to thirty feet high, with green or reddish exfoliating bark; oval, petiolate, nearly entire leaves, very smooth above and glaucous beneath; urceolate flowers in elongated and clustered pubescent racemes; and rough, red, manyseeded berries. Seen plentifully in Oregon and California, ranging north of the Columbia River, where it is known as the laurel. Its rich foliage of large, thick, and shining leaves, its tinted bark, and its large cherry-like berries, render it a handsome tree, and well worthy of eastern cultivation.

The Californian Laurel, Oreodaphne Californica (Nees). - The handsomest hard-wooded tree to be found in California, with dark-green, lustrous, persistent foliage, resembling the European laurel, and quite as ornamental.

The dwarfer forms of maples, the Oregon ash, the Oregon alder, the various oaks, and the multitude of the nobler forms and species of the pines, and their allies, afford a rich opportunity of experiment in making them familiar to our arboretums and tree-plantations.

WOOD-ASHES FOR PEAS.

WOOD-ASHES will be found an excellent surface-dressing for growing peas. They impart health and vigor to the plants, and prevent the decaying of the leaves, and the premature withering and drying up of the stalks near the ground. If applied in excess, however, little benefit will be derived. One quart for twelve or fifteen feet of row, repeated after an interval of two or three weeks, will be ample. Apply, if possible, just before rain; spread them on each side along the row, two or three inches from the stems of the plants, and hoe in immediately.

The practice of applying dry ashes in the drill at the time of sowing is not recommended. We think, however, they might be used in this manner if they were thoroughly incorporated with the soil, and allowed to remain a few days before the seeds were put in. Two quarts may be allowed for each rod of drill. F. B.

REMARKS ON THE PINK FAMILY (Dianthus).

PART II.

By JOSEPH BRECK, Ex-President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.

CLOVE PINK (Dianthus caryophyllus). This is the original carnation, from which the florists' varieties have been obtained, and is more hardy and robust in its character than those which have sprung from it. Still, in our climate, it is necessary to protect the plants by a light covering of leaves or evergreen-boughs in the winter. The old plants do not flower so well as those raised from layers or cuttings. There is a difference in the fragrance of the varieties of this section of pinks. Some of them have a very strong, agreeable, spicy fragrance; and all more or less so. The flowers are generally plain, or of one color, with fringed or serrated petals; some of them very full and double, but not so perfect in form as the improved varieties. All the varieties of carnations, except the perpetual sorts, flower but once in the season, which is in July and August.

PERPETUAL CARNATION PINK, WINTER-FLOWERING, MONTHLY, REMONTANT, TREE CARNATION, &C. (Dianthus fruticosus). This variety of Dianthus caryophyllus is now generally cultivated by florists for bouquets or single flowers, for which there is a great demand from the lovers of flowers. The monthly carnation combines the richest and most varied coloring with exquisite fragrance, but does not have the perfect form or the regular stripes and markings of the florist's carnation; but has a great advantage over it, because it gives a succession of flowers through the winter in the greenhouse or sitting-room, and, when turned out of the pots in the summer, continues flowering more sparsely through the season. It is best, however, to nip off the buds as they appear in the summer, if strong-flowering plants are wanted for the winter. By retaining the terminal or upper growth, the flowering period may be prolonged beyond the winter. "In the spring or early summer months, the plants should be placed in a cool, airy greenhouse, or cool east or south pit throughout the summer, to mature the requisite vigor of growth for bloom. During the warm summer months, the plants should not be placed in any position where a free ventilation of air cannot be afforded by day or night; and, when the requi

site growth is obtained, they may be exposed in the open air until autumn, with the usual attention given to plants in pots." I have succeeded very well with my plants by turning them out in a bed, with a prepared soil, in a somewhat sheltered spot, to remain until October, when they are carefully taken up with a ball of earth attached to the roots, and potted, and placed in the greenhouse, and shaded a few days. I have seen plants of the monthly carnation grown in a neighbor's sitting-room, which produced abundance of flowers year after year, with very little care, except that of repotting in autumn, in pots of a larger size; taking off the decayed fibres on the outside of the ball; giving fresh loam about the stem after taking off as much of the surface-soil as is possible without disturbing roots.

