Hasty notes on trees and shrubs of northern Europe and Asia

HASTY NOTES

TREES AND SHRUBS

NORTHERN EUROPE AND ASIA

BY CHARLES GIBB. ABBOTTSFORD, QUEBEC.

A Paper from the Report for 1883 of the Montreal

Horticultural and Fruit Growers7 Association

of Province of Quebec.

MONTREAL :
Witness'' Printing House, St. James Street West.

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1883.

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The EDITH and LORNE PIERCE
COLLECTION of CANADI ANA

Queens University at Kingston

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HASTY NOTES

ON

TREES AND SHRUBS

RTHERN EUROPE AND ASIA.

BY CHARLES GIBB, ABBOTTSFORD, QUEBEC.

A Paper from the Report for 1888 of the Montreal

Horticultural and Fruit Growers' Association

of Province of Quebec.

MONTREAL :

Witness" Printing House, St. James Street West.

1883.

HASTY NOTES ON TREES AND SHRUBS OF
NORTHERN EUROPE AND ASIA.

BY CHARLES GIBB, ABBOTTSFORD, QUE.

The experience of the Russian Horticulturists is just like our
own. They have searched Central and Western Europe for new
species, and have found among the many tried a few hardy and
valuable. They have searched for new species on this Continent,
and in some instances, like ourselves, have received the Southern
forms of hardy species. Have you the Ash-leaved Maple ? I ask
Dr. Regel, the Director of the Botanic Gardens at St. Petersburg.
Yes, but it is not hardy here. It is the only street tree in Winni-
peg, I replied. Then I have some Southern form, he said. Yes,
such is his experience and ours, and such must continue to be
our disappointing experience until we establish direct communica-
tion with our like climates in the old world. The Russian
Botanists had tried to find us years ago. They had endeavored
to get into correspondence with the Botanists of the colder parts
of Canada through their Consul at New York. They failed in
this, but turned their attention to the cold climates eastward to
the Pacific.

In the Imperial Botanic Gardens at St. Petersburg-, we find the
flora of the cold inter-continental climates of Eastern Russia,
Siberia, Northern Turkestan, Soongaria, Mongolia, Mantchuria,
and Amur, our own like climates in the Old World.

Europe may well be proud of her Botanic Gardens. The
large outlay of the European Governments seems to have been
money well invested. Botany in its relation to Agriculture, Horti-
culture and Forestry is a science deemed too valuable to be suf-
fered to remain untaught. Russia is in no way behind in this
matter. At St. Petersburg what cannot be grown out of doors
must be grown within, thence they have there the largest number

of species under glass in the world. Not only in the larger cities,
Moscow, Warsaw and Kiev, but in the smaller towns like Kazan,
Voronesh, Orel and Penza (the last not visited by us), we find
Botanic Gardens such as we might feel proud to own.

A generation or two ago, when Loudon and Lindley were at
work in England, the Royal Horticultural Society imported from
all parts of the world the plants likely to be useful or ornamental
in England. They sent agents to China. Robert Fortune, how-
ever, spent much of his time at Canton, almost in the tropics. He
was not in search of plants suited to the climate of Quebec, and
yet some of our best hardy shrubs were brought to light at that
time. This was probably the age of greatest Horticultural inter-
change the mild temperate regions have ever seen, and upon
it is largely based their present advanced horticulture ; and yet
this work has been only of minor use to us.

In the tropics, and in the sub-tropical climates, the British
Colonies have taken the lead in this matter of Botanic Gardens :
wherever there is a Colony of any size there almost always is a
Botanic Garden. Ceylon, India, (several), Singapore, Hong
Kong, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, New Zealand, Tas-
mania, Mauritius, Cape of Good Hope, and many others which I
am not sure enough to note have their Botanic Gardens. Also in
the West Indies, Jamaica, Trinidad and Demarara. The East and
West Indies have interchanged for over ioo years ! Read the
reports of the Jamaica and other Botanic Gardens in the library
of the Montreal Horticultural Society, and you will see that it is
this Botanic interchange which has built up the present enormous
export trade of the Tropics.

Now there are two points to which I wish to draw special
attention.

I. We in the cold North have hardly begun to exchange
with our like climates in the old world.

II. In Canada we have no Botanic Gardens.

As to exchange with our like climates, that will begin
next fall. As to Botanic Gardens we must speak less
hopefully. Our Horticultural Societies have done good

work. Our Universities do not neglect the science of Botany.
We have some fair collections of trees, some Horticultural
Gardens ; but our Government has never seen the need of
expenditure upon Botanic Gardens, as have the Governments
of the European powers, and the Governments of other
British Colonies. That this great Dominion of Canada,
which stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, should be with-
out a Botanic Garden, or a series of such gardens, is a fact with-
out parallel in British Colonial history.

On the European Forestry plantations I must say a few words.
The planted districts in France we did not pass through, but we
obtained some idea of their method of work by visiting the Forest
School at Nancy. That work one may get some idea of by reading
their reports now in the Montreal Horticultural Society's library.
In Germany we were continually passing extensive plantations of
Scotch Pine (Pinus silvestris), bordered with Norway Spruce {Abies
excelsa). The Germans are most economical in the use of wood,
so that Pine so extensively planted must ere long become an
article of export. But where are the hard woods needed for a
thousand different purposes. Strange this exclusive planting of
one species. So well are the forest plantations of Wurtemburg
cared for, that the term " high culture " could with justice be
applied to them. Evergreens are easily and cheaply propagated
in the climate of Germany, and hence the method of planting
adopted is that of close crowded planting, which of course, neces-
sitates continued thinning.

In Russia the Government controls, in fact " works," a large
proportion of the forests of the Empire. Of natural and planted
forest the Government held in 1878 what is equal to 351,780,000
acres, exclusive of Siberia, besides about 51,590,000 acres of scrub
at the far North. In 1878 they received from these forests an
income of 10,648,000 roubles, and expended on new plantations,
and working expenses, 6,400,000, leaving a profit for the year of
4,248,000 roubles, or about $2,124,000. The extent of the plan-
tations in Russia I cannot state. I know, however, that in three

of the Steppe Governments in Southern Russia, 22,880 acres have
been planted within the last 8 years. There are 762 forest stations
under the charge of a like number of Foresters, and as we jour-
neyed over the prairie regions of Russia, we were continually
coming across some Forestry Station with its surrounding planta-
tions. Like the Beet sugar factories they are scattered all over
the otherwise treeless plains. Unlike the plantations in Germany
the Russians have planted not only their native forms of the
Silvestris Pine and Norway Spruce, but largely of Pedunculata
Oak, Ash and Basswood, and somewhat of Larch, Birch and
Poplar ; also in the Southern Steppe regions, Yellow Locust,
Maple, Elm, Honey Locust and others.

