im¬ 
portant particulars, gave it the name of Cladrastis, 
which, though no one knows what it means, exact¬ 
ly, is the accepted botanical name. Come and see 
my tree, and you will not care whether I call it by 
its proper botanical name, Cladrastis tinctoria, or 
by the incorrect one, still kept in the catalogues— 
Virgilia lutea. You will- say that there can be nothing 
handsomer in the way of a tree, and that by “ any 
other name ” it would be as fine, and when in flower 
would “smell as sweet.’’—“Beautiful,” you will say, 
and “why do not others plant it?”—you will ask, 
and I cannot answeryou. I have hammered away at 
this and a few other trees, and tried to popularize 
them these many years, and expect to keep on do¬ 
ing so (if life is spared) for many years to come. 
The leading nurserymen will tell you that they 
keep the trees, but people will not buy them ; they 
will sell 1,000 Maples, while 50 Virgilias get over¬ 
grown and must go to the burn heaps. A few years 
ago I was at a gentlemen’s place, and was asked if I 
would take some Virgilias. His large tree fruited 
abundantly several years ago, he sowed the seed, and 
had young trees 3 or 5 feet high, by hundreds. He 
couldn’t give them away, because people didn’t 
know them; he wanted the land, and the whole 
lot are now ashes. Look at that tree, and think of 
burning it! What a fine-rounded head, what clean 
ample foliage of a most satisfying green, as you 
see it between the fringe of flowers ! the flowers 
too, slender, graceful clusters, of a white as pure 
as the snow, and the fragrance just that which 
makes you wish for more, and never cloying! I 
know of but just one fault the tree has : if you set 
it out in the morning, it will not bloom that same 
afternoon. In other words, it is a rather slow 
grower while young, and takes time to get estab¬ 
lished. Mine is now (I think) eight years from the 
nursery; it has given a few flowers for the past 
two years, but this is its first year of real fullness. 
It is full, and worth waiting for twice eight years ! 
The impatience of our people is amusing ; if told 
that a tree is to flower, flower it must, then, there, 
and abundantly, or they will not wait, but take 
something that bears no flowers (at least no showy 
ones) at all. It is rather discouraging, but I shall 
continue to speak of this and other trees, as well as 
such humbler plants, as I find commendable, feel¬ 
ing sure that even the hardest stone will be worn | 
by the constant dripping... .One who would keep 
the run of any special branch, must have all the 
leading journals and books devoted to it. In try¬ 
ing to keep myself “ posted ” in European horti¬ 
culture, I have ordered numerous works, as bills 
are read in Congress, “by their titles.” I have 
somewhere stated that I never found a work on 
horticulture so abjectly poor, that I did not find in 
it somewhere, a hint or an idea that was worth all 
the volume cost. I fear that a late importation 
will induce me to revise this opinion. I ordered, by 
the advertisement, several new horticultural works, 
the most showy and pretentious of which was 
“ Tlic Sew Pi aclical Window Gardener,” 
By John R. Mollison. This, a small 12mo. of 204 
pages, contains about half a dozen full page eolor- 
' ed illustrations, the most chromatic of chromo¬ 
lithographs, of the most impossible of window 
gardens. One might imagine such—indeed it lias 
been done here, but mortal eye never beheld any¬ 
thing of the kind. The rest of the work is 
crowded with wood cuts, and reminded me of a 
work published a few years ago in this country, in 
which almost every engraving from journals and 
dealer’s catalogues was pressed into the service and 
the text written in job lots to match. The English 
journals, usually so lenient with their own writers, 
describe the matter as “sound, but not new.”—I 
know of no better word to describe it than “ Hum¬ 
bug.”.Another work in the same lot called 
“The Children’s Garden,” contained 166 pages, of 
which 40 (Fcn-ty!) were' advertisements of other 
works by the same publisher. This may be all fair, 
right and honest, but to make one buy a book of 
which almost one-fourth of the pages is the seller’s 
advertisement, is rather tough.... By far the most 
important of recent works on horticulture is 
“Cultivated Plants, Tlieiv Propagation and 
Improvement,” 
By F. W. Burbidge. It is a large 12mo. of over 
600 pages. I had known of Mr. B. as an oc¬ 
casional writer for the English Horticultural Jour¬ 
nals, and as the author of a not very remarkable 
work called “ Domestic Floriculture.” This later 
work on Propagation received such high praise from 
the English journals, that I awaited the arrival of 
our copy with no little impatience. Over 160 pages 
are devoted to Hybridizing and Crossing, and it is 
but fair to say that this is the portion of the work 
that has been specially commended abroad, as bring¬ 
ing together the latest views on this important sub¬ 
ject. The rest of the book takes up—or proposes to 
take up, the cultivated plants by families, but the 
most important plants in many of tbe families are 
unnoticed. I shall be surprised to learn that this 
is a fair exposition of the present state of know¬ 
ledge and practice among English propagators. 
