302 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
of Virginia southward; it grows from two to 
ten feet high, and flowers even when only a 
foot high; it is very densely clothed with 
leaves, and on that account would be a desir¬ 
able plant, did it not flower at all. The lance- 
oblong, acute leaves are about two inches long, 
with bristly teeth on their margins ; the flowers 
are in large, dense, pyramidal clusters at the 
ends of the branches; the individual flowers 
are about the size of those of the huckleberry, 
contracted at the throat, five-angled, and of a 
pure white, which shows finely against the 
dark-green foliage. The racemes, or flower- 
clusters, are formed during the summer, and by 
winter appear almost ready to bloom ; being so 
far perfected, a few warm days in spring cause 
them to open. Although the buds are so well 
advanced, the shrub is hardy in the climate of 
New York, and on account of its beauty of fo¬ 
liage and flower, would be a popular plant, 
could it be readily obtained. This Andromeda 
is a favorite in England, and failing to obtain 
it from our own nurserymen, we had to send 
to England for it. 
Indeed, as strange as it may seem, the easiest 
way to get many of our native plants is to 
order them from abroad. Our nurserymen are 
not to be blamed for not keeping those things 
for which there is no demand; and with many 
buyers there is no surer way to condemn a 
plant, than to tell them it is a native. As to 
this plant, one may search a long while among 
the exotics before lie finds a prettier early 
spring-blooming shrub. It can be propagated 
but slowly by layers, but more readily from 
young wood. Its slow growth may account 
for its not being in favor with our nurserymen, 
as buyers are unwilling to pay more for slow- 
growing things than for those that can be 
rapidly produced. In England this is a favor¬ 
ite plant for forcing; its well developed buds 
readily opening when the plant is brought into 
heat during the winter months. Much atten¬ 
tion is given abroad to the decoration of dinner 
tables, and a well-shaped Andromeda in full 
bloom is a choice plant for this use. The 
plant seems to be about as patient of disturb¬ 
ance as a Rhododendron ; of the half dozen re¬ 
ceived from England, a part had bloomed in 
the box on the passage. The others flowered 
as soon as set out, and all grew away as if 
nothing had happened to them. The engrav¬ 
ing is from one of these specimens, and about 
half the real size. 
Notes from the Pines, 
Several have asked what has become of my 
“ notes.” There has been a plenty to say, but 
Ido not think it fair to occupy the floor every 
month, when there are others who w r ish to be 
heard. One trouble about these notes is, that 
your arrangements for printing require them 
to be written so far in advance of their publi¬ 
cation, that matters of present interest become 
quite old by the time they reach the reader. 
For instance, I am obliged to write the notes 
that will appear in August, soon after the 
middle of June, as you say your “inside,” 
whatever that maybe, goes to press on the first 
of July. Now I would like to say a word 
about the 
American Wistaria, but it will be quite 
out of date next August. As I look from the 
window of my “den” this warm June after¬ 
noon, I see a perfect horticultural exhibition 
on the gable-end of my barn : the doors to the 
carriage-house and to the tool-room are both 
grandly wreathed, and the vine gracefully dis¬ 
ports itself elsewhere. The Chinese Wistaria 
is deservedly popular, on account of the earli¬ 
ness of the large clusters of its purple flowers. 
I have it, and its varieties, but were I restricted 
to a choice, I would take the American, Wis¬ 
taria frutsscens, and its white variety, in prefer¬ 
ence to the foreigners. The Chinese Wistaria 
flowers as the leaves are just opening, there is 
an abundance of flowers, with a poverty of 
foliage, and the bloom is not of long duration. 
The American, on the other hand, bides until 
it has made a dense mass of well-developed fo¬ 
liage, and over this it hangs its clusters of 
flowers, which are much smaller in bunch and 
individual flower than the other; the clusters 
are more compact, the flowers of a firmer tex¬ 
ture, of the most delicate lilac color, and charm¬ 
ingly fragrant. In addition to all these it is 
American, and while I think none the less of a 
plant, because it is exotic, I am trying, in my 
quiet way, to have other plants thought none 
the less of, because they are native. The genus, 
wherever it may come from, commemorates 
I)oet. Caspar Wistar, an eminent surgeon and 
anatomist, of Philadelphia.Now is the 
time for building and repairing greenhouses. 
I am sure there would be a hundred green¬ 
houses, where there is now one, if the matter of 
heating were simplified. In the old way of 
heating by a flue, one must be constantly on 
the lookout, and be readjq if need be, to get up 
in the middle of the night, and attend to the 
fire. Hot-water apparatus is much more easily 
cared for, but for small houses has been too 
expensive for those of moderate means—and 
these are usually the most enthusiastic flower 
growers. When I built my greenhouse (24 x 11) 
last fall, I put in one of the 
Base-burner Water-heaters, made by 
Hitchings & Co., 163 Crosby-st., New York. 