The Imperial Forestry Association was in session at Moscow
at the time of our visit. Delegates from all parts of European
Russia had assembled under the Presidency of Dr. Arnold,
Director of the Agricultural College at Petrovskoe Rasumoskoe,
near Moscow. They meet biennially. We drove to the Govern-
ment forests in coaches holding eight persons each, on side seats,
back to back, driven by four stallions abreast. After luncheon I
was called upon (my friend, Mr. Budd, was not present that day)
to plant an oak, which is the joint property of the Canadian and
United States Governments, and which may be worth several
hundreds of dollars some centuries hence.

These Foresters are a fine set of men. It was one of this staff
who, of his own accord, and at his own expense, accompanied us
through the fruit-growing peasant villages of Kazan, sharing our
discomforts and sleeping upon a bundle of hay when necessary.

As to the climates of the places I name, I must refer to my
report on " Russian Fruits.'' Had I had more time I would have
shown what these climates are, not from Meteorological tables,
but from the flora in their Botanic Gardens. I would merely say
that the mildness of Central Europe one may judge by the trees
growing in the well-sheltered Botanic Gardens at Warsaw. Here,
in latitude 5 2 J, we find Sophora Japonica 10 or 12 inches in
diameter of trunk, growing from an old stump which had grown
to a diameter of 2 J feet; Juglans Regia had grown up with two

trunks, each 22 inches across ; Tulip Tree, large and low
branched, measuring 3 feet across its stump at the ground ;
Gingko, of 8 inches diameter; Cornus mascula, 25 feet in height,
and thirty feet across its extended branches. The Horse Chestnut
grows luxuriantly, and attains very large size at Warsaw.

I must say that these trees could not be grown in open ex-
posure near Warsaw, for such is the ameliorating influence of a
large city that the shelter it affords is equal to a difference of more
than 50 miles in latitude. Proscau in Silesia, on account of its
elevation of 720 feet, its open exposure and cold soil, is a rather
more severe test of hardiness than the sheltered city gardens of
Warsaw. North and East of Warsaw the climate soon becomes
severe.

These notes I have written as addenda to a somewhat lengthy
article on " Ornamental Trees," written by me last year for the
seventh report of the Montreal Horticultural Society, so that what
I say is merely a jotting down of things not said then.

Also before writing this, I had read Prof. Budd's notes upon
the same subject before they were sent to press for the Montreal
Horticultural Society's report. I have therefore avoided as far as
I could repeating what has been said by Mr. Budd.

ACER— Maple.

A. campestre. — In my paper on " Ornamental Trees," I spoke
of this as a tree or shrub that would prove hardy, if only we obtained
our seed from Northern stock. Its beauty in Central Park and
other places had made me wish we had its Northern forms. In
the Imperial Botanic Gardens at St. Petersburg, we find a fine
specimen, 18 ft. in height, apparently quite hardy. Another in
the Botanic Gardens at Orel, 30 ft. ; this latter, however, not
cork-barked. In the grounds of the Agricultural College at
Petrovskoe Rasumovskoe, near Moscow, their stock did not prove
hardy. It is a native tree North of Kursk, in Central Russia, and
runs thence North-West into the Baltic provinces. Farther South
it grows to larger size. In the Botanic Garden at Warsaw there
is a tree 1 2 inches in diameter of trunk, and at least 45 feet high,

8

not cork-barked, and in the Vienna Botanic Garden, 20 inches in
diameter of trunk, and 40 feet or more across its extended
branches. This, too, is not cork-barked. A tree capable of
standing drouth well. I am at a loss to know what name to give
this tree. English cork-barked Maple will not do for a tree
worthless to us if grown from English seed ; a tree not always
cork-barked. Let us procure seed of this pretty shrub maple —
seed of northern growth. We need direct communication with the
Botanic Gardens, and Nurserymen and Seedsmen of our own like
climates in Northern Europe.

A. negundo fol. variegatis or argentum. — This is a variety
of our Ash-leafed Maple, with white edged foliage. It is very
ornamental, and largely used, top-grafted in Central Europe.
Farther North, grown as a low shrub with slight protection, other-
wise not at all hardy in extreme climates.

A. platanoides. Norway Maple, — We did not find this tree
grown in as large quantity in Russia as I had expected ; nor did
we even find specimens of it as large as our own sugar Maple.
We find it as a street tree, and in gardens in all the Russian towns,
but in limited quantity only. I noticed on the Volga, in the dry
regions, that the trees growing there, trees looking just like the
Platanoides of Western Europe, stood drouth remarkably well.

Var. dissectum. — This pretty thing we found in severe
climates, and in Vienna we saw a specimen 8 inches in diameter
of trunk, with a dense, round head, nearly 30 feet in height, show-
ing that it attains larger size than I had expected.

Var. fol. digitalis we saw only at the Pomological School
at Proskau, in Eastern Prussia. A small tree with leaves still
more cut than Dissecta.

Var. Reitenbachi a curious and a pretty tree. Leaves, dull
brown in summer, and in spring, red. I do not remember seeing
it North of Warsaw.

Var. Schwerdlerii. — A Maple with young shoots bright
red. Quite hardy at Riga says Mr. Wagner. I should not expect
it to prove hardy farther north.

9

A. Tartaricum, Tartarian Maple.— -This tree is a native
near Moscow, and may be seen, in the Botanic Gardens and parks
in the severest climates we visited. It is an " entire-leaved *
Maple, grows into a large bush, and is decidedly ornamental. It
is a pity that the trees of it for sale in the States are not to be
relyed upon for hardiness. We must get Northern stock.

Var. Ginnala (tegmentosum of some catalogues.) — A very
pretty shrub Maple from Amur, noted as quite hardy at St. Peters-
burg, though only fairly hardy at Riga. My Moscow notes do
not mention it. Hardy enough for Montreal, I should expect.

jESCULUS AND PAVIA-Horse Chestnut.

As we wandered from place to place we found decided variety
in foliage of this tree. Mr. Budd used to note the thickness of
leaf of the trees in some districts, as likely to stand the dry air of
the Iowa prairies. The best collection we saw was in the Botanic
Garden at Munich. Here special attention had been given to
making a large collection. Specimen trees at St. Petersburg,
Moscow, and Volsk looked as if out of their latitude. One thing,
however, we observed, and that is the hardness of the Pavias or
smooth-fruited Horse Chestnuts, and these Pavias, we were told in
several places, were European, not American.

ALNUS-Alder.

There are some beautiful shrubs among the Alder. Imperialis
is said to be the least hardy, and yet I would expect it to thrive
in a sheltered city garden in Montreal. Incana lacinia ta has a
dull, sombre tint, very unusual ; leaves deeply cut, and very orna-
mental. It seemed, and was said to be, quite hardy in the
nurseries at Riga. Incana pinnatifida or acuminata in the Botanic
Garden, St. Petersburg, is a large bush 25 feet in height, with a
trunk 12 inches in diameter ; foliage dull in color and deeply cut.
From my notes it must be very like Laciniata. A. glutinosa
oxyacanthafolia is well named, and, like those above, bears no

10

resemblance to an ordinary Alder. It is light and airy, and
rather pretty, but sparse of foliage, and should be headed in to
make it appear to good advantage.