DIANTHUS HORTensis, Garden Pink, or PheasanT-EYED PINK, so called on account of the dark eye that gives so much beauty and distinctness to the choice varieties. This species is desirable on account of its being the most hardy of the family, standing the winter without any or with very little protection. The coarser varieties are easily propagated by dividing the roots. A very common double variety is to be seen in most of the ordinary gardens; often used for a border to walks and flower-beds. The flowers are of a light-rose or flesh color, with a dark and not very distinct centre, with deeply serrated petals, and bursting calyx, but of exquisite fragrance, for which all the varieties are noted. This old denizen of the flower-garden carries me back seventy years, when I had made for me what was then called a "pink-posy." A dozen or twenty pinks were strung together by running a needle and thread through the calyx, then rolled up and tied, with a sprig of hyssop, southern-wood, or some other fragrant herb in the centre, which made quite a desirable, sweet-smelling bouquet. In those primitive days, it was the custom for little boys and girls to carry flowers to church, and it was considered no sin. These "pink-posies " were made up on Saturday afternoon, before the sun went down, by the strict, Sabbath-keeping people. It was not uncommon to see tulips, pæonies, lilacs, and roses, with other garden and native flowers, in the hands of ladies, old and young, as well as in the hands of the young men: so that the church presented quite a flowery appearance in the season of flowers. Perhaps they were as appropriate as some of the more costly ornaments which are too frequently seen in such profusion and display upon the

dresses of the "worshippers" at the present time. But let us leave this subject to be decided by the consciences of the gayly dressed, and resume the subject of pinks. "The pink," Loudon says, "as a florists' flower, is of much less antiquity than the carnation: it is scarcely mentioned by Gerarde; and Parkinson has given very few varieties. It was chiefly grown as a border-flower till within the last " eighty years, "since which time it has been greatly improved, and many fine varieties originated. Being one of the hardiest and least expensive of fine flowers, it is much cultivated by operative mechanics and manufacturers round large towns, and nowhere to such an extent as about Paisley, by the muslin-weavers there. The Paisley growers reckon above three hundred varieties of the pheasant'seyes.” "The propagation and cultivation of the pink are the same as that of the carnation, excepting that it is less frequently kept in pots or frames, but planted in beds of fresh loamy soil, and the smal! side-shoots reduced in the autumn in order to throw more strength into those intended to produce flowers the following season. Some cover their pink-beds with an awning. Not more than eight or ten flowers are ever allowed to expand on one plant; and these, if they have a tendency to bursting at the calyx, are to be tied as in carnation culture."

All the varieties of the pheasant-eyed pink flower the last of June in this climate. The improved varieties are known among us as "Paisley Pinks." MacMahon gives "a description of the properties of a fine double pink” as follows: "The stem should be strong and erect, and not less than twelve inches high; the calyx rather smaller and shorter, but nearly similar in form and proportion to that of a carnation, as well as the formation of the flower, which should not be less than two inches and a half in diameter.

"The petals should be numerous, large, broad, and substantial, and have very finely fringed or serrated edges, free from large, coarse, deep notches or indentures: in short, they approach nearest to perfection when the fringe on the edge is so fine as to be scarcely discernible; but it would be a very desirable object to obtain them perfectly rose-leaved, that is, without any fringe at all.

"The broadest part of the lamina, or broad end of the petals, should be perfectly white and distinct from the eye, unless it be ornamented by a continuation of the color of the eye round it, bold, clean, and distinct;

leaving a considerable portion of the white in the centre perfectly free from any tinge or spot.

"The eye should consist of a bright or dark rich crimson or purple, resembling velvet; but the nearer it approaches to black, the more it is esteemed its proportion should be about equal to the white, that it may neither appear too large nor too small.”

When the corolla consists of petals distinctly edged with the color of the eye, it is denominated a laced pink, and is considered the most perfect and beautiful.

DOUBLE CHINA AND DOUBLE IMPERIAL PINK (Dianthus Chinensis and D. imperialis). The latter is not a distinct species, but an improvement on the former. The flowers are larger, more regular and perfect; and this appears to be the only difference. They are biennial, but flower profusely from seed the first year. By giving them a slight protection, they flower stronger the second year, after which they perish. If the soil is very wet and cold, it is better to take up the choice varieties, and place them in cold frames, or in a common dry cellar. If they were but fragrant, they would be more highly esteemed than they are now. For beauty, they will vie with

bloom from July to October.

be

any flower of the garden. They continue in By sowing the seed of the double varieties, a great proportion of the plants will bear double flowers, some of them of exquisite beauty. In a large bed, hardly two plants will produce flowers alike: among them may seen flowers pure white, every shade of scarlet, crimson, purple, pink, and rose; shaded, striped, spotted, and beautifully marked with darker shades. A bed of these pinks presents a very gay appearance. The height of the flower-stems hardly exceeds a foot.

MULE PINK (Dianthus hybridus). — Of these mules there are a great variety, which have been produced by crossing the China and Imperial with D. latifolius, D. barbatus, and D. atropurpureus, of which there are many sorts enumerated in the catalogues. Some of them are dwarf, with pure white, striped, purple, and various-colored flowers; but, unless there are extensive grounds to be ornamented, there are but few people who would be inclined to cultivate them all.

BROAD-LEAVED DARK-PURPLE PINK (Dianthus latifolius atrosanguinea hybrida). — This is supposed to be a hybrid between the Sweet William