300 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
writes so many pretty stories about, and so on. You you 
know as well as myself, and the faet has never been dif¬ 
ferent, that if you don’t more than your customer, you 
stand a mighty poor elianee of getting his attention. 
(Comparatively sj)eaking, there are only a few land¬ 
scape gardeners and nurserymen so far, who have 
adopted the practice of summer planting. But, it is 
rapidly eoming to the front. 
Austin, Texas, October 11, 1919. 
The National Nurseryman, 
Flourtown, Pa., 
Oentlemen : 
We value the August copy of the National Nurseryman 
most highly because of the article on Propagation and 
0rowing of Boses, by E. G. Hill. 
Articles of this sort are what a great majority of nur¬ 
serymen want. Of course, they must he written by sue- 
eessful experts—men who have successfully done these 
things. One article of this sort in each issue of your 
paper, or any paper, explaining in detail the propagation 
and culture of plants growm by the general nursery trade 
would he of inestimable value to nurserymen. 
Many of us grow plants and handle them perhaps for 
years and yet possibly not in the most successful way. 
It would he worth a great deal to such nurserymen to get 
the facts from men who have succeeded along these 
various lines. 
These are things that the wisest editors in the country 
cannot give to nurserymen from their own pen. It must 
he done by men who have actually worked it out. 
Mr. Hill was eloquent on the beauty of roses, the dif¬ 
ferent strains and varieties; hut on “Propagation” while 
covering the ground, he was a little brief. 
Eugene Howard. 
AUTUMN COLORS 
Returning tourists from the New England States are in ec¬ 
stasies over the wonderful Fall coloring of foliage in that local- 
\ity. Further South, in the vicinity of Philadelphia, as yet, it is 
not so rich as in former years, possibly due to the constant, cool, 
wet weather. A bright dry Fall seems to be more favorable to 
rich Fall coloring rather than cold and wet, possibly this ac¬ 
counts for the superior Fall coloring of American trees and 
plants to those growing in Europe. 
October 9th, 1919. 
BILL H. B. 5939 
(^diaries H. Perkins, 2nd, chairman. Legislative Com¬ 
mittee, American Association of Nurserymen, calls atten¬ 
tion to Bill H. B. 5939 introduced into the House of Bep- 
resentatives by Congressman Norman J. Gould. This 
hill if j)ass(‘d will carry an appropriation of '1>30,000.00, 
and which will he used for the purjiose of doing research 
and ex])('rimenting work, also to establish and maintain 
mother oirhards or plantations for the jiurpose of provid¬ 
ing domestic sources of seeds, cuttings and other propa¬ 
gating material to assure the future of American fruit, 
nut and ornamental interest. This hill is one which 
ev('ry nurseryman should he vitally interested in, and 
for this reason Mr. Gould should be given the support of 
every nurseryman, so far as he is able to give it. 
Nurserymen should write their Congressmen, urging 
them to support this hill when it comes up for passage. 
Our last issiK' was nothing to he proud of, in fact we 
feel like apologizing to our suhserihers for sending out 
such an abbreviated eojiy. 
There ai’e IVuv ho^io'"<ises that havt^ not been alfeeted 
by the unceilainty of transportation and the unusual 
conditions jii'cvailing. 
We have now" our stock of paper on hand and promise 
to try and do better in the future. 
Fnaleriek W. Kelsey, 150 Broadway, N. Y., is very 
optimistic about Quarantine 37 being of the opinion that 
very decided modilieation will he effeeted before long if 
the matter is rightly handled. 
According to the Sj)Peial Commercial Pear and Apple 
Crop report, the present season crop of [jcars is 8,601,000 
bushels against 7,589,000 for 1918. 
Apples are, 23,177,000 barrels for 1919 against 24,724,- 
000 barrels for 1918. 
PHILADELPHUS 
Philadelphus. The most distinct and the handsom¬ 
est of the Asiatic species of Philadelphus in the 
Arnold Arboretum is Philadelphus purpurascens, 
discovered by Wilson in western China. It is a 
large shrub w ith long arching stems from which rise nu¬ 
merous branch lets from four to six inches long and 
spreading at right angles; on these branchlets the flowers 
are borne on drooping stalks; they are an inch and a half 
long, w ith a bright ])urple calyx and ])ure wdiite petals 
w hieh do not si)read as they do on most of the species but 
form a bell-shaped corolla and are exceedingly fragrant. 
This is one of the handsomest of the shrubs brought from 
w estern China to the Arboretum. Philadelphus pekinen- 
sis from northern China and Mongolia is a stout bush 
rather broader than high which eveiy year produces 
great quantities of small flowers tinged with yellowu An¬ 
other interesting garden plant, P. Falronern, wdiieh is 
certainly Asiatic and probably Japanese, has narrow" lan¬ 
ceolate leaves and fragrant flowers in from one- to six- 
flowered racemes, and is distinct in the shape of its leaves 
and in its long narrow" petals. The origin and history of 
this ])lant is not know n. Some of the species hybridize 
freely and several of the handsomest of these plants are 
hybrids. One of the first of these hybrids to attract at¬ 
tention w"as raised in France before 1870 by Monsieur A. 
Billard; it is know n as Philadelphus insignis and some¬ 
times is called Souvenir de Billard. It is one of the 
handsomest of the large-grow"ing Syringas, and the last 
or nearly the last to bloom in the Arboretum, for the 
flow^ers w"ill not be open for another month. A hybrid 
probably between P. grandiflorus of the Appalachian 
Mountain region w ith a species from our northw est coast 
appeared in the Arhoretum a few" years ago and has been 
named P. splendens: it is a large and vigorous shrub w"ith 
unusually large flowers, and one of the handsomest 
Syringas in the collection. Philadelphus maximus, a 
su{)posed hybrid betw een P. lalifalius from the southeast¬ 
ern United States, and P. tomenlosus from the Himalayas, 
grow s to a larger size than any of the other Syringas. It 
is not rare in old Massachusetts gardens in which plants 
from tw"enty to thirty feet high can oeeasionally be seen. 