AMELANOHIER-June-berry.

We found nothing of special value, but I must speak of kinds
which have already found their way into the West, probably from
Europe. A dwarf variety has been grown by a German in Greene,
Co. Iowa, for the past 12 years. Mr. Budd who visited the planta-
tion, says " that the plants were literally loaded with a dark, nearly
black fruit of good size and excellent quality ;" even the sprouts,
not more than a foot in height, were bearing. The bushes when
full grown were 2 to 3 feet in height, bore fruit the size of black
currants, and all this time had been grown and marketed under
the impression that they were Huckleberries. This variety was
imported from Germany. Another colonist, near Davenport,
Iowa, has had 4 acres of a somewhat similar berry, and has pro-
duced 50 to 60 bushels in a season from the bearing portion of
his plantation. This has been over 20 years on trial, and its
origin is not traceable.

Again Mr. Budd draws my attention to the Amelanchier alpina,
received from Texas, and which is a native of the Andes of
Mexico, and apparently quite hardy at Ames, Iowa. It grows a
foot or more in height, and has been highly thought of in Texas,
where it has been grown as a Huckleberry.

Another variety received the prize of, I believe, $40 from the
Mass. Hort. Soc.

I mention these because they are fruit that should be grown in
our climate.

ARIA— White Beam Tree.

This is a medium-sized tree, allied to the Mountain Ash ;
somewhat like it in blossom, and in the fact that it bears clusters
of fruit.

11

The largest collection we saw was in the grounds of Mr.
Wagner at Riga, and of these, Nivea, specially struck me, on
account of the snowy whiteness of the under side of the leaf.
This tree would be specially beautiful in a windy situation. Of
others, Acerifolia has a very long leaf very much indented, and, I
suppose, lobed. Corymbiflora, like laciniata, an indented rather
than a cut leaf. Cretica, leaf small, but white on under side.
Elipticdy very broad leaf, white underneath. Gldbrata, leaf glossy
on upper surface, and quite unlike others. Lantana, leaf lance-
olate, and white beneath. Latifolia atroviridis, leaf larger and
broader. A. lutescens, of M. Simon-Louis, at Metz, is remark-
able for the whiteness of the under, and even of upper, side of leaf.

ARMENIOA— Apricot.

Let us add the Apricot to our list of hardy fruits as soon as
possible.

Mr. Maximowitch, Curator of the Botanic Gardens at St.
Petersburg, who has spent many years botanizing that vast
country eastward to the Amur, says that in Soongaria, in Eastern
Turkestan, at the eastern end of the Altai range, it is growing in
quantity, and that there the boars, and the bears, and the natives,
fight it out as to who is to have the fruit. The fruit is small,
that is, about one inch in diameter, but sweet, and pretty good.

In the Southern parts of the Province of Mantchuria, there is,
says Mr. Maximowitch, a variety of Apricot different from those in
cultivation. They do not thrive well near the coast, but in
sheltered situations inland they grow in great quantity. They are
really good, and are sold in quantity in the Pekin market. Could
we not get the pits of this Apricot expressed to us by our Consul
at Pekin ? Surely this might be done.

AZALEA.

A. mollis has a large salmon-colored flower, a variety brought
by Mr. Maxinowitch from high altitudes in Japan. It has proved
quite hardy at St. Petersburg. I see that Ellwanger and Barry,

12

of Rochester, N. Y., speaks of the great beauty of A. mollis, but
says it is only half hardy and needs protection. What difference
in hardness there is in the offspring of plants of different
elevations.

BERBERIS— Berberry.

These I have not made notes of. However the seedless Ber-
berry is recommended as an acid little fruit— good for preserves.
The Chinese sweet varieties, which are said to be dried like raisins
by the Chinamen, I did not see.

BETULA— Birch.

The beauty of the Russian Birches is a matter of general
remark by travellers. In general appearance they are not like our
own, nor the Birches imported from Western Europe. The Alba
of Linnaeus, or Pubescens of Ehrhart, has a leaf in shape like our
canoe birch, but smaller and velvety. Sometimes it is very
aromatic. It is probably the fastest grown, and is suited to
moist soils only, and is the best variety for the far North. The
trunk is mostly white, and that almost to the ground. These
notes were given to me by a Forester who had made a special study
of the question. On the other hand the Alba verrucosa is a weep-
ing or drooping tree, with triangular leaf, a leaf like our common
White Birch, and when over 10 or 12 inches in diameter of trunk
the bark becomes rough and covered with black clefts.

This latter, this .weeping form, is the one I wish to draw special
attention to. It is the Birch growing upon the dry soil of the
Petrovskoe park near Moscow, that park which is the summer
resort of the residents of Moscow. The most attractive feature of
this park is its avenues, and groves of weeping Birch. Some of
these groves seem to have sprung up as though planted irregularly
at distances of from 6 to 9 feet apart, each way. Thus the one
thing that presents itself is a vista of bright, translucent, white
barked trunks. The effect is almost magical, and could not be

13

produced by plantations of our dull barked Birches. What an
attraction to our Mount Royal park such a grove would be. It
would become the haunt of our snow-shoe clubs by moon-light,
in summer the resort of pic-nic parties and pleasure seekers. How
beautiful our Montreal park could be made by the judicious plant-
ing of trees of varied form and foliage.

B. Dahurica, we saw at St. Petersburg an oldish, slow-
growing, rough barked tree. Costata, too, usually noted as from
the Amur. Much like our canoe Birch in bark and leaf, but has
a slow growing, stunted look.

OALYOANTHUS.

Some Northern forms, C. Siberica, seems quite hardy at the
Botanic Gardens, St. Petersburg. Flowers whitish yellow.

OARAGANA.

The most widely popular of the Russian shrubs is unknown,
I may say, in Canada. In Western Europe we scarcely notice the
Caraganas, except in the Botanic Gardens. In central Europe
they become much more generally planted ; even in mild climates
like Prague, we find them common in the city gardens. It is a
plant capable of enduring great extremes of cold and drought ;
the best shrub for planting on the confines of the cold desert, and
therefore widely popular in the cold, dry North.

On the Finland road, that suburb which is the resort of the
townspeople of St. Petersburg during their short cool summers,
the Caragana is the common hedge plant. It and .the red berried
Elder the commonest shrubs. In the tea gardens of the
Petrovskoe park near Moscow, where the Russians met to enjoy
their tea around their hissing samovars, the dividing screens are
Caragana. At Moscow and Kazan, it and the Siberian thorn are
the common hedge plants.

