[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by the ltnral New-Yorker, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
HARDY 8HRUBS AND PLANTS, 
In the Rttbal New-Yorker for May 21, ’81, 
page -340,1 notice a few remarks concerning 
the injury done to plants and shrubs by the 
past Winter. As it was remarkably severe it 
afforded me an opportunity for testing the 
hardiness of many plants, and after many 
years’ experience I find that a considerable 
number that are usually described and sold as 
hardy, are, when put to the test, found want¬ 
ing in that desirable quality. A hardy plant, 
as I understand the term, is one that will 
stand our Winters without protection and sus¬ 
tain no injury, while one that requires protec¬ 
tion and receives injury so as to damage its 
ornamental appearance or to destroy its flow¬ 
ering qualities, has no right to be called hardy 
—it is only half hardy in the strict sense of tie 
word, and should be described and sold as such. 
I regret very much to hear of the damBge 
done to the beautiful Japanese Maples, but I 
must say that I was always of the opinion that 
they would prove too tender for our severe cli¬ 
mate. They may stand in som; favored lo¬ 
calities, but for general cultivation they will 
undoubtedly prove to be half-hardy plants. 
I am sorry to have to report that the Lawton 
Blackberry is kilted 
to the ground, and 
that the KittatinDy is 
i so severely injured 
that it will only pro- 
Jgg dace half a Crop. 
The Cathbert Rasp- 
berry has stood well, 
not a cane being in- 
jured. Hydrangea 
I « hortensis is. as usual, 
v killed to the ground, 
and so is H. Oiaksa; 
while H. Tho’s. Hogg 
is dead—roots and 
r *~—. -A- 8 might have 
been e *k~»ed, the 
P/' Japanese Per D -«n_ 
mon is killed to th e 
\ ground, and so is that 
neat climber Akebia 
quinata. Euonyinus 
Japonica and all 
its varieties are 
dead—roots and all; 
and so is the dwaif 
E. radican6 varie- 
gata. and in my col- 
^ lection of Hybrid 
Perpetual Roses are 
to be found many 
vacancies. The Irish 
Juniper (Juniperus 
Hibernica) is badly 
- injured, and in low 
i, places some plants 
—v are killed to the 
ground, while large 
,A (specimens of the Iris h 
Yew (Taxus fastig- 
iata) over ten feet 
* of ^‘gh, are killed half 
T > w ay down, and even 
BMr Y> the box—Buxus sem- 
pervirens—is severe¬ 
ly injured, some 
specimens being dead 
over half way down. 
This has stood here 
many years without 
protection, and until 
the past Winter with¬ 
out injury, and, 
strange to say, small 
plants of the Thujop- 
sis dolobr&ta varie- 
gata. or Japan Arbor- 
vitse, are uninjured. 
A large specimen of 
the Cedrus Atlantica 
—Mt- Atlas Cedar— 
THE PENDULOUS TREFOIL-(Desmodium 
Pendulaeflorum. 
s. PARSONS, JR. 
One of the prettiest genera of the many 
hardy leguminous ornamental plants is that of 
the Desmodiums. Their fine, rich green fol¬ 
iage, waving habit and delicately tinted flowers 
are all more or less attractive. All the Des¬ 
modiums die down to some extent in Winter 
in the Middle and Eastern States of America, 
but the roots are seldom, if ever, killed, and as 
the flowers are borne late in.Summer and there¬ 
fore on wood produced the same year, this 
suffruticose peculiarity does not injure the 
value of the shrub for lawn-planting. 
The Dssmodium is one of the few plants that 
bloom in late Summer and Fall, and it has 
also a most gracefully pendent character pecu¬ 
liar to its refined and delicate foliage which 1s 
embroidered and tasseled with rosy-purple 
flowers resembling those of the sweet pea. On 
many accounts the Pendulous Trefoil finds its 
most appropriate position in the mixed border 
of hardy herbaceous plants and hardy shrubs. 
Its habit of weeping 
to the ground gives it 
peculiar value for the 
outskirts of shrub 
groups where erect- 
growing shrubs or 
even trees need a 
certain amount of 
masking to secure 
their most artistic ef- 
feet. If this plant, 
however, had no 
other qualities of 
value than its beauti- A 
ful and abundant Au- fVy M 
gust flowers, which mfij 
last until frost, I 
should unquestion- j 
ably predict for it 
a future of popular¬ 
ity ; but endowed as 
it is with interesting 
foliage as well, it 
must certainly make 
its way into extend¬ 
ed employment on > 
the lawn. 
39Hjg 
The Pbndolous 
Trefoil. —The speci¬ 
men of the Pendulous 
Trefoil of which the 
portrait of a branch 
is here presented, was 
sent to us several 
years ago by Mr. John 
Saul among many 
novelties to be tested 
in the Rural Grounds. 
We find the roots en¬ 
tirely hardy, having 
withstood unharmed 
the paBt terrible Win¬ 
ter. 
It comes, we be¬ 
lieve, from Northern 
Asia, and at the Ru¬ 
ral Grounds it attains 
a hight of about three 
feet, its 6lender 
branches, half eov- 
ered’witb pea-shaped 
blossoniB of extreme¬ 
ly delicate shades of 
rose and violet, bend¬ 
ing over gracefully 
on every side, it is 
a free grower, is 
Buited in almost any 
soil or situation, and 
is readily propaga¬ 
ted by cuttings. 
