THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
has a poorer truss, with sterile flowers less showy 
thau those of XL paniculatagrandiflora, should 
moderate any excessive expectations. After all, 
we know of uo one who has flowered the 
Climbing Hydraugea in America, aud certain¬ 
ly, in other respects, our kuowledge of its be¬ 
havior is small. Seed has been imported with¬ 
in a few years, for the first time, from Japan, 
and a few plauts exist. We have some small 
plants ourselves, and Messrs. W. S. Clark, C. 
S. Sargent aud P. Henderson have others. It 
seems to us premature, therefore, to decide as 
yet on its merits. The foliage is attractive, 
and, judging from descriptions of eye-witness¬ 
es of its beauty in Japan when in bloom, its 
value must be considerable. With us it grows 
slowly at first, like the \\ istaria, until it at¬ 
tains Well-»stablished, strong roots, when its 
development is rapid. Its propagation from 
seeds or cuttings is easy, and it seems, after 
the trial of several years, to be perfectly hardy. 
Mr. Peter Henderson has a variety that differs 
somewbat from ours iu habit aud growth of 
leaf, but it is doubtless the same thing, show¬ 
ing merely the ordinary tendency to vary. 
Although it is too soon to give an opinion 
concerning the value of this climber, I feel 
confident that it will yet prove a line orna¬ 
mental flowering vine for America. Our need, 
moreover, for more good hardy floweiiug 
climbers has been frequently felt and ex¬ 
pressed. 
CBHOIDOPHYLLUM .TAUONICUM. 
This very rare and choice tree was, as far as 
I can learn, first introduced to America by 
Mr. Thomas Hogg, who sent it from Japan to 
his brother, Mr. J. Hogg, of New York, at 
least as early as 1863. This very tree stands iu 
Mr. Hogg’s garden at Harlem to-day; aud 
its ornamental value, as there indicated, is 
very great. The outline is pyramidal aud the 
foliage rich., glossy and beautiful, resembling 
the heart-shaped leaves of the Japan Judas 
tree, only smaller. Indeed, we may reason¬ 
ably expect that the attractions of the Cerei- 
dophyUum will, iu time, gain for it among de¬ 
ciduous trees a reputation similar to that pos¬ 
sessed by the Japan Judas tree among shrubs. 
At present, however, it is almost, if not entire¬ 
ly, unattainable iu this couutry. Practically 
it cannot be grown from cuttings, and little or 
no seed seems to have been sent from Japan. 
An anomalous tree, its relations with other 
plants are peculiar ; for, though said to be of 
the Maguoliaceie, it cannot apparently be 
grafted on any stock known in America. 
THE UMBRELLA l'INE.—SCIADOPITYS VERTI- 
CILLATA. 
Europe or Japan, and importation from Japan 
is at least hazardous. Nevertheless, an in¬ 
creased demand might develop a more careful 
and skillful culture, and thus enable us to have 
Sciadcipitys several feet high, sooner than w e 
now conceive possible. _ 
This evergreen is, in many ways, the most 
curious plant ever brought from Japan, and it 
will probably long remain as choice as it is 
curious. Eveu in Japan it is highly prized 
and planted in conspicuous positions. Indeed, 
it must present a truly elegant and remarkable 
appearance when a liuudred feet high. R. For¬ 
tune and other travelers speak decidedly as to 
Its reaching this hight, although so great an 
authority as Siebold says it •* grows 12 or 15 
feet high.” Doubtless, the last authority re¬ 
fers to ordinary garden specimens. (See illus¬ 
tration in Rural of Nov.24, '77.) The Umbrella 
Pine seems to be truly sui generis, allied close¬ 
ly to no other conifer, although it has been va¬ 
riously termed Taxus, Podocarpus, etc. In¬ 
deed nothing, perhaps, could be found amoug 
plants more strikingly peculiar than the for¬ 
mal parasols of 30 or 40 stiff leaves, or broad 
glossy, green, flattened needles, that push for¬ 
ward every year. Curiously, also, these leaves 
drop only once in three or four years. Can 
anything be more anomalous ? Aud then, to 
increase its attraction, it is rare, difficult to 
propagate, and hardy. 