This arborescent Caragana is known also as the Siberian Pea tree
and in France sometimes called acacia de Siberie. It is a shrub

14

usually from 8 to 1 5 feet in height, although at Saratof I saw it as
much as 30 feet. It has a very small dark leaf, and may be trained
to grow in tree form. There are many varieties, some catalogues
offer 13 or 14 varieties. The most beautiful to my mind is
Pygmcea pendula ; top grafted, it forms a delicate pendulous head,
very graceful and ornamental. I fear there is some confusion in
the names given to these varieties. I have seen the names gracilis,
microphylla and horrida given to what appeared to me to be this.
C.ferox or spinora is spiny, stiffer in growth, and has more foli-
age ; it, too, may be top grafted. Of other kinds I would mention
C. altagana Dahurica, a straggling bush with leaf smaller than
Arborescens. Frutescens, a. good shrubby little bush from the
Altai Mountains and Turkestan. C.jubata is from Mongolia, and
from the cold district of that coldest of all countries, Eastern
Siberia. This, however, is positively ugly.

CORNUS -Dogwood.

One variety of the Cornus I wish to draw special attention to,
the Cornus alba fol. variegatis or C. strida of some catalogues. It
is a low shrub with bright white margined leaves, very showy and
attractive, and perfectly hardy. A very great favorite in the
nurseries at Riga, a great favorite wherever known.

There is also a white margined variety of the Cornus masciria,
very pretty indeed ; hardy at Warsaw, but not hardy at Voronesh
or Riga. The ordinary Cornus mascula is not to say hardy at
Riga. At Warsaw, in the Botanic Gardens, we find a tree of it
18 inches in diameter of trunk and 25 feet high, and at least 30
feet across its extended branches.

Andrew S. Fuller in his " Fruit Culturist" recommended the
introduction of the Cornus mascula as a fruit-bearing bush. .At
the nurseries of Simon-Louis at Metz, where they have six kinds,
the C, mascula macrocarpa is considered the largest in size, and
the best in flavor. This was corroborated at other places. It is
worthy of trial at Toronto and southwards.

15

OORYLUS-Hazel.

On this I have nothing definite to say. At Vienna we saw a
specimen of the C. colurna or Tree Hazel, 30 feet in height.
Farther South in Turkey it grows to a height of 50 or 60 feet, but is
not hardy in cold climates. At Reutlingen Mr. Lucas showed
us the fruit of a number of varieties bearing large nuts of different
shapes, but I cannot say if likely to prove hardy here. In the
extreme climate of Kazan we saw lots of wild Hazel, but the fruit
is small ; no improvement upon our native species.

Nut culture has been tried at Riga, and Mr. Goegginger
suggests that we should try the Giant de Halle.

COTONEASTER.

We saw many hardy varieties. In the garden of the Agricul-
tural Academy at Petrovskoe, multiflora, vulgaris and lucida seemed
all right. In the Moscow Botanic Garden we saw one variety
bearing red berries, and another blue ; both seemed quite hardy,
so was lucida. Acutifolia grows to height of 6 feet, and seemed
quite hardy at some points in Northern Russia. I saw many hardy
forms, but did not take any trouble to look them up.

CRAT^EJGUS— Thorn.

The Oxyacantha, or Quick, is the common hedge plant of
Central and Western Europe. On our way to Russia we passed
thousands of miles of this hedge ; along the railways, along the
road-sides, often separating suburban properties. We began to
lose sight of it on the way to Warsaw. However, it is quite
hardy there and is grown a good deal, but we cease to find it as a
hedge plant beyond Vilna. At Riga it is not hardy, and from
thence Northward it is replaced by Siberica. On our return journey
we find the Oxyacantha again at Kiev, large trees of it in the
Botanic Gardens, such as one sees upon estates in England. The
hardiness of this plant could no doubt be increased by getting
seed from its North-Eastern limits of growth.

16

The Siberica, or rather C. sanguinea of Siberia, is a good hedge
plant. Much like some of our own thorns, but I think of rather
faster growth. Good hedges of it at Riga 10 feet high. In the
College Gardens at Petrovskoe, Mr. Shroeder points it out as per-
fectly hardy, so too is Crus-gali. Nigra also is all right. Mono-
gama has a pretty cut leaf, and is fairly hardy, not as hardy as the
above.

OYTISUS— Laburnum.

Here again are some hardy forms although the same species
from Scotland will not endure our cold winters.

In the Botanic Gardens at Munich we found Alpinus growing
to a height of over 35 feet, with a dozen trunks from 5 to 12
inches in diameter.

In the severe climate of Orel, in Central Russia, we find a tree
of Alpinus which seemed quite hardy. The Northern nurseries all
grow Cytisus, and these hardy varieties are well worth looking up.

ELEAGNUS-Wild Olive.

This is a race of bright silvery-leaved trees and shrubs of great
ornamental value.

In the grounds of the Pomological School at Proskau, we find a
shrub three feet high, with gray, silvery leaves three inches long and
an inch or more wide. We saw it again in the Botanic Garden at
Moscow, apparently hardy. It was not named. This is very
ornamental and should not be lost sight of.

E. angustifolia. In moderate climates this grows to a large
size. At Warsaw we find a tree two feet in diameter of trunk and
30 feet high, old, and on its decline. In the cold climate of Orel
we saw a tree 35 feet in height, but I do not remember it farther
north. It has long narrow leaves, white on under side, bright
and pretty. Of its blossom and fruit I cannot speak.

E. longipe, of Japan, we saw at Kew ; a shrub six feet high,
bearing large quantities of spotted red berries, like oblong cran-

17

berries. At Verrieres, in the garden of M. Henri de Vilmorin,
we again see this plant bearing heavily ; fruit red, a nice acid
fully equal to cranberries, and as free from seed. It seems a very
abundant bearer, and well worthy of introduction as a fruit-bearing
plant — a plant likely to yield quite as -much of a fruit as good
and as salable as cranberry. The only question is its hardiness
It should be tried with us in sheltered corners, where the snow
drifts would be likely to cover it. In many nurseries this is known
as E. edulis.

PAGUS-Beech.

The European Beech is not as hardy as our native species.
It will not thrive at St. Petersburg, whereas our own is found 50
miles north of the city of Quebec. I observed, however, that the
cut-leaved beech (F. syl. incisa) is hardier than the purple-leaved,
and may be tried in rather severe climates. There is a very fine
specimen of the cut-leaved in good health on the grounds of Mr.
Wagner at Riga.

FRAXINUS-Ash.

The Foresters in Russia prefer the American ash to their
native species. So do the Forest Schools in Western Europe.
The excelsior, however, grows to greater size ; one in the Botanic
Gardens at St. Petersburg rises from the ground with six trunks
from 5 to 1 5 inches in diameter. The American is said at several
different points to be the hardier. This seems strange, for at the
Botanic Garden at Kazan we were told that excelsior was indi-
genous in that government. The variegated form of our native
ash (F. Am. aucubaefolid) we find at Moscow and other places.
The single leaved ash {F. exc. monophylla) has grown to the height
of 20 feet in the Moscow Botanic Garden, and seems quite hardy,
whereas little trees of mine at Abbottsford suffer. The weeping
ash (F. exc. penduld) is fairly hardy at Riga. The young shoots are
sometimes injured there. F. juglandifolia sub-intermedia may be

18

seen in the Botanic Garden, St. Petersburg ; a tree 25 feet in
height and apparently quite hardy. F. Mantchurica, a fine tree,
quite hardy at St. Petersburg, and grows to a diameter of three feet
in its native land.