None of the rapid methods and peculiar expedients 
to meet particular cases, so common among our 
florists and nurserymen, seem to be known to the 
author. Of course the work contains much that is 
useful, and is more satisfactory than Carrieres 
‘Klardinier Mulliplicateur ,” but it will fall far short 
of telling the amateur all that he wishes to know, 
and there is yet room for a comprehensive and 
practical work on propagation, suited to this coun¬ 
try, where the conditions are so different from those 
abroad. In the mean time, until the desired work 
comes to his aid, let the amateur remember that 
Every Plant, can l>c Multiplied Somehow, 
and that patient and intelligent experiment will at 
last find out the secret. Some plants can only be 
propagated from seeds, others, of which the cut¬ 
tings of the stems root with difficulty, or not at all, 
grow readily from pieces of the root. The differ¬ 
ence of a few days in the ripeness of the stems 
used for cuttings, (or grafts), will lead to success 
or failure. Sometimes the only way in which a 
plant can be managed, is to graft a portion of the 
stem upon a piece of its own root. These examples 
are sufficient to show that there is no regular rou¬ 
tine to be followed, but that to be a successful 
propagator, requires no little ingenuity and skill. 
As an example of the expedients to which ingeni¬ 
ous gardeners resort, the bedding geraniums may 
be cited. These, when set in the open ground, 
make a great growth after the severe heats are over, 
and afford an abundance of cuttings, but these, 
having grown rapidly, are very succulent, and if 
put into the cutting bench in the ordinary way, 
would decay before they rooted. To overcome this, 
and prepare the cutting, Mr. Peter Henderson 
hit upon a plan that worked capitally ; instead of 
taking the cutting off at once, he cut the shoot half 
through, or tongued it. This checked the further 
growth of the shoot, caused the wood to harden, 
I and a callus to form at the cut surface ; in a few 
days the cuttings were ready, and when treated in 
the usual manner, formed roots at once. This lit¬ 
tle discovery was worth hundreds of dollars to Mr. 
Henderson, but instead of keeping it to himself, 
he, like the progressive horticulturist that he is, 
gave at the time a full account of it, illustrated by 
an engraving, in the American Agriculturist. The 
same trick may be played upon other soft-wooded 
plants as well. I have used successfully another 
j method with geraniums and similar cuttings, which 
I saw in some journal, but have forgotten where or 
I would give credit. When the wood is very suc¬ 
culent, and there is danger of decay, the cutting is 
i tied to a stick, and this is put into the sand so that 
the base of the cutting barely touches it. To pre¬ 
vent a close contact between the cutting and the 
stick, where moisture might remain and cause de- 
cay, a peg is placed between the two. The arrange¬ 
ment is shown in the accompanying rough sketch, 
[See engraving on p. 261], Of course this can only 
be successful in the moist atmosphere of a propa¬ 
gating house.... Probably almost every one has 
seen the old way of propagating the Oleander by 
Hoofing Slips in a Bofllc of Water; 
a cutting six inches or more long, has its lower 
leaves removed, and that portion immersed in a 
vial of water, which is hung up in a warm place, 
and the water replaced as it evaporates. In a 
shorter or longer time, according to the condition 
of the cutting, roots will form in abundance. It is 
well known thatthis is the readiest method for mul¬ 
tiplying the Reed, (Arundo Donax); and other plants 
maybe treated in the same manner ; Roses, Grape¬ 
vines, Willows, etc., will root in water, and it is 
said that cuttings of the Tamarisks strike more 
readily in it than in the usual way. The method 
seems to be attracting some attention among French 
horticulturists, and I was quite surprised to see a 
correspondent in a recent Revue I-Iorticole, advise it 
for Begonias, the cuttings of which are so succulent 
that one would think they would decay quickly. 
Experiments of this kind are very interesting to 
the amateur : of a similar character is what is called 
“ saucer propagation,” very popular a few years 
ago, in which cuttings were placed in a saucer of 
sand which was kept very wet—thin mud—and set 
in full sun light. Cuttings root readily so treated. 
But there is one difficulty with cuttings struck in 
water or very wet sand; the roots are succulent 
and tender, and unless handled with great care will 
be lost when potted and in contact with the soil. 
Though these methods seem very attractive from 
the ease with which roots seemed to be formed, 
the extra care they require afterwards more than 
offsets any advantages. Some cuttings root very 
readily in wet sphagnum ; indeed any inert medium 
that will hold the proper amount of moisture may 
be used, and pure sand has been found the best. 