As to its rarity, I can only say that I doubt 
whether there are iu America a dozen Sciadop- 
itys verlicillata over four feet high ; aud I 
believe this estimate of a dozen to be large. 
Seedlings a few inches high there may be in 
considerable numbers. It should be said at 
once that the rarity of the Sciadopitys arises 
chiefly from the fact that it is very difficult to 
propagate. In fact, no stock has becu discov¬ 
ered on which it will graft successfully, and to 
grow it from cuttings is a slow aud very un¬ 
satisfactory process—a peculiarity that applies 
to most bard-wooded, slow-growiug trees. 
Seed, therefore, is the only practical means for 
its propagation. But unfortunately seed can 
seldom be imported from Japau without be¬ 
coming rancid, or that are not, for some reas¬ 
on sterile. As a matter of course, we gather 
no seed in America from plauts two or three 
feet high. We have two or three times im¬ 
ported Sciadopitys seed to Flushing in con¬ 
siderable quantity ; first through Dr. Hall, in 
March, 1862, aud then through Mr. Thomas 
Hogg in 1875- From the first lot we obtained 
very few plants, but from the second, of about 
the same size, we were fortunate enough to se¬ 
cure something over a thousand. These are 
perfectly healthy, yet they have scarcely 
grown three or four inches in as many years. 
When they do begin growing, however, we ex¬ 
pect them to come on with some rapidity. 
But, in the meantime, during many years we 
must obtain all Sciadopitys of any size from 
NOT AS REPRESENTED. 
Editor Rural New Yorker Siuee writing 
you a few days ago concerning the dilatory 
movements of C. H. Spaulding, I have just 
received the Mendelssohu piano, and I must 
say I had just as soon be had cheated me by 
not seuding it, as to have, insulted me by keep¬ 
ing the money and seuding such a poor substi¬ 
tute. He advertised that the keys were covered 
with ivory, instead of which 1 find glazed paste¬ 
board; also that he would send 81,60 worth 
of music, aud he has sent none. Altogether, it 
is the greatest swindle, or misrepresentation I 
have ever seen. The instrument itself is per¬ 
fectly worthless. A toy piauo for children 
sold in town this winter at 81 50, was infinitely 
superior. I really would uot have given 50 
cents for it. Besides paying 82 freight, I sent 
85, which makes $7 I have paid to owu some¬ 
thing 1 thought would be of value to the chil¬ 
dren to learn music on. It is as near nothing 
as anything in the musical order I ever saw. 
Indeed, 1 would rather have a 10-cent harmoni¬ 
ca. I really hope if you keep the advertisement 
in your paper, that you will offer no other 
inducement to our country friends to purchase 
one, for 1 know they would be even more put 
out than I am after getting it. I don t mind 
paying double the value of anything (so far as 
I am able), if it suits me, but it becomes an 
abomination if I pay three times the value aud 
it falls so far short. This is a truthful state¬ 
ment, and 1 am sorry to make it known, but 
as mv husband say*, “I may acknowledge 
myself stuck” in niakiug such a bad bargain. 
But enough of that. I would like to make 
some inquiries concerning some things iu 
which I believe I shall be dealt honestly by 
tell me where to procure some of the Cliufas 
I see spoken of in the Rural of Dec. 28th, and 
at what price; also where to procure some of 
the Hubbard, or Butman Squashes, and again, 
please inform me where I conid get a pair 
of Angora goats, at what price, and whether it 
would be advantageous to raise them iu this 
part of the country ; also, please scud me a 
few of the Beauty of Hebron potatoes the first 
1 favorable weather ? Mrs. T. L. Lamu. 
