r*“— A 
NEW YORK. AUGUST 21, 1886 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
*2.00 PER YEAR. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1886, by the Rural New-Vorker In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 
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The Fern-leaved (Scolopendrifolia), Single¬ 
leaved (Monophylla), Potamopliylla and some 
others have been so afflicted with borers, that 
I have grubbed them up and burned them. 
Catalpas.— C. bignouioides is just going 
out of bloom with us; C. speciosa bloomed 
with us four weeks ago; C. Kcernpferi isn't 
worth growing as an ornamental tree; norun¬ 
less you want a bunchy bush of leaves is C. 
Bungei. No other July blooming tree sur¬ 
passes the common catalpa in flora] display. 
from the ground. It didn’t drop its leaves to 
any noticeable extent in Summer. But no 
matter how bad it may be in this direction^ 
surely it cannot compare with plane trees, 
horse-chestnuts anti elms. I regard the Yel¬ 
low-Wood as one of the loveliest and most de¬ 
sirable of all hardy trees for ornamental use, 
and I am glad you concur with me in this 
opinion.. [And we are glad to be be supported 
in our views by Mr. Falconer.]—E d. 
W. Falconer. 
and stop drains, like the 'willow, and it is per¬ 
fectly hardy on high land and low. Besides, 
being round-headed and symmetrical in shape, 
it attains large size and lives to great age; 
and for two weeks in June, well-grown trees 
show a mass of fragrant bloom sought for by 
innumerable bees B. f. j. 
Champaign, TIL 
VIBURNUM PLICATUM 
« fe w words as to the hardy 
shrub, Viburnum plicate 
nm — Plicate-leaved Vi- 
J burnum, or Japan Snow- 
'! ball. As to foliage and 
) habit there are few finer* 
shrubs. To develop its 
* full beauty, specimens 
should not be crowded or 
shaded by other plants. 
The leaf is shown in Fig. 
885, true to nature. But 
its rich, dark-green color, 
which becomes purplish in 
the Fall, and is held until 
frost, cau not be shown in a mere engraving. 
Its balls of flowers begin to open the middle of 
May—earlier or, later as the season maj’ be, 
lasting a full month fresh and perfect. Even 
after they have fallen they often retain their 
bloom. With many flowers the petals drop or 
wither on the stem; blit with this the entire 
head drops. In favorable situations the flow¬ 
ers will average four inches in diameter. 
Those balls are made up of two kinds of flow¬ 
ers. The outer ones are nearly an inch in dia¬ 
meter without either the rudiments of pistils 
or stamens. Beneath these anil almost sessile 
upon the pedicels are little dowel’s a quarter 
of an inch in diameter, which bear live stam¬ 
ens though no pistil, and but the rudiments of 
an ovary. When first opening, the flowers 
have n faint tint of green, which, later, disap¬ 
pears, leaving them snowy white. The leaves 
are roundish-ovate on the old wood, elliptical 
on the uew. They are strongly creased or pli¬ 
cated and sharply toothed. Our several speci¬ 
mens are perfectly hardy, and, except that the 
flowers are without odor, the shrub seems 
faultless. Few would care to preserve the old 
(Juelder Rose (Viburnum opulus), with its 
coarse leaves and crooked stems, after seeing 
good specimens of the Japan Snowball, as it 
has been called, though it comes from Northern 
China. The specimen from which our illustra¬ 
tion was drawn and engraved was cut June 1. 
KILLING PLANTS WITH KINDNESS 
We have been applying nitrate of soda to 
spring-planted strawberries. Where the 
nitrate {touched the leaves it binned holes as 
though*the leaves had been pierced with red- 
hot irons. [Similar effects upon corn plants 
at the”R. G. occurred three years ago.—E dsJ 
Two rows, side by side, one Crescent, one 
DauielJBoone planted much later than the 
others, were destroyed by the same applica¬ 
tion of nitrate of soda given to all thq other 
varieties, and which benefited all the others, 
a small teaspoonful being applied to each 
plant, in a circle six inches distant therefrom. 
We are at loss .to know why the two rows 
should be so differently affected from the 
others. Our foreman thinks it is owing, to 
the immature condition of the roots of the 
plants most recently planted. If this is the 
cause it is important, teaching that the nitrate 
should not be applied until the plants have 
made two months' growth. Nearly as manv 
plants are killed by kindness as by neglect. 