GLYCYRRHIZA.

G. echinata. — A shrub like a Bastard Indigo, bearing large
balls of rough tufted seeds. A very curious shrub, which we saw
in the Botanic Gardens at Kazan.

G. Glabra is not so striking.

HIPPOPHAE.

The grey silky foliage of these shrubs makes them very attrac-
tive. Are they hardy ? I asked Dr. Regel. " I received them
from Central Europe and they proved tender ; I then procured
seed from Siberia, botanically the same, and they are quite hardy."
Such was Dr. Regel's reply, the same old story, his experience
and mine, as far as I may be said to have any.

The Hippophae salicifolia, which we saw at Proskau, was much
like a Rosemary Willow, and lacking in that white lustre which
others usually have. Siberica is more like the argentea of Proskau,
bright and very ornamental.

LARIX — Larch and Tamarac.

In the Riga nurseries we first saw Siberica and Europaa grow-
ing side by side. Siberica much the faster grower in nursery,
foliage slightly longer, more fringy, and clothing the branches
better than on Europaea. This larch was from the Ural Moun-
tains. Again at the Petrovskoe Academy there is a very fine
avenue of Siberica, a quarter of a mile or half a mile long. The
foliage very light in color ; the outline much less sharply conir
than other varieties. An avenue of even-sized trees about 30 feet
in height. In the Botanic Gardens at St. Petersburg we see it in
old age, a few old trees about 70 feet high. Alongside of it is

19

Dahurica, of equal size and age, but different in this way, that at
a certain height Dahurica usually forms two or more trunks ; it is
just as ornamental, but on this account not equal as a timber tree.
In the far North, on the border of the tundra, Dahurica is a small
stunted tree. Many years ago the Duke of Athol had imported
Larch seed from the forests to the South of Archangel. This
proved inferior in growth and in quality of wood, and led us to
suppose that there was no larch in the Russian forest equal to
Europaea, which is that of Central Europe. The Duke of Athol's
seed, too, may have been obtained from stunted specimens on the
Northern limit of its growth.

The L. Kcempheri of Japan, Mr. Wagner, of Riga, says is not
hardy at Berlin.

MAGNOLIA.

Mr. Maximowitch tells me that the Hypoleuca, if the seed be
procured from Hakodati, on the Island of Yezo, might be worth
trying in rather severe climates. It becomes a large tree, and, I
think, has a large blossom. The M. Kobus is less beautiful, but
probably still hardier.

MOKUS— Mulberry.

We made many inquiries about the Russian Mulberry but
could hear nothing of it in the colder climates. At Voronesh, in
the Botanic Gardens, we saw a variety in leaf much like it, though
there not valued. In Odessa there are large Mulberry trees, we
are told, and in the Botanic Garden in Vienna, we saw not only
large trees of Alba, but a specimen of Tartarica, 14 inches in
diameter of trunk and 25 feet high. The Russian Mulberry,
however, as known in the States, is on extensive trial in the cold
climate of Cottonwood County, Minnesota. It has been visited
by Horticulturists, and we shall soon have opinions upon its pro-
bable value.

Mr. Maximowitch suggests that we should try the Mongolian
Mulberry, if we can manage to get it.

PANAX.

P. Sessiliflorum. — A shrub or small tree from Amur, well
worth introducing. There is a specimen in the Botanic Gardens,
St. Petersburg, about 15 feet high, and Mr. Maximowitch tells us
that it blossoms well there, but does not mature its fruit. It
grows in Mantchuria, bu| not North of lat. 49 ° .

PHELLODENDRON.

Mr. Goegginger, of Riga, tells us that in the Botanic Garden
at Dorpat, half way between Riga and St. Petersburg, there is a
tree of this variety 8 to 12 inches in diameter of trunk, and 25
feet in height. Again, at Orel, in Central Russia, we find a
young tree about 15 feet. Clearly hardier varieties than those
now grown in United States. The tree I have at Abbottsford kills
back every winter.

POPULUS-Poplar.

The poplar is our most valuable tree where quick shade is
needed. Different species abound in varieties ; some of the best
we have not.

P. alba. — The silver poplar is a tree of very wide habitat ;
the varieties indigenous in cold, dry regions we have not tried.
In the Botanic Garden at Kazan, there is a row of 1 1 trees, in
all in the garden 20 trees, about 18 inches in diameter of trunk ;
trunk straight and tapering, the leaf larger than our varieties, and
acerifolia only where making strong growth. The quality of the
wood of the white poplar is well known, but the trouble is the
difficulty of getting a straight piece from the Western European
form. On dry soils the White poplar we have, becomes very small
in leaf, and looks unhappy, while the varieties we find on the
Volga, maintain a large acerifolia leaf and good growth on very
dry soil, and stand severe drought better than any of the Siberian
poplars, better than any other tree we find there except the wild
Volga pear. Cuttings from Kazan and other points in Eastern

21

Russia should be obtained, for these straight-trunked, drought-
resisting, white poplars are very important, both as timber and
ornamental trees.

In the collection at Verrieres, near Paris, planted by the late
M. de Vilmorin, two varieties maintain this straight trunk.

Of the erect forms of white poplar, that which we find in the
nurseries under the name of Bolkana, and said to be from Tash-
kent and Samarcand, seems the same as that at Busy Institute
introduced by Prof. Sargent, and described by me last year as a
species from Turkestan ; a deeply cut-leaved silver poplar, as erect
when young as a Lombardy ; a decided acquisition. I am told
by those who have been at Astrachan, that the common white poplar
along the Volga, from Tsaritsin to Astrachan, is upright like the
Lombardy,

Such are the variations in poplar seedlings, that in dealing
with them we must consider that we are dealing with approxima-
tions. The P. alba and the P. alba nivea in the different Botanic
Gardens of Central Europe all differ somewhat.

At Kew there is a grand specimen of alba pendula, three feet in
diameter of trunk ; a lofty tree of fine weeping form. There is
an alba pendula in the catalogues of Riga, and I think Metz, but
I have not seen it.

P. Monilifera. — This is the most largely planted tree in
Northern and Eastern France, the most common country road-
side tree in Central Europe. Not only along the road-sides, but,
especially in France, along all sorts of imaginary lines across the
fields we find it in single rows, with side branches trimmed up
and cut as they grow for faggots and even for sheep feeding.
Loudon queried as to whether it was introduced from Canada or
Virginia. At any rate Botanists seem to say it came from this
continent. This favorite tree, with some variation in form, is
our own native Cottonwood ; universally planted in the North-
western States, valued in Europe, scarcely known and never
planted, I may say, in this province. A most valuable, though an

22

over-looked tree. Its wonderfully rapid growth at Abbottsford has
begun to attract notice there.