WUUamston, N. C, 
[Wc thank our correspondent for writing us 
the facts. We exercise unusual care iu editing 
our advertisements, but, despite, this, it will 
sometimes occur that misrepresentations are 
made, aud in the ease, of out-of-town firms, we 
must rely for our information on our friends, 
if we have any, iu the advertiser's place of resi¬ 
dence. The advertisement here referred to, 
will never be permitted to appear in our col¬ 
umns again. Information concerning Hubbard 
squash is to be had by looking over our seed 
advertisements. We will be happy to send 
Beauty of Hebron. (See our seed announce¬ 
ment.) The inquiry relative to goats will be 
answered later.— Eds.] 
CATALOGUES, &c., RECEIVED. 
Stock-breeding : A Practical Treatise on 
the Application of the Laws of Development 
and Heredity to the Improvement and Breeding 
of Domestic Animals. By Manly Miles, M. D. 
New York, Appleton & Co. 
This is a timely publication and more than 
realizes the modest claims put forward in its 
behalf by the author. Now when a general in¬ 
terest has been aroused throughout the coun¬ 
try iu the improvement of stock of all kinds; 
when a fresh market has been opeued across 
the Atlantic not only for prime beef, mutton 
and pork, but also for good horses, cattle, 
sheep, aud even swine ; when at home profes¬ 
sional breeders find their largest profits in the 
production of first-class stock, aud intelligent 
dairymen realize that their best hopes of suc¬ 
cess depend on the possession of pure-bred 
herds or their grades: when every gentleman 
with a country residence is proud of the pos¬ 
session of a few choice animals and entertains 
high hopes of their progeny, a hand-book of 
authentic information on systematic and scien¬ 
tific breeding is sure to receive a general wel¬ 
come so soon as its merits become known. Uu- 
til the publication of the present work, despite 
the importance of live-stock to the agricultu¬ 
ral interests of the country aud the marvelous 
improvements made in it within the last centu¬ 
ry, uo work has been accessible to the farmer 
in which the known facts aud principles of the 
art of breeding our domestic animals with a 
view to their improvement were presented iu a 
systematic and convenient form. In the manual 
before us, no pretentious are made to original 
discovery in the art of breeding, but under 
eighteen general headings all the leading facts 
bearing on the subject are systematically 
grouped together, plain inferences are drawn v 
therefrom, and all the evidences extant in sup- b 
port of these conclusions are classified and ar- g 
ranged in a lucid and forcible manner. As a I: 
result of this method of treatment, the reader. i 
having before him all the data on each blanch ' 
of the subject, is iu a position to do his own 1 
thinking and to form an intelligent opinion f 
for himself. 
The scope of the work includes every depart¬ 
ment of knowledge bearing upon the art of j 
breeding, as can be seen by the following list of 
topics treated of in the different chapters: Breed- * 
ing as an Art; Heredity of Normal Character; 
Heredity of Disease; Heredity of Acquired 1 
and Abnormal Characters; Atavism; Law of 
Correlation; Variations: Fecundity; Iu-aud- 
iu Breeding—an excellent chapter—; Cross- 
Breeding ; Relative, influence of Parents; In¬ 
fluence of a Previous Impregnation; Intra¬ 
uterine Influences; Sex; Pedigree; Form of 
Animals as an Index of Quality : Selection ; 
Period of Gestation. Those subjects are all 
handled very fully and so clearly as to be easily 
comprehended by anyoue possessed of ordi¬ 
nary capacity and education. This lucidity of 
style adds so largely to the interest of the book 
that, by force of contrast, the reader is pretty 
sure to regret its absence in many other works 
I f a like senn-seieutifle nature. 
Probably the most notable feature of the 
ook is its copious wealth of citations from 
minent authorities who have written on dif- 
ereut phases of the questions therein dis- 
ussed. Among so many quotations it is not 
Lulikelv that the intelligent reader will lind 
oroe whose force is somewhat weakened to 
lis mind either through doubts of the entire 
ruth of the uncorroborated statements they 
•ontain, or on account of their occasional indi- 
•ectness of relevancy to the point they are put 
orward to support; yet, taken all together, 
hey excite, a very lively iuterest as illustrations 
it the various facts related, the inferences 
Irawn from them aud the researches and dis¬ 
coveries made in a very attractive aud useful 
department of knowledge. 