A man sent to plant the Earhart Raspberry 
put too much hen manure (composted with 
muck) about the plants and many died. A 
friend writes that all the plants we sent him 
last Spring started well, but he destroyed 
them by applying liquid manure not sufficient 
ly diluted. How often trees are killed by 
placing manure in contact with the roots, or 
hi excess near them, by excessive surface 
watering, causing the soil to bake; how 
often plants and vines are injured by some 
fanciful experiment, by too close or deep cul¬ 
ture^ in Summer, or pothering in Winter. 
The safest time to enrich the soil' ^ Before^ 
planting, having the manure well rotted 
aud mixed through the mold when wanted. 
Further fertilizing after planting will often 
largely increase the growth; but Such work 
should not be left to careless or inexperienced 
l^lp- CHAR. A. GREEN. 
TREE NOTES. 
The Golden Elder, when in perfection, 
is a beautiful shrub, hardy, vigorous and 
showy, and it retains its yellow color all Sum¬ 
mer long. Rut it now has, aud has bad all 
Summer loug with us, a lot of “scalded,” un¬ 
sightly leaves that no amount of golden color¬ 
ing cun compensate for. 
The Oak-leaved Hydrangea is in good 
bloom with us just now, and has been so siuce 
ulxmt July 7. When iu vigorous and healthy 
condition and In full leaf it is a good-looking 
shrub anyway; but Its habit of blooming con¬ 
spicuously as it. does in July, renders it excep¬ 
tionally welcome. It isa native of the Southern 
States and hardy with us, but it. is not consid¬ 
ered generally hardy iu the North. [It is not 
quite hardy ut the Rural Grounds. But the 
roots are never killed.— Eds.] 
The Dwarf Horse-Chestnut is one of the 
most, conspicuous of July blooming shrubs, 
aud is seen to best advantage when iu a mass 
by itself. But although 1 regard it os one of 
the most desirable of garden shrubs, I would 
not recommend it for u lit tle suburban garden. 
Some Asu Trees. —The leaves of the Aucu- 
ba-lenvol Ash are much speckled with yellow 
and in masses are effective, but between bark 
scales and borers the tree with us is a nuisance. 
THE “CRIMSON CLUSTER” STRAWBERRY. 
I notice that your correspondent, E. Wil¬ 
liams, in the Rural of August 7, criticises 
the change that we have made in the name 
of this strawberry from King Cluster to Crim¬ 
son Cluster. Had the King Cluster (as Mr. 
illiams claims it should be called, v been sold 
and distributed, then his censure for the 
change of name would have been perfectly 
proper and deserved ; but inasmuch as Mr. 
Durand had uot sold or given away a single 
plant of this strawberry until we purchased 
it of hun this season, I do not see why we had 
uot the right to change the name, which we did 
with his consent. I have had some experience 
iu the nomenclature of plants, aud have al¬ 
ways held that as far as possible, there are two 
things to be considered in a name, if they can 
be applied : first, that it should be descriptive 
as far as possible, and, second, that the name 
if consisting of two words, should be euphon¬ 
ious. Consequently, when we call a cauli¬ 
flower Snowball, a celery White Plume and a 
rose Sunset, in every case the name answers 
the purpose of a partial description of shape 
or color. It was for this reason we took the 
liberty of changing the rather unmeaning 
name of King Cluster to that which so well 
VIBURNUM PLICATUM (JAPAN SNOWBALL). From Nature. Fig. 325 
But I don’t know of a dirtier tree in the gar¬ 
den ; every day in the year it makes a mess 
with its falling “beau'' pods. 
The Yellow-wood.—T he Rural spoke 
recently of the Yellow-Wood being a messy 
tree, dropping some of its leaves during Sum- 
W'i | With us it is better behaved. We have 
several fine specimens twelve or fourteen years 
old. They retain their leaves better than most 
trees and bloom lavishly every second year. 
There is a Yellow-Wood tree in the Botanic 
Harden, Cambridge, which 1 • measured in 
1878. It was then 47 feet high and fi feet five 
inches in circumference of trunk at three feet 
BASSWOOD VS. YELLOW-WOOD, 
l AM interested in what the Rural says of 
the beauty and charms of the Yellow-Wood— 
CUiadrastis tiuctoria—otherwise Virgilia lutea. 
But considering it is a uative farther South, 
and therefore n:>t hardy North in exposed 
situations, is it to be preferred to the bass¬ 
wood—Tilia Americana. On the black soil 
prairie this is one of our most valuable soft¬ 
wood trees. It transplants readily, grows 
fast, recovers quickly from accidents to trunk 
and limbs, successfully resists the tramping 
of stock; the roots do not seek wells, nor enter 
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