P. Nigra. — At Warsaw some of the roads are lined with grand
old trees of what is there known as the Vistula poplar. We
saw large spreading trees 60 or 70 feet in height, with a leaf much
like our Cottonwood, and with bark rough except on limbs less
than 5 or 6 inches. In the Botanic Gardens at St. Petersburg
are two immense trees, one nearly six feet in diameter, now in a
state of decay, and said to have been planted by Peter the Great.
However, at Riga and other places this tree is not a favorite on
account of its tendency to decay or kill back in the tops of the
branches, both on dry and moist soil, and as we get into severer
climates trees of this variety are often very unsightly, and thus it
is not a favorite as is Monilifera.

A very different tree is the Nigra of the Botanic Gardens at
Munich. A tall tree of small diameter, not spreading, and with
very small leaf. A good healthy tree, unlike others, and worthy
of trial. According to the Flora Rossica, by Dr. Ledeborn, the
Populus Nigra is a native of Lithuania, Moscow, Kazan, the
Caspian desert, Southern Siberia, and the Altai. For some
reason the Siberian Balsamiferas have been planted instead of it in
Eastern and Middle Russia.

P. Eugenei. — This is a hybrid between fastigiata (or Lom-
bard poplar) and monilifera ; so we are told by Messrs. Simon-
Louis at Metz, who have a very large collection of the poplars of
Central Europe and who seem to have made them a special
study. In the Botanic Garden at Nancy there is an immense tree
with a straight trunk between five and six feet in diameter,
growing to a great height, with branches somewhat pendulous.
Certainly the poplar is a grand tree.

P. tremula. — Our own aspen is the poorest tree we have, so
short lived. The Russian form grows to much larger size, and
does not appear to be short lived. In Botanic Gardens at
Munich there is a high, narrow, small leaved Tremula, much like
the Munich Nigra. A good tree.

23
ASIATIC POPLARS.

Under this vague heading, for want of a better, I will group a
race of poplars hardly known to us ; trees better suited to dry,
cold climates than those of the monilifera and nigra types, at least
one would suppose so from the fact that they are the street and
garden trees from Moskow to Kazan, and South to Saratof, and
in middle Russia. They do well on dry soils, yet do not maintain
anything like the same healthy foliage during extreme drouth as
the Volga forms of the Silver popfar. Neither are they trees of
great size, at least not in their native climates. They seem related
to our Balsamifera or Balm of Gilead, yet have leaves not pubescent
but smooth and whitish on the under side, and in some forms
singularly narrow.

P. laurifolia. — This, Mr. Maximowit-ch tells me, is a medium
sized tree, usually 30 or 40 feet in height, and one foot in
diameter of trunk, as growing on the Altai Mountains. Mr. M.
had seldom seen it larger. It is a common street tree in North-
Eastern Russia. It is a fast grower, has narrow leaves curled very
much on their edges, and has angulated branches. A specimen
in the Botanic Gardens at St. Petersburg is nearly 50 feet in
height, and I understood it to be but 26 years planted. It seems
to be a faster grower than Suavolens.

P. suavolens is a native, says Mr. Maximowitch, of very cold
districts in Eastern Siberia, also of Kamtschatka and the islands
of the coast. It grows to a height of 50 or 60 feet, with a trunk
two or three feet in diameter, and is a good street tree. Branches
round.

P. Siberica is another variety ; foliage slightly broader, and
Mr. Wagner, of Riga, says it grows to be a good sized tree. This
must be the Siberica pyramidalis of some catalogues, and is, I
think, the tree we used so often to see planted in the gardens at
the railway stations, and which looked at a distance very like a
sweet cherry.

P. balsamifera in leaf in nursery is just like the above, but
is said to grow into a tree of different form. We saw a specimen
of it in the Botanic Garden at Kazan 50 feet in height and two feet
diameter.

24

P. Siberica suavolens. — A good sized spreading tree. Mr.
Goegginger says like a Tilia. Said to grow larger than S. pyram-
idalis.

Of others, Wobsh\ Mr. Shroder, at Moscow, says, is a large
as well as a good tree, with broad leaf. It is said to be from
Turkestan. Petrovskoe, Mr. Goegginger says, is a Turkestan
variety, growing at Petrovskoe, also a broad leaved variety.
Nigra horizontalis, said to be from Tashkent. Simoniiy an
Asiatic variety with red twig* and a close thin leaf the least like
the Balsameas. Effratica or diversifolia from Turkestan is a
curious variety of irregular foliage. So says Mr. Goegginger of
Riga, who has the largest collection of these poplars which we
saw. Tristis is a variety with dark concave, thick, glossy leaf,
which sprang up by chance in the Botanic Garden at St. Peters-
burg.

These varieties are mostly variations of what Pallas called the
Siberian balsamifera. They will not grow to as large size as our
own Balsam of Gilead, which here is a lofty tree with a trunk three
feet and even four feet in diameter, and which reaches a diameter of
6 to io feet on the upper Peace river in the North West. They
are, however, so easy of introduction, so easily scattered, they
differ so much in foliage and growth, that they must be looked
upon as interesting and valuable introductions.

PRUNUS-Plum.

P. padus aucubaefolia. — Variegated leaved bird cherry.
This and other varieties quite hardy in the north.

P. Maakia. — Hardy at St. Petersburg.

P. spinosa. — The dwarf form on the Volga, seldom grows over
three feet. I have seen bushes 1 8 inches high loaded with bright
blue little fruit. Very ornamental.

PYRUS— Apple and Pear.

Some very ornamental trees among the wild forms of the apple

and pear.

25

P. eleagnifolia. — A bright foliaged tree, nearly as white as
salicifolia, leaf broader and growth more upright and regular. I
do not know that it is a tree of northern habilat, still it is hardy
at Proscau. We also saw a good specimen of it 8 or i o in. in
diameter of trunk at Warsaw.

P. salicifolia. — The most ornamental of the Pyrus ; an irre-
gular, eccentric growth, somewhat pendulous, and with branches
intertwisted in all sorts of ways. The leaf is very narrow, and as
white as the regalis willow ; a strikingly beautiful tree. It is a
native of the Ural Mountains, and therefore should prove hardy.

P. Ussuriensis. — The wild pear of the Ussuri in Mantchuria.
I am not sure that I saw it. The tree is said to be quite ornamen-
tal, the fruit of fair size, but it does not soften even when cooked.

The wild pear of the Volga and of middle Russia, I must
mention as the best tree I know of for a cold climate, for main-
taining a dark, glossy leaf during extreme drouth.

QUEROUS-Oak.

