1876.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
381 
The New Hydrangea “Thomas Hogg.” 
Those who concern themselves with the 
origin of the plants cultivated in our gardens 
and greenhouses, know that several of them are 
has enormous nearly globular heads of flowers, 
which are usually pink, but when grown in cer¬ 
tain peaty soils containing much iron, are blue. 
The plant sent by Mr. Hogg, is a variety of this, 
but has its flower clusters of a pure white, 
and we have no doubt its merits will be widely 
tested. As to the name, by which this variety 
is to be known, we need not tell any one who 
knows Mr. Hogg that it was bestowed without 
any agency of his, and while he was still abroad, 
natives of Japan, and that many of the choice 
recent introductions have come from that 
country. The names of Fortune, Vietch, Maxi- 
mowicz, and others, are well known as those 
of European collectors, who in recent years 
have added greatly to our horticultural treas¬ 
ures. There is an American, who, during two 
visits to Japan, one of them extending over 
seven years, has quietly sent home from time 
to time many valuable plants, and though 
plant-collecting was with him a secondary ob¬ 
ject, has added quite as mauy new plants to 
cultivation, as those who are more widely 
known. We refer to our friend, Mr. Thomas 
Hogg, of New York, a gentleman who shuns 
notoriety as much as others seek it, and of 
whom it is but simple justice to say that horti¬ 
culture is as much indebted to him, as to any 
one for the choice Japanese plants that have 
been introduced within the last 15 years. One 
of the most valuable of the plants Mr. Hogg 
has yet sent home, is a Hydrangea, which 
he discovered during his last visit. Almost 
every one is familiar with the old garden Hy¬ 
drangea, H. Hortensia, so named in honor of 
Queen Hortense, and not II. hortensis, as it is 
often written. This plant, introduced from 
China over a century and a quarter ago, is 
barely hardy at New York, but is usually treated 
as a house plant, to be put out in summer; it 
while the individual florets are very large and 
of great substance. A wood engraving can 
not well show this variety as very different 
from the common garden Hydrangea, as its 
peculiarity depends upon color, (or the want of 
it,) and a texture, which an engraving can not 
reproduce. The engraving is made from a 
cluster borne by a recently struck cutting, the 
plant being hardly larger than the cluster, and 
serves to show the free flowering character of 
the variety. This must be very rare even 
in Japan, as Mr. Hogg, who has explored the 
country more thoroughly than any other for¬ 
eigner, never met with but a single plant in all 
his travels, and this he came across in an old 
Japanese garden. Mr. H. sent this new Hy¬ 
drangea to the well-known florist, Mr. John 
Cadness, of Flushing, L. I., in whose skillful 
hands it has been successfully propagated. Mr. 
Cadness exhibited specimens at one of the 
spring meetings of the N. Y. Horticultural So¬ 
ciety, where it received especial attention from 
the florists present, who regarded it as of great 
value. While flowers of sufficient firmness to 
work into floral decorations are in great de¬ 
mand, and this affords an abundance of these, 
which may be used in masses, or the separate 
florets may be stemmed and worked in singly. 
We are informed that Mr. Cadness proposes to 
place the plant in the trade the coming fall, 
but we can not wish the new Hydrangea any 
better future, than that it may prove to 
be worthy of being called “ Thomas Hogg.” 
- .i.i i n < $ a rai l m - 
The Use of the Eeet in Seed-Sowing’,, 
BY TETEIt HENDERSON. 
For some years past I have, in writing on 
gardening matters, insisted upon the great im¬ 
portance of “ firming” the soil over the seeds 
after sowing, especially at seasons when the 
soil is dry, or likely to become so. I know of 
no operation of more importance in either the 
farm or the garden, and I trust that what I am 
about to say will be read and remembered by 
every one not yet aware of the vast importance 
of the practice. I say “ vast importance,” for 
the loss to the agricultural and horticultural 
community from the practice of loosely sow¬ 
ing seeds in hot and dry soils is of a magnitude, 
which few will believe until they have wit¬ 
nessed it; and it is a loss all the more to be re¬ 
gretted, when we know that by “ firming ” the 
soil around the seed there is in most cases a 
certain preventive. Some two years ago I re¬ 
lated in these columns how our crop of nearly 
two acres of celery plants was partially lost by 
neglecting to tread in the seeds, the dry heated 
air of May shriveling them and destroying their 
