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Vol. XL—No. 1643.} NEW YORK, JULY 23, 1881. j'S™,™ 
[Entered according’ to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by the Rural New-Yorker, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
Horticultural, 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
The Silver Bell Tree, (Halesia tetiaplera) 
We have but one specimen of this hand¬ 
some little tree. It iB sometimes difficult to 
separate tall-growing shrubs from dwarf¬ 
growing ti eeB. But the Silver Bell is in every 
way a small tree, having a straight main Btem 
which is very hard, and a bark of dark gray 
and brown handsomely striated. It has more¬ 
over nothing of the shrubby habit, being 
rather pyramidal in its growth. 
This tree is a native of most of our States 
from Florida to North Carolina inclusive, and 
Is very common in rich woods and hedges. 
It blooms here in late May and the illus¬ 
tration, which is drawn from our specimen, 
shows accurately both leaf and flower, the 
latter of which gives to it its familiar name of 
Silver Bell and alBO of Snowdrop from its near 
resemblance to the common 8uowdrop—Gal- 
anthus nivalis. This tree as it is laden with 
Its drooping silver bells is a pretty sight, and 
the tree itself, from its small size and symme¬ 
trical form is well adapted to all grounds of 
moderate extent. The blossoms, however, 
are of 6hort duration lasting only two or 
three days. These are followed by its nut-like, 
four-winged fruit which persists until froBt. 
Summer Transplanting. 
If several "ifs" are provided for. young 
fruit trees as well as raspberries and black¬ 
berries may be safely transplanted at this sea¬ 
son. Last year we transplanted two young 
peach trees in early July ; this year ten in late 
June. All are thriving, the first two men¬ 
tioned, though started from pits three years 
ago, are bearing fruit. These little trees were 
severely cut back. Only a twig or two—each 
having a few leaves—were left. The soil was 
carefully worked in among the roots and 
pounded down over them so as to be quite 
firm. Then the hole, or what remained of It, 
was filled with water, the rest of the soil loose¬ 
ly thrown in and the earth covered to the 
depth of three inches with meadow hay, If 
the season were wet, the watering and mulch¬ 
ing would not prove necessary. But it is by 
far the best to provide against dry weather 
which at this season is always liable to occnr. 
♦- 
RAYS. 
One of our friends—a merchant—has a pret¬ 
ty lawn around his home. He cuts it well and 
waters it, and last Spring gave it a good dress¬ 
ing of artificial manure—that made from the 
blood and other animal refuse at the abbatloir. 
A month later the effect was very apparent, 
and, as he was unaccustomed to sowing broad¬ 
cast, the irregularities in his sowing were as 
visible on his lawn as are the patches In a cow 
pasture; on the places where the moat dress¬ 
ing fell the grass grew the strongest. All the 
street are now up in arms and fortified by 
abbattoir manure. You could not give them 
any other kind, let alone coaxing them to buy. 
* * 
This reminds me of the wicked waste we 
often see in stock-raising countries, where 
heaps of strong, Intensely rich manure are 
thrown into a pile, a hole, or dumped adown a 
bank beside our packeries, lost in usefulness 
unto the world, but lending aid to pestilential 
viciousness. * * 
Among the coming favorite flowers, Tuber¬ 
ous-rooted Begonias will take a leading rank. 
They grow so stout and Btocky, bloom so con¬ 
tinuously and copiously, and their flowers are 
so big, so showy, and so gracefully arranged, 
that all people must incline with favor to them. 
Rose is the prevailing color, but pure white to 
deepest red and scarlet, also yellow, are repre¬ 
sented, and there are double flowers aB well as 
single ones. In pots or boxes in the window 
or the greenhouse, with care, they may be 
easily raised from seeds. Seedlings raised in 
Spring should bloom the following Fall, and 
again every Summer while the tubers live, and 
they should exist for several years. These be¬ 
gonias are not hardy, but the tubers can be 
lifted and wintered as we do caladlums, glox¬ 
inias or dahlias, but as they are smaller they 
must be more carefully seen to. An exposed, 
sunny position does not suit them bo well 
as a partially shaded one; under the drip of 
trees they will grow better than most plants. 