A source of possible error, however, iu this 
connection should be referred to. Too much 
importance may be assigned to the facts re¬ 
corded iu many of these citations. For in¬ 
stance, iu the chapter devoted to heredity of 
diseases, we are told that Lucas says : “A blind 
beggar was the father of four sons and a 
daughter, all blind." Now such an occurrence 
must have been extremely exceptional among 
blind people, possibly as rare as among the 
progeny of parents blessed with excellent 
sight. It was the singularity of the fact that 
caused its record. Moreover, its value as an 
instance of the influence of heredity is greatly 
lessened by a lack of information concerning 
the cause of the parent’s blindness. This might 
have been the result of disease, transmissible by 
infection to children, iu which ease the chil¬ 
dren might have been boru blind the dis¬ 
ease that caused the father’s calamity having 
had a similar effect on bis progeny. This case 
is here mentioned merely as a very prominent 
specimen of the faulty character of uo a few 
of the quotations. 
Such a work as this was greatly needed and 
consequently it supplies a want which thou¬ 
sands of farmers must have often felt. Indeed, 
it is probable that it will be of more use to far¬ 
mers generally than to professional breeders ; 
for most of these must be already acquainted 
with the principles it teaches, though not with 
the evidences with which it supports them. 
To farmers, however, it will afford valuable 
instruction which will guide them to a correct 
estimate of the amouut ot truth iu the various 
articles they may read on the subject of breed¬ 
ing stock with a view to its improvement., be¬ 
sides putting them iu possession of the best 
condensed information on that important topic. 
The book is an excellent specimen of the typo¬ 
graphical art, its price places it within the 
reach of every farmer iu the land, and we have 
lately seen no work we can more heartily re¬ 
commend to our readers. 
Peter Henderson & Co., 35 Cortlaudt St., 
N. Y. Catalogue of Everything for the Gar¬ 
den. This iB one of the largest catalogues we 
have ever seen and, iu simple justice, we may 
add one of the most comprehensive. It com¬ 
prises 182 pages, nearly 200 illustrations, aud 
two colored plates. One of these represents a 
red-aud-white-striped Tea Rose called American 
Banner, a name which is appropriate, not to say 
patriotic. VVe trust it may prove lees disap¬ 
pointing than did the much-talked-of Beauty 
of Glazeuwood 6eut out by some of our florists 
several years ago. The other colored plate 
preseuts several portraits of Lettuce, Radishes 
aud Golden Dwarf and London Red Celery. Of 
the latter we shall buve occasion to speak be¬ 
fore another planting season arrives. Not to he 
behind iu anything, Mr. Henderson offers for 
the. first time a new seedling potato—also ap¬ 
propriately and Patrickotically named, St. 
Patrick. Mr. H. thinks that St. Patrick is per¬ 
fect aud charges for it accordingly, 75 cents 
per pound, or 86 per peck. Have you tested 
the Beauty of Hebron. Mr. Henderson P If not, 
how can you be confident that he (St. Patrick 
we mean) is superior to her (Beauty of He- 
brou) ? The catalogue gives also a fine en¬ 
graving of Pear] Millet, which, however, does 
not so truly represent the manner of its growth 
in this climate as does our own engraving to 
which we have often referred. The results of 
his experiments, also, are so entirely different 
from ours thateither our best plants were much 
inferior to his average growth, or else Mr. Hen¬ 
derson is mistaken in his notes as to dates,, 
rapidity of growth, hight of stem, etc. For 
instance, he states j “ After cutting, a second 
growth started, aud was cut August 15th—45. 
days from time of first cutting. Its hight was- 
nine feet ." Now the highest stalk of our best 
plant which had not been cut down at all, 
measured, after frost, but ten feet one inch. 
But as to the catalogue, we have only to add 
it offers a long list of novelties, and as long a 
list of all other plants as anybody need desire 
to select from. We advise our friends to send 
for it. 
