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THE SOLANUM MAORANTHUM. 
'THE LARII EUROPCKA FENJDUL. 
VOL. XXXII. No. 13. 
WHOLE No. 1339. 
NEW YORK, AND ROCHESTER, N. Y, SEPT. 25 , 1875 , 
j PRICE SIX CENTS. 
1 *3.05 PER YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congreis, in tbe year 1875, by the Rural Publishing Company, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
^i[kricuitural 
THE WEEPING LARCH. 
The European Larch has long been known 
as one of the mo^t valuable timber and or¬ 
namental trees. It is extensively planted on 
the Western prairies for timber, and will 
doubtless prove to be of great value to the 
inhabitants of those regions of country. 
The variety of the Larix Europ&a, known 
as the “ Weeping Larch,” ia a most graceful 
tree, with long, slender, pendulous branches, 
as shown in tho accompanying illustration. 
In autumn the leaves change to a beautiful 
golden tint, affording a flue contrast with 
the deep green of the pines and other ever¬ 
greens belonging to closely allied species. 
Like the common larch the weeping variety 
is a deciduous tree, losing it3 leaves iu win¬ 
ter, but in spring the new foliage assumes a 
bright, lustrous green, seen in no other tree 
of its class. As the tree becomes well estab¬ 
lished, cones appear, and in spring their pe¬ 
culiar violet color adds another charm to 
this unique and beautiful tree. 
-♦« » 
SOLANUM MACRANTHUM. 
This is a handsome Brazilian plant, exten¬ 
sively planted in the gardens of Paris for the 
adornment of isolated beds cut from tho 
lawns and grass plots. Like most of the spe¬ 
cies of this genus it grows very rapidly, 
throwing up a stem six to nine feet in a sin¬ 
gle season, Tho stem is smooth and of a 
shining green color. The leaves are very 
large, twenty to thirty inches long, and about 
half as broad, with deeply notched edges. 
For tropical gardening this ia a valuable 
plant, and well worthy of introduction and 
cultivation in this country. The roots can 
be kept in a warm cellar, after removing the 
stum and leaves in autumn. 
-*-♦-*---- 
A NEW SHRUB. 
Tut Weeping Privet. —We procured this 
novelty from the Lawson Co. of Edinburgh 
last spring. In the Common Privet the 
branches grow straight and switch-like, and 
its habit is highly symmetricai. In the 
Weeping Privet, the branches grow down¬ 
wards, upwards and horizontally, and its 
mode of growth is lawless to au extreme 
that constitutes its chief attraction. It is 
budded upon the Common Privet stock, 
which is about an inch thick and three feet 
high. 
Had we purchased this shrub as the Com¬ 
mon Privet (Ltpu8<ruw vulgart) we should 
have marveled at the electrical manner of 
the branches in apparently striving to get 
away from each other as far as possible. 
The whole plant is the most disconcerted, 
dissatisfied, frightened looking shrub that 
we have ever seen—wherefore, with some 
benevolence, we prize it, being reasonably 
confident it will never make another friend. 
Our specimen is the only representative in 
this country, we believe—and one of the ob¬ 
jects of this note is to secure its always re¬ 
maining so. E. s. c. 
-- 
A FINE ORNAMENTAL TREE. 
Kcelreutkria Paniculata is a handsome 
ornamental deciduous tree of small dimen¬ 
sions that is not so generally planted as it 
deserves to be, says the London Gardeners’ 
Chronicle. And it adds :—In its picturesque, 
irregular habit of growth ; in its foliage, and 
in its flowers, it offers attractions of a high 
order. Although more than a century has 
elapsed since its introduction, and almost 
every nurseryman of note includes it iu his 
catalogue, it is very seldom seen in old estab¬ 
lishments, and less frequently planted in new 
ones. Doubtless many persons would call It 
ugly, for tho very same, reason that others 
admire it, namely, its irregular growth. To 
persons having an eye only for trees of sym¬ 
metrical growth, wo should recommend 
neither this nor tbe still mom quaint Cere Is 
Siliquastrum. Tho leaves of Kmlreuteria are 
about a foot long, unequally pinnate, with 
irrqgulariv lobed and toothed leaflets of dif¬ 
ferent sizes, and in June or July tho tree is 
adorned with large, erect panicles of showy 
yellow flowers at tho ends of tho branches. 
These are succeeded by curious bladder-like 
seed-vessels. It is perfectly hardy, and at¬ 
tains a hight of about twenty feet ; but it is 
of slow growth, as are most trees of irregu¬ 
lar growth that we can call to mind at the 
present moment. It is a native of North 
China, and recently a closely allied tree, 
Xanthoceras sorbifolia, has been introduced 
from the same region. This has leaves re¬ 
sembling the Mountain Ash, and white flow¬ 
ers with a purple eye. 
—-*■■»+. — 
A VALUABLE FIBROUS PLANT. 
A French marsh plaut, commonly known 
as the Massetto, and comprising three vari¬ 
eties, is found to yield a fiber capable of 
being utilized in a valuable way for textile 
purposes. Tho plant grows in a wild state 
and very abundantly, in streams of water, 
ponds, etc., aud reaches to a hight of some 
ten feet. Heretofore it lias been employed 
for seating chair bottoms, for thatching, etc., 
in the same manner us straw. The mode of 
extracting tho liber from the leaves, after 
the latter are cut aud dried, consists simply 
in boiling them for several hours in an alka¬ 
line solution, and afterward dressing them 
in a mill or under rollers, the process being 
then completed by washing. A yellowish 
paper is made, worth about seven cents per 
pound. The fiber will also prove useful, it is 
thought, for fabrics and for cordage, being 
considered equal to hemp, flax, or jute. 
-- 
Tree-Planting Associations are becom¬ 
ing popular in the West and elsewhere. 