Tender and unsatisfactory as are some of the English oaks,
the pedunculata in Russia grows in climates quite as severe as the
native oaks of this Province. The foresters tell me thatpedulun-
culata is indigenous in the Government of Moscow, also, I am
told, in the Government of Kazan. From this latitude southward
wherever the soil is suitable, this oak has been planted in vast
quantity by the Government Forestry stations. Our red oak is a
good, fast grower, but the wood is inferior. Our white oak is the
very best of wood, but, I was going to say, it grows, but watch a
white oak for a few years, and if you believe your eyes you will
declare it does not. This Russian pedunculata combines good
growth with a good quality of wood.

I find the Q. r. fastigiata, the upright oak, hardy as far
north as Riga. Q. Mongolica, a variety with a very small indent-
ed leaf, is recommended to us for trial in our cold climate.

26
RHAMNUS.— Buckthorn.

R. alpinus. — A variety with an immense leaf, and quite orna-
mental. At Riga, Mr. Wagner says, hardy but sometimes slightly
injured.

R. catharticus. — Hardy at St. Petersburg.

R. Pallasii. — A pretty shrub with very glossy foliage, six feet
in height. It seems hardy in the Botanic Garden at Moscow.

RHODODENDRON.

The Rhododendeons extend from the Himalayas north, to the
Altai, and East to Kamschatka, and are found in some cold re-
gions. R. Dahuricum is an evergreen variety with purple blossom,
quite hardy at St. Petersburg. It does well on limestone soil. R.
parvifolium, a smaller and more compact shrub with a small blos-
som ; grows well on peat or without it, and is very hardy far to the
north.

RIBES— Currant.

R. Alpinum. — A fruit and an ornamental shrub. The fruit is
of fair size, a rich carmine, quite sweet, but with a very slight
bitter, yet nice and quite productive it would seem. It is from
Siberia. Mr. Shroeder, at the College Gardens at Petrovskoe, seem-
ed to value it highly In Siberia, not only the currants, but some
of the loniceras bear fruit, which is gathered for the table, and
yet these same varieties ripened in the climate of St. Petersburg
are not eatable.

ROBINIA— Locust.

The pseudo-acasia, or yellow locust, next to the monilifera
poplar, is the most common tree in northern and eastern France.
We find it planted along the railroad cuttings and embankments
to bind the earth. We find it a common tree in the streets and
parks of Paris. We find it planted to cover waste tracts of land.

27

As we enter Germany we find it a most popular tree in their
streets and city gardens.

According to Loudon it was introduced into Europe in 1601
or 1635, and the tree planted at the latter date in the Jardin des
Plantes at Paris is still living. A still larger tree, however, is
that in the public gardens at Warsaw. This locust has run into
endless varieties. The great favorite in Central Europe is a top
grafted, rounded variety, which rather, I think, must be the um-
braculifera or globe acacia. Not quite hardy at Warsaw though
grown there. Not likely to prove hardy here.

In Europe this tree does not seem affected by borers, nor does
it have the same seedy look when old that it does here. Its wood
is most durable and valuable at any age ; its growth when young
is rampant ; it suckers very badly. At Abbottsford we have had
no borers, and hence it promises to be the best fence-post and
fence-rail tree we have.

ROGERSIA.

This I did not see, but Mr. Maximowitch speaks of it as a
pretty shrub, which does well at St. Petersburg. The flower is
small, but plentiful.

ROSA— Rose.

I wish to draw special attention to the Rosa rugosa, and
especially its double form, flore pleno, as a shrub perfectly hardy at
St. Petersburg and Moscow. In this respect it is pointed out to
us as a shrub of unlimited hardiness. It has a pretty double
flower, and is a decided acquisition. It is a native of Japan. The
R. villosa pomifera is so named because it bears a fruit 2 inches in
diameter, and which is good for preserves. It is fairly hardy at
Riga. It should be planted where likely to be covered with snow.
R. rubrifolia is a red foliaged shrub. The flower is not special,
but I am glad to know that this plant, which I had admired at
Busy Institute, is hardy in the North.

28

SALIX— Willow.

S. alba var splendens.— In the Botanic Garden at St. Peters-
burg there is a fine specimen of this bright silvery willow, a tree
about 15 inches in diameter, and 35 feet high, without any dead
wood about it ; a tree of great ornamental beauty in contrast with
dark foliaged trees like S. Canifolia. Throughout Russia we find
willows more or less of this shade of color. In France and Cen-
tral Europe many willows have this bright silvery tint. We in-
tended to try the alba lucophylla of Messrs. Simon-Louis, at Metz,
until we found at St. Petersburg a variety whose hardiness was
already tested for us.

S. alba of the Volga. — The first groves of this I saw were on
low land on the bank of the Volga, some distance below Nijni
Novgorod ; lofty trees with straight narrow trunks, growing
quite close, and therefore without lower branches. The foliage is
quite narrow and feathery, the branches pendulous. Single trees
maintain the same straight trunk. At several points on the Volga
I asked what variety it was, and was told Salix alba. It is also
known as " vertla." How different is the Salix alba of Western
Europe, the great screen, wind-break and snow-break tree of the
prairie States. This Volga willow is not suited for these purposes,
but is a straight growing timber tree of great height, with feathery
foliage.

S. acutifolia. — This is the favorite willow for planting to stay
drifting sands. In Mantchuria, in the woods, it is a large tree
with a trunk 4 feet in diameter, used by the natives for canoes. In
cold open exposures it is a mere shrub. It is the best weeper
among the willows in the Botanic Garden at St. Petersburg.

Of others, -S". Calif ornica, a small, broad leaved, very bright sil-
very little shrub, quite hardy at Proskau, quite hardy, top grafted
even, with Mr. Hoser at Warsaw. S. cuspidata becomes a large
handsome bush. It has a laurel leaf and yellow twigs, quite
hardy at St. Petersburg. S. fragilis is, I believe, a widely
scattered tree in North Europe and Asia. Large canoes are made
of it in Amur.* Rather ornamental and quite hardy.

29

SAMBUCUS-Elder.

An ornamental race of plants, most of which are adapted to
cold climates.

S. nigra. — We find this as a small or even medium-sized tree
in the milder parts of Europe. It has been grown at St. Peters-
burg, but is tender there. The 6". nigra incisa which we saw at
Prague and similar climates is a very dark, yet feathery cut-leaved
shrub of great beauty. I think this is the Nigra laciniata of the
nurseries at Riga, which is fairly hardy there.

S. racemosa. — The red berried Elder is the favorite shrub in
Russia ; more widely planted than any other, except the Cara-
gana ; more common than the Mountain Ash, or any other tree
bearing ornamental fruit. In the North it bears its clusters of bright
red berries in profusion, and decorates the roadsides and gardens,
where it is planted. The S. racemosa seratifolia is a beautiful
cut-leaved variety of it ; fairly hardy at Riga, nearly hardy at St.
Petersburg. There is also a variety Plumosa much like it, and
about as hardy at Riga.

SORBUS— Mountain Ash.