Although we had but little extreme weather 
last winter, I am sure the apparatus would have 
heated a house one-half larger, if not one twice 
as large ; indeed, the great trouble with it was 
to keep the heat moderate enough for the 
greater part of the winter. It is no more trouble 
than an ordinary base-burner stove; in mild 
weather it needs attention only night and 
morning, but when it was quite cold, it was 
looked after at noon. In this heater Hitchings 
& Co. have done much toward solving the 
problem of heating small greenhouses, and it is 
not easy to conceive of an apparatus that will 
work more satisfactorily, with a less consump¬ 
tion of fuel. [This heater was described and 
figured in September, 1873.] .... In laying out 
my place, I consulted the public so far, as to 
put a low fence along the road, and to line that 
with low-growing shrubs, some of which are 
in flower all through the season, and present a 
cheerful appearance to those who pass by. I 
know that this gratifies many people, for they 
often slacken their pace, and if any one is in 
sight, stop to ask the names of the plants. The 
pleasure from this is, however, quite neutral¬ 
ized by a set of pedestrian vandals, who reach 
over the fence, and break off my shrubs in the 
rudest manner. What shall I do ? I can prose¬ 
cute these heathens, for I know" who they are, 
and thus make enemies wdio will annoy me in 
other ways; shall I put up a board fence, and 
hide my shrubs, or shall I move them all to the 
rear, and leave a naked front ? I’m in a quan¬ 
dary. Another quandary of mine is: shall the 
coming man be a horticulturist ? As it stands 
now, the insects are a little ahead, but what 
will it be fifty years from now r , if matters go on 
as at present. The saying that 
“ Horticulture is a War with Insects” 
is no figure of speech. Go into the vegetable 
garden: would you asparagus ?—beetles; would 
you radish ?—maggots; early cabbages and 
cauliflowers?—green worms and lice above 
ground, and club-root below. Would you cu¬ 
cumber?— the “flea” and striped-bug have 
something to say on that. If you like peas, 
you must also like Bruchuspisi. If you would 
—as all reasonable people should—make your 
pumpkin-pie out of squash, your chance for the 
delicious Marrow, Hubbard, or Marblehead is 
small, if you do not pick off that solemn and 
odorous bug, Coreus tristis , so as to leave the 
vines in good condition for the borer, which 
goes near the root of the matter, and the 6 or 8 
feet of vigorous vine that your care has pre¬ 
served, goes in a night. Tomatoes and egg¬ 
plants you grow to feed a fat fellow", as big as 
your finger, and so all through the catalogue, 
from the time the first asparagus-shoot comes 
through the ground, until the last parsnip is 
dug. Nor is it any better in the fruit garden. 
You have grown your strawberries in hills for 
two years, and now look for a grand crop; 
they were white with flowers, the fruit set fine¬ 
ly, but you find that here and there a vine has 
collapsed ; the next day more vines give out; 
you dig dowm, and find a fat, white grub, which 
likes what the strawberry produces below 
ground quite as well as you do that which it 
bears above. The majority of the strawberries 
may fail, but there are the currants, which set 
so full and are already ripening. Look at your 
early ripened currants, and they will be found 
to be still small, and have only turned red, be¬ 
cause the borer has taken the life out of the 
stem. Rose-bugs will eat up the grape-blos¬ 
soms, curculios sting the cherries and plums, 
and if there are any pears and apples this year, 
it will be because there w T ere not enough of the 
codling-moth and its allies to go round. Take 
the ornamental parts of the grounds. Upon 
about one-half of the shrubs there will be some 
kind of an aphis to curl up and partly kill the 
leaves. You are fond of roses, and precious 
few do you get. You fight the early green fly 
with tobacco Water; the later slug is dosed 
with whale-oil or carbolic soap, and when these 
are in a measure vanquished, and buds of 
promise come, you go out one morning, and 
find six or eight rose-bugs at every opening 
rose, and those which can not get a chance at 
the opening ones, are discounting the matter 
by gnawing the buds. If you believe any thing 
will trouble these fellows, just try it. As I do 
not expect to live anything like half a century 
longer, I can worry along, and take the few 
vegetables, fruits, and flowers, these winged 
scourges and their larvae leave me, but my 
trouble is, as this destruction increases yearly, 
to guess what will be the state of affairs in 
years to come, unless something is done to ar¬ 
rest this devastation. Unless united action can 
be had, individual effort is useless. The Apa¬ 
ches, who make their raids upon the borders of 
northern Mexico, steal judiciously, a few horses 
here, and a few cattle there, but never break up 
the settlement, as that would be, so to speak, 
destroying the nest-egg. Our insects seem to 
have some such instinct, and they do not, as 
the grasshoppers of the West, make a clean 
sweep, but leave us just enough to encourage 
us to go on and provide food for their progeny 
of next year. One person can do nothing; my 
neighbor on one side says: “My man tells me 