The Lawson Company’s Catalogue. Edin¬ 
burgh and Loudon. Among the novelties 
offered by this old aud trustworthy English 
house we note the following for the benefit oi 
our seedsmen and those amateurs who are iu 
haste to purchase new Things without regard 
to cost: 
Primula sinensis fimbriata. This beauti¬ 
ful now variety was selected from a superb 
strain. Its foliage is of a dark green shade, 
the stalks of the leaves and flowers almost 
black, aud contrasting beautifully with the 
flue, large, well-developed white flowers; some¬ 
times blotched with erimsou ; very distinct. 
Petunia hybrida nana compacta inultiilo- 
ra. An improved and highly recommended 
dwarf Petunia of the inimitable type; very 
dwarf, bushy habit, and densely covered with 
brilliant cherry-red flowers, each bearing a 
white star. Will be of great value as a market 
and bedding plant. 
Xeranthenuun annuuiu superbisaimuiu. A 
very double improved variety, with perfectly 
glohular-sliaped flowers, aud entirely free from 
projecting marginal ray florets ; it is said to be 
I einost perfect Xeranthemum yet obtained,, 
id is indispensable for dried-flower works. 
Solanum hybridum Empress This flue \a- 
iriety, of recent introduction, is very valua- 
e for decorative purposes; the compact, 
isby plant, richly covered with coral-red ber- 
es, is u great improvement on all former va- 
eties. 
Lychnis llaageana atrosauguiuea. Intro- 
aced as a most brilliantly colored variety 
f robust growth, yielding flowers of an in- 
■nsely rich blood-red color, forming a fine 
nutrast with the dark glossy foliage. 
Primula sinensis fimbriata. Another splen 
id new variety, of compact habit, and forming 
perfect cone; )t blooms very freely, the flow- 
rs being of a brilliant scarlet color. 
Bulletin of the National Association 
f Wool Manufacturers. This neat pamph- 
it of 254 pages contains an instructive address, 
overing 182 pages, by John L. Hayes. L. L. 
). the well known secretary of the Association, 
.elivered before the National Agricultural Con¬ 
fess at New Haven Conn, on the 29th of Au- 
;ustl878, on the resources of the United States 
or sheep husbandry aud wool manufacture 
ilsouu interesting, eleven-page report by E. 
Ollendorff, late Commissioner of Agriculture 
n the Argeutme Republic, on sheep husbandry 
ind wool production in that State; likewise 
.he proceedings of the Association at its 
fourteenth annual meeting held in this city 
m October 1878, together with several other 
items of minor importance. The work is 
well edited by Mr. Hayes, and in a future 
issue we shall take occasion to refer to the 
fund of information on the wool growing in¬ 
terest of the world, which it contains. 
Vick’s Floral Guide for I879r It is, as 
usual, filled with fine and faithful illustrations. 
First, we have a colored plate of a group of 
Pseonies ; then instructions as to selection aud 
sowing of seeds, lawn making, bedding plants 
aud carpet beds; then garden adornments, 
balcony gardening, wiudow boxes, etc. We 
have next a careful Alphabetical Index—a fea¬ 
ture the value of which is not sufficiently esti¬ 
mated in the average seedsman’s catalogue— 
and, finally, the usual listi* of all sorts of seeds 
for the florist, gardener and farmer. Mr. Vick's 
address, which we should suppose would be 
well knowu to all of our readers, is Rochester, 
N. Y. 
Wm. H. Carson. Listof novelties and abridged 
catalogue of farm and garden seeds for 1879. 
In this we find a reduced cut of our Pearl Mil¬ 
let, of which Mr. Carson cau claim to be the 
re-introdneer to Northern fanners. Many 
testimonials from different parts of the coun¬ 
try concur in praising its value as a fodder 
plant. He also offers Teosinte of which we 
gave an illustration in Rural of Nov. 2; Prickly 
Comfrey, Chufus; many new varieties of farm 
seeds and vegetables. This catalogue will be 
sent to applicants. 
R. II. Allen & Co., 189 and 191 Water 8t., 
New York. Seed Catalogue. Among root 
specialties Webb’s New Kinver Yellow Globe is 
again advertised by this house.- It i# a new 