As we journeyed from Proskau to Riga, during the first week in
August, the Mountain Ash everywhere were full of clusters of
bright red berries. This eastern form is not as straight and
smooth a grower as the ordinary forms from Western Europe, yet
this seems to fruit more heavily, but here is the point, it colors its
fruit a month earlier.

TAMARIX— Tamarisk.

This is a beautiful feathery shrub, unlike any other. I was
always making enquiries to see if we could not find a really hardy
species. The T. tetandra is a native of the Altai Mountains, yet
needs shelter at St. Petersburg. Dahurica is very light in color,
and very feathery. Mr. Goegginger, at Riga, finds it a little hardier
than Gallica or tetandra. Gallica seems to differ much in hardi-
ness. In the Botanic Garden at Moscow it is said to be seldom

30

covered. In Norway it grows wild in lat. 70 ° , about as far North
as the sorbus and the trembling poplar.

We cannot grow the Tamarisk as a tree as in the gardens of
the Tuilleries, in Paris, but as a shrub, cut back each Fall, grown
in some corner where the snow is apt to cover it, there should be
no trouble in the culture of this beautiful plant.

TILIA— Linden or Basswood.

The Linden is a very favorite street and park tree in central
and northern Europe. It has long been a favorite, and hence we
find avenues of grand patriarchal trees which have been the
pride of generations. At Verrieres there is an avenue planted by
by the late M. de Vilmorin, trimmed inside in the form of a high
narrow Gothic arch, with transept, a prolonged Westminster
Abbey.

T. Europaea. — The linden of western Europe is hardy in
Montreal, but its leaf is so fine and thin that it is sensitive to
drought, and even in England its foliage is apt to wilt in dry
weather. It is a favorite street tree on the Massachusetts coast,
yet should not be planted largely in drier regions.

T. Europaea var parvifolia. — As we proceed eastward this
becomes the favorite, and finally, in middle and eastern Russia,
the only Tilia. The first specimen we noticed was at Reutlin-
gen, in Wurtemburg, a largish tree with leaf no larger than an
English shilling. It was growing very slowly, the foliage is al-
ways larger. At Salzburg, in Austria, the grand old lindens,
centuries old, trees 4 or 5 feet in diameter of trunk, were all par-
vifolias. At St. Petersburbg the finest street trees are lindens,
and I believe most of them parvifolias. Here the ordinary Euro-
paea is known as the tilia of Holland. At Moscow parvifolia is
represented in the Botanic Gardens by a tree with a straight trunk
over four feet in diameter. In Kazan we are told that the trade in
basswood bark from that region is all from this parvifolia variety.
Russian foresters view the enormous consumption of basswood
bark much as thinking men do here our export hemlock bark

31

trade, and consider it a destructive industry. Soon some other
material will have to be found for peasants' shoes, rope and mat-
ting.

Of other varieties, Nigra, which we saw in the Munich
Botanic Gardens, struck me as being a good tree, with dark, glossy
leaf. The vitifolia, of the American nurseries, has a good leaf,
but I did not see it in Europe. So has dasystyla. Grandifolia and a
host of others have foliage too thin for our dry air. Begoniaefolia
is not variegated enough to be ornamental, not in dry weather.
Aspenifolia is a great curiosity, leaves torn and slashed irregularly,
folded and indented, with scarcely two leaves alike ; quite hardy at
Proskau ; fairly hardy at Riga. This is sometimes noted as dis-
secta.

Of the white leaved lindens, the American, which I have noted
as a native tree as far north as the Hennepin Islands in Minneso-
ta, is spoken of at Riga as the hardiest tree, and the largest tree.
I believe it is rather erect in growth. The Hungarian, known
there as pannonica (I suppose the tomentosa of Messrs. Simon-
Louis) is not as hardy, not as erect in growth, more bright in
color, more ornamental. Further south, at Vienna, in the
Botanic Gardens, we find a variety marked heterophylla, of Ohio
and Mississippi, 12 inches in diameter, semi-upright, more bright
and white in foliage than the T. Argentea of Hungary alongside.
The white leaved European lindens we did not see in the very
severe climates. The alba of Hungary has not proved hardy
with me at Abbottsford, still less so the alba pendula which win-
ter kills at Riga. So we had better try the northern forms of the
American white lindens.

ULMUS-Elm.

In Europe they have overlooked the grandest of all American
trees, the white elm, a tree that thrives in climates even more
severe than St. Petersburg and Moscow.

The campestis is not indigenous at St. Petersburg, as I had
said, nor is it hardy there, but Effusa is. In the southern part of
the Government of Moscow, both effusa and montana are found

32

i

wild, but the northern limit of campestis is yet further south.

Effusa is a good and a hardy tree but I never saw one of large
size. At Petrovskoe, Moscow, Mr. Shroeder showed us a fine spe-
cimen of effusa pendula, so my notes say, but I have forgotten it.
Montana, or the so-called Scotch elm, is not so hardy there or at
St. Petersburg. Some weeping forms of it of the Camperdown
type, seemed quite hardy at Riga, and were very graceful and
ornamental. Their pendula should rather be named horizontalis.
They have a fine specimen in one of their public gardens, eight
inches or more in diameter of trunk. Another is quite pendulous.
We are much in need of a tree of this kind a little hardier
than camperdown. U. montana exoniensis is very erect in growth,
has large curled leaves clinging around the stem — both odd and
ornamental. U. m. Damierii is much like it, but said by Mr.
Wagner to be less hardy. Adantifolia is like the urticaefolia of
the American nurseries, but even more crinkled, and its recurved
serrations are very curious. The U. suborosa (?) of Turkestan, is a
small leaved variety, not hardy at Moscow.

Under the name of Siberica are several varieties unlike one
another, and quite unlike that described by me last year.

Notes on Evergreens, I regret I am unable now to prepare.

In conclusion, I would say that I have written these notes
when pressed with other work, but felt it was necessary that they
may appear at once, that whatever is of value to us, should be
imported this coming autumn ; for orders of plants from ■ points
North and East of Warsaw must be shipped in the fall.

Seeds can be sent from or to Russia in bags under 8 oz.
Scions I have sent safely to Warsaw by mail ; and scions sent by
mail from Riga arrived in fair condition. Letters to Central and
Eastern Russia (Moscow excepted) should be. addressed in
Russian.

As an amateur, I cannot continue to give up to this work the
time I have given in the past. My part has been an endeavour to
show our Governments and our Horticultural Societies what may,
what should be done.

33

Let us carefully watch the work now being carried on by Mr.
Budd, at the State Agricultural College at Ames, Iowa — work of
the highest value to the cold climates of Canada ; that work
which made our trip to Russia a necessity, that is, a necessity to
fair progress ; a trip which enabled me in part to see with his
eyes, and give you in some degree the results of his study and
observations.

Let us then follow out this scheme of interchange with our
corresponding climates in the old world. The work has some
difficulties. However, as we have the North-Western States and
the Russians as our allies, the difficulties may be overcome to one
great and mutual good.