* * 
Was not the Rural, p. 840, & trifle too severe 
on the hardiness of Japanese maples ? These 
lovely little bush-trees, so far as intensity of 
cold is concerned, will stand a deal without 
hurt—yes, several degrees below zero ; but a 
searing, bleak exposure or a sodden bed In 
zero frost. If our ambition extends to such 
choice and expensive garden plants as these 
little maples, whose leaves, so deeply cut and 
variously colored, are as beautiful as blossoms, 
we should be prepared to give them shelter, net 
so much from cold as from the searing, frosty 
winds of Winter and of Spring—death-piercing 
blasts to animals and plants. Last Winter the 
woody vines of several of our clematises were 
killed into the ground ; our Japanese anem¬ 
ones are dead every one, while every little 
maple is to-day brighter, sturdier than it was 
the year before, nor did we protect them in the 
least beyond a nest of leaves around their base; 
their position, which is sheltered, did the rest. 
[The writer of the above lives a hundred miles 
or more north of the Rural Grounds. The 
thermometer at the latter place on two occa- 
casions marked 16 degrees below zero last 
Winter.— Eds.] * * 
My friend Mr. Thorp, of the firm of Hallock, 
Son & Thorp, the great lily growers of Queens 
County, N. Y., called to see me the other 
day, and among other things spoken of was 
that fine ornamental bush, Rosa rugosa. 
He told me that an old lady who lives 
near them has a large bush of this Japanese 
rose in her yard, which she claims to be a plant 
left of an old hedge of the same which grew 
there in her childhood some 70 years ago, and 
which as children they used to know as the 
“ Chicken Rose.” Whence It came she knew 
not, nor did she apprehend its rarity until she 
saw it exhibited recently as a “new "plant. 
From specimens of it submitted by her to Mr. 
Thorp, he vouches for its identity as a Rugosa. 
m ♦ 
Some years ago the stone-crop was in great 
demand for cemetery work, but of late years 
periwinkle, Ivy and gayer plants, and this 
“ Perpetual Care ” arrangement cemetery cor¬ 
porations are introducing, are fast displacing 
our old favorite. It is a tiny, fleshy-leaved, 
moss-like plant that makes a very thick car¬ 
pet, evergreen and hardy, and loves an open, 
shadeless spot and light or sandy soil to grow 
in. In June it is a sheet of golden blossoms. 
An old Albany florist tells me he has made more 
money off stone-crop than by any other one plant 
he grows. It makes a nice edging in the gar¬ 
den patch or fringe in the rockery, but in all 
cases it should be grown in full exposure. 
Torn to pieces and laid upon a sandy surface, 
every sprout and piece of broken stem will 
grow. * ♦ 
Guano water is a first-rate manure for 
green-house and window plants. It is no pat¬ 
ent nostrum; we know what it is, and that it is 
good. But in addition to being highly esteemed 
food for the roots of plants, as a wa9h for the 
leaves it is also excellent. Be your plants out¬ 
side or in the house, no matter. You syringe 
them with clear guano water, and yon will soon 
observe an increased thrift and fatness of fol¬ 
iage and Immunity from insects over those 
syringed with clean water. Red spiders, 
thrips and mealy bugs hate guano water. Nor 
does the guano water leave a sediment upon 
the foliage, as might be expected. Use it in 
this fashionInto a bucketful of soft water 
mix a teacupful of guano; stir well and leave 
for a day to settle; then pour off the water 
into another vessel, taking care not to stir up 
the sediment. Add about as much more clean 
water, then use as freely as you please. 
* * 
Wb sometimes see young men and old dis¬ 
mount and thoughtlessly hitch their horses in 
the broiling noonday sunshine while they step 
inside to make a lengthened call, or on the cool 
piazza rest and talk, «Djoy a melon, maybe, 
quite heedless of the patient, suffering animal. 
Surely no reader of the Rural Is so Inhuman. 
But the guilty guest is not much more to 
blame than the Indifferent host. Upon our 
treeless prairies, as soon as we “ fix" a home 
and build a house, we plant some trees to 
shade our house, sometimes our yard as well, 
but far too often neglect the shade that every 
hitching rack demands. And little time and 
trouble would it cost us. but great good and 
comfort yield us, were we to plant a lot of fast¬ 
growing shade trees here and there upon our 
THE SILVER BELL TREE.—Halesia tetraptera.—Fig. 849. 
Winter may ruin them with less than even a 
