53 
[February, 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
“ Gei’Hiail Ivy.” —Senedo mikanoides. 
Under tlie name of “ German Ivy ” we have 
..nltivated for several years a very quick growing, 
but rather tender climber. In shape its leaves 
eomewhat resemble those of the true Iv}", hence 
its popular name—but it is really neither an Iv}', 
nor German. The plant is from the Cape of Good 
Hope, and belongs to the Composite fxmily, one 
which gives us but few climbers. It has had a 
great variety of names—the correct one we be¬ 
lieve, being Senedo mikanoides. Senedo is a very 
large genus, containing species from all parts of 
ihe world. The name mikanoides is given to the 
present one from its resemblance in its climbing 
habit to Mikania. Among other names for this 
plant we find Senedo scandens, Belairea odorata, 
D. scandens, Breonia palmata, etc. When the plant 
nas liberty to run to an unlimited e.vtent, it sel¬ 
dom flowers, but sometimes when confined, es¬ 
pecially if grown in a pot where its roots be¬ 
come crowded, it blossoms freely. We are in¬ 
debted to a friend in Lawrence, Mass., for the 
specimen from which the engraving is made. 
The flowers are of a lively yellow, and fragrant; 
they, as well as the leaves, are shown consider¬ 
ably less than the natural size. The chief use 
of the plant is to form a leafy screen, a purpose 
to which its large foliage and rapid growth w'cll 
adapt it. It answers to cover unsightly objects 
in the grounds, and makes an excellent window 
plant within doors. It grows with the greatest 
ease from cuttings, every joint making a plant. 
When is a Tree Grafted 1 
A correspondent in Whiteside Co., Ill., writes 
to the Agriculturist: “We have a few R. I. Green¬ 
ing trees which were bent down when small, 
and layers were made of them ; therefore, the 
trees we now have are all grafted, roots and all. 
1 wish to knov/ whether the seed from the fruit 
of these trees will produce the same variety or 
not.” The writer of the above does not seem to 
h.ave a very distinct idea of what grafting is, 
and, in common with many others, supposes the 
term grafted applies to a quality of fruit, instead of 
to the process by which varieties are propagated. 
The trees he re¬ 
fers to, instead of 
being any more 
completely graft¬ 
ed than trees usu¬ 
ally are, in fact, 
are not grafted at 
all, but are mere¬ 
ly R. I. Greenings 
“ on their owm 
roots,” as the gar¬ 
deners sa 3 ^ If 
cions from a very 
indifferent “na¬ 
tural” tree were 
to be inserted in¬ 
to these Greening 
trees,the fruit pro¬ 
duced by them 
would be “graft¬ 
ed fruit,” notwith¬ 
standing its infe¬ 
rior quality. As 
we are in the ha¬ 
bit of perpetuat¬ 
ing only choice 
varieties of fruit 
by grafting, many 
take it as a mat¬ 
ter of course that 
fruit thus propa¬ 
gated must be of a superior quality, which is in 
some way derived from, or imparted to it, by the 
operation of grafting. This impression is aided 
by the fact that budding is also called inocula¬ 
ting, and as this latter term is also used for vac¬ 
cinating it has probably given the idea that the 
character of a tree is modified by the introduc¬ 
tion of some virus or principle into its system. 
The error of this impression will be manifest 
when we compare the operations of grafting and 
budding with other modes of propagation. In 
making a layer., a branch is partly buried in the I 
earth, and it remains more 
or less in union with the 
parent plant until it makes 
roots of its own. In propa¬ 
gating by cuttings, the branch 
is completely severed from 
the parent, and planted in 
the ground to strike root and 
form a new individual. In 
grafting, a cutting is planted 
in another tree, with which 
it unites, and uses I’oots al¬ 
ready provided, instead of 
making roots of its own. 
The cion or cutting used in 
grafting has several buds 
upon it, while in budding a 
single bud is employed. The 
future growth from the cion 
or bud partakes of the char¬ 
acter, good or bad, of the 
tree from which it is taken ; 
and, though the fruit may 
be somewhat modified by 
the character of the stock 
upon which it is grafted or 
budded, we believe the influ¬ 
ence is always confined with¬ 
in rather narrow limits. 
-o- 
Fruits for Illinois. —At 
a recent meeting of the Illi¬ 
nois Horticultural Soc’y the 
following fruits were recom¬ 
mended for general cultivation, without dividing 
the State into Northern, Central and Southern 
fruit districts, as has formerly been done: 
Early Harvest, Red June, Sweet 
June, Early Pennock, Maiden’s Blush, Rambo, 
Snow Apple, Jonathan, Yellow Bellflower, 
Talman, Rawles’ Janet, Willow Twig, Wine 
Sap.. .Pears .—White Doyenne, Flemish Beauty, 
Seckel, Duchess, Jersey, Easter Beurre, Bart¬ 
lett, Osband’s Summer. ..GAemes.—Early Rich¬ 
mond. Grapes. —Concord, Hartford Prolific, 
Delaware, Norton’s Virginia, Clinton, Herbe- 
mont- Quinces .—The Orange Quince... .PtocA:- 
herries .—New Rochelle...Aosji&emes.—Doolittle’s 
Purple Cane, Ohio Ever-bearing...iSfe awiern’es.— 
Wilson’s Albany, Iowa.... Gooseberries. —Hough¬ 
ton, Upright Cluster, or Pale Red... Currants .— 
Red Dutch, White Dutch, Grape, Victoria. 
A new “ Everlasting Flower.” 
{Helipterum Sanfordii.) 
Those flowers having that peculiar papery 
texture which enables them to preserve their 
form and color upon being dried, are de¬ 
servedly popular. Besides being useful in the 
garden, they are valuable for dry bouquets, 
which make very pretty winter decorations. 
The number of these has been much increased 
of late years, and we now have a quite full 
assortment of colors, from the pure white of the 
Ammohium and AcrocUnium, to the purple of some 
of the Eelichrysums. Last autumn we saw in 
the collection of Mr. James Vick, at Rochester, 
a fine golden yellow everlasting flower, the hab¬ 
it and color of w’hich were very pleasing. It 
was the recently introduced Helipterum Sanfordii, 
which is a very pretty border plant and when 
dried, holds its color remarkably w'ell. Like all 
the rest, when intended to be preserved in the 
dry state, this should be picked as soon as the 
flowers expand, or before they are fully opened. 
Mr. Vick has sent us a specimen and we give 
an engraving which shows a cluster of the nat- 
HELIPTEKUM SANFOBDII. 
uralsize, and at the left a much reduced figure 
showing the manner of growth of the plant 
