A PLEA FOR CHOICE HARDY SHRUBS. 
In a paper recently read before the Dundee Horticul¬ 
tural Association on observations made at Seggieden, 
Perthshire, on the hardiness of certain trees and shrubs, 
Colonel H. M. Drummond Hay referred as follows to 
the advantages which would result from increased at¬ 
tention being paid to choice hardy shrubs :— 
It has often struck me as somewhat strange in these 
days that, among other things, the taste for liardy exo¬ 
tic hard-wooded plants—I do not allude now to conifers, 
but more especially to flowering shrubs and fine-foliaged 
evergreens—shoiild be so little cultivated. We often see 
this in many of our public parks and private domains. 
There may be masses of bedding plants, good collections 
of herbaceous and rock plants, and ferneries, together 
with pinetums, and perhaps beds of Rhododendrons and 
Azaleas; but what is the shrubbery like? Wetumdown 
a side walk, and there we find a few common Laurels, 
Lilacs, Snowberries, and other common plants, with Hol¬ 
lies stuck about, and perhaps some box trees, an Aucuba 
or a common Rhododendron or two, and this merely to 
hide the stable or some other objectionable object. But 
seldom is it we see collections of tlie choicest hardy exo¬ 
tic shrubs brought together and artistically grouped, in 
masses of fine foliage and flower, on some well-selected 
site, and I confess I know of no class of plants which 
will afford more satisfaction in that resxjeot. Nor is 
there any out-of-door class to be fomid in which a more 
continued display of beauty can be maintained for nearly 
the whole year round. Where could there be anything 
more beautiful than masses of Rhododendron atrovirens, 
Ndbleanum, and prcecoss, together with Mezerewn album, 
Jaaminum nudiflonim, and the early Heath “herbacea,” 
and its varieties Alba and Carnea, all in flower at the 
same time, vieing with the Crocus and the Snowdrop in 
earliest spring. Following these come m quick succes¬ 
sion other precocious kinds of Rhododendrons, early 
Andi-omedas,Spiraeas, Forsythias,Loniceras, early Genis¬ 
tas, and a host of others, till in June and July a perfect 
blaze of flower is presented, this continuing with fresh 
successions through the whole Summer and Autumn till 
met by the Cluistmas Rose in early Winter. In short, 
there is not a month passes in wliich the shrubbery may 
not be made to yield something to afford pleasure, wliich 
cannot, that I am aware of, be said of any other descrip¬ 
tion of plants growing in this climate out of doors. 
It has always occurred to me that the beauty and 
merit of hardy exotic flowering shrubs, both deciduous 
and evergi-een, have never been sufiSciently brought for¬ 
ward in our botanical and horticultural magazines and 
papers, or even in our exhibitions, to create any particu¬ 
lar interest in the public mind ; so much so, that I know 
there are nurseries where the finest plants have had to 
be thrown out to make room for those that are more 
common. I am glad to say the tide seems to be turning, 
and now that the difiiculties of transit from every part 
of the world have almost vanished, it is not too much to 
hope, were once the popular interest aroused, that we 
may see still larger additions swelling the no small 
stock of hardy valuable shiubs ah-eady existing in most 
of our large nurseries, and a more intimate knowledge 
attained than we have at present of their constitutional 
merits as to temperatm-e and climate suitable for their 
respective requhements in all parts of the coimtry. 
MY OLD SATSUMA. 
Chablie and I had been married nearly five years, and 
in all that time never had a word, save when the annual 
“house-cleaning” came round, and he either almost 
broke his neck through stumbling over the pail and 
brushes, unwittingly left upon the front staircase, or 
jammed all his fingers in an attempt to lift the kitchen 
stove, when, of course, he did not sit down and sing 
hymns. 
But serious quarrels were things unknown, and we 
intended they always should be. 
Well, it came about this way: .Esthetics were the 
rage, and had penetrated even to our quiot village. 
Charlie sniffed over it all, and only laughed when I went 
into raptures about the dear delicious dado I had seen 
at Cousin Anna’s, and said: 
“ I really thought she had money enough to do a 
thing up- handsomely. Why does she patch her walls 
in that style? Looks awful mean to me.” 
Oh dear, I had never known before how slow Charlie 
was. 
Now Cousin Anna’s house was altogether delightful. 
Her hangings were unique, and nothing of less age than 
two hundred years found a place in her best room. She 
has quantities of money, you know. 
The last time we were in Boston she invited us to an 
sesthetio tea, and oh, such charming people! Charlie 
didn’t like it at all, said everybody looked half-starved ; 
“ no wonder their voices languished and died upon their 
very lips, sustained as they were on wafers and rose- 
leaf tea. For liis part, he was nearly famished,”—and 
truly, as soon as we reached home, he rashed to the side¬ 
board and ate every particle of the cold mutton I had 
saved for the next day’s luncheon. 
But all this was nothing. On my birthday I received 
a large package bearing in ^eat letters, “Handle with 
care! ” Charlie suggested that perhaps an infernal 
machine, crossing to the British Islands, had lost its 
way, and counselled caution. 
“ It is notlung of the kind !” cried I, indignant and 
struggling with a Gordian knot. “A present from 
Cousin Anna. See, here is a letter.” 
With trembling fingers I snatched off the last wrap- 
per, and beheld a lovely vase of real Satsiuna. I posi¬ 
tively screamed with delight. 
Charlie looked at the vase, walked around and viewed 
it on all sides, and then said calmly: 
“Its the very ugliest thing I ever saw in my life. 
What ever made her send you that!” 
“That is because you are uneducated up to the stand¬ 
ard of true beauty,” I rejoined loftily. 
“I know what's pretty anyway,” he retorted snap, 
pishly. “Now that old Jew, who was here the other 
