CONTENTS. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. General Subject. ART. I. Some Remarks on the more general Cultivation of Indigenous Trees, Shrubs, and Herbaceous Plants: with a Notice of the Vaccinium Vitis-Ida`a, growing in Roxbury. By Gen. H. A. S. Dearborn, Horticulture. ART. II. Descriptions and Engravings of Select varieties of By the Editor. 337 339 Pears. ART. III. A few words about Strawberries. By the Editor, 352 Floriculture. 356 ART. IV. On the Cultivation and Management of the Ra- MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENce. ART. I......General Notices, ART. II....Domestic Notices, ART. III...Albany and Rensselaer Horticultural Society, 369 ART. IV...Answers to Correspondents, HORTICULTURAL MEMORANDA FOR JULY, Printed by Dutton & Wentworth, No. 27 Congress St. Boston. OF HORTICULTURE. AUGUST, 1849. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. ART. I. Some Remarks on the more general Cultivation of Indigenous Trees, Shrubs, and Herbaceous Plants: with a Notice of the Vaccinium Vitis-Ida`a, growing in Roxbury. By GEN. H. A. S. DEARBORN. DEAR SIR,-In the last number of your magazine is an interesting account of a botanical exploration in the County of Essex, by John Lewis Russell, Esq., one of the most eminent and meritorious botanists of New England, which I have read with great pleasure, and ardently hope that more attention will be soon given, by our proprietors of nurseries, to the culture of indigenous trees, shrubs, and herbaceous flowering plants, for there are many which, while they are highly appreciated in Europe, cannot be found in the nurseries, or the ornamental grounds of gentlemen residing in the country, on this continent. The Vaccinium Vitis-Ida`a, (mountain cranberry,) which has been found in Danvers, and, hitherto, in no other part of this State, as alleged by Mr. Emerson, in his invaluable "Report on the Woody Plants of Massachusetts,” has been discovered in this town. Last summer, while laying out the avenues and paths in Forest Hills Cemetery, a space of ground about thirty feet long and twenty wide,* on the summit of a hill, was found to be covered with that beautiful plant; and this spring, the whole area was whitened by the delicate blossoms. I had never seen the plant before, although I have travelled over a large portion of the New England states. *It is on the eastern side of Mulberry Avenue, near its junction with Beech and Mount Warren Avenues. There is a plant now in bloom on the hill-sides at Forest Hills, which merits cultivation from its beautiful spikes of trumpet-shaped yellow flowers,-the Gerárdia flàva. There is another variety of the same genus,-Gerárdia pediculària,which has numerous branches, equally elegant. As they are perennial, they are appropriate for the borders of garden avenues. As an ornamental shrub, or small tree, the June berry,Pyrus botryapium, of Willd., and Amelanchier canadensis, of Torrey and Gray,—is among the earliest and most beautiful of our forests, and should be civilized by cultivation. The Lilium canadensis, or yellow lily, which is to be found in wet meadow land all over New England, is one of the most superb of that family of plants, and is much improved by cultivation. I have cultivated them for several years. Instead of one or two flowers, they have ten or a dozen, and have attained the height of five feet and a half. The native rhododendrons and Kálmia latifòlia, I was glad to find in your nursery last spring, and to learn that you had numerous seedling plants, for they are our most magnificent flowering shrubs, and I know not their superiors among all the exotic shrubs which are most celebrated, for they are unsurpassed in beauty when in bloom, and being so hardy as to endure the most rigorous winters, as far north as Maine, they can be introduced into every garden, and will be deemed the most precious acquisitions which have been made from the domain of the American Flora. To these shrubs may be added the azalea, the rhodora, and the fine species of the cornus, which ascend to small trees, and are all elegant. Allow me to recommend the appropriation of a portion of your extensive and valuable nursery to the culture of NATIVE trees, shrubs, and herbaceous flowering plants, which can be cultivated in this State, and thus enable your fellow citizens to obtain specimens of American trees and plants without sending to England, Scotland, France, or Holland for them. With assurances of gratitude for the eminent services you have rendered your country, by the publication of the MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE, the splendid work on FRUITS, and the establishment of a large NURSERY, I have the pleasure of being your sincere friend, and most obedient servant, H. A. S. DEAreorn. Hawthorn Cottage, Roxbury, July, 1849. Our thanks are due to Gen. Dearborn for his valuable suggestions, and more particularly for calling the attention of our botanical friends to the fact of the Vaccinium Vitis-Idæ`a growing so near our city, and yet so long escape the attention of botanists. It is certainly somewhat surprising, that our native shrubs and plants are not better known, and more extensively introduced to our gardens. Mr. McIntosh, of Dalkeith, the editor of a Scottish journal of horticulture, in the latest number (dated July 4,) received by the last mail, in noticing the April number of our magazine, and our article on a selection of shrubs for gardens, justly remarks, "that it will be perused by the English reader with some surprise. We, in Britain, look upon the hardy deciduous and evergreen shrubs of America as forming one of the grandest features in our gardens, and are apt to picture to ourselves how magnificent must be the dressed grounds of an American country gentleman, supposing them to be planted with the numerous splendid trees and shrubs with which that country so much abounds." We only hope, for the credit of the taste of our countrymen, that such a neglect of the growth of our own. trees and shrubs will not long exist. A few such papers as those of Mr. Russell's and Gen. Dearborn's, cannot fail to awaken our amateurs and nurserymen to the importance of a more extended cultivation of our indigenous trees, shrubs, and plants.-Ed. ART. II. Descriptions and Engravings of Select Varieties of Pears. By the EDITOR. THE severity of the past winter, in the vicinity of Boston, was particularly injurious to pears: and they seem to have suffered fully as much in their blossoms as the peach trees; for, in many localities, there is an abundant crop of peaches the present season, while there is scarcely a place within a large area near the sea board which can boast of an exemption from the general destruction of the crop. This, to us, and we think we may say to our pomological friends, will be a serious loss, in some respects; for we shall not have the opportunity, for at least a year, of testing the qualities of several new and reputed fine pears, which, the present season, would probably have afforded us excellent specimens. Fortunately, we have a quantity of drawings on hand, which will enable us to give, from time to time, a continued account of many good things, until another year, when we may look forward for a bountiful crop which will amply repay our present loss. We now are enabled to present the descriptions and engravings of six American seedlings, some of which are of high merit. 109. MOYAMENSING. Dictionary of Gardening, Am. Ed. it was a Smith's Early Butter, of some. The first account we have of this very fine pear, (fig. 29,) is a brief description of it, accompanied with an engraving, in the American edition of Johnson's Dictionary of Gardening, published in Philadelphia, and edited by Mr. D. Landreth. As no higher eulogium was passed upon it, than that "desirable variety," we did not immediately add it to our collection; and it was not till last year, when several most beautiful specimens were sent to us by J. P. Cushing, Esq., from his fine collection, that we were aware of the superior qualities of the Moyamensing pear: Mr. Cushing does not keep a variety in his collection which does not rank among the very best, and that he highly appreciated this variety, we considered sufficient to establish its merits: but, upon tasting the specimens, we found them even better than his good opinion of its qualities had led us to expect. The following note accompanied the specimens sent to us : DEAR SIR,-I send you a few of the Moyamensing pears, produced from scions, received from Dr. Brincklé of Philadelphia, which he represents as a seedling produced in the garden of J. B. Smith, Esq., of that city. It does not ripen |