San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1893-06-06
FLOWERS, SHRUBS AND TREES.

for the house fernery, table or
manted.
Flowers are as handsome as dia-
mOnds, says the Cleveland Leader,
and the poor can possess them as
well as the rich.
There are several varieties Of the
white birch, says a writer in the
Rochester POst-EXpress. They
abound in some parts of the High
lands of Scotland, and one writer
observes that the birch may be
said to be the universal wood of
the Highlands. They make every
thing of it.
A new London violet, called
the "Wallenstein," has hairy leaf
and a deliciouslyscented flower, so
that it can no longer be designated
"modest," and it flourishes not ain
green and shady BEDS" but in
open borders. 1t is effective for
baskets or vases and for table
decoration.
Buffalo and Washington are the
two American cities that have sys-
tematically looked after their
shade trees. These cities have thus
been rendered far more beautiful
and attractive and the value of
property increased. The effect of
shade trees on a city's prosperity
has long been .cOmprehended in
Paris. System does the work, and
nothing else will.
Cdlad;ums succeed best on light
sandy soil, with plenty of well rot
ted manure dug in before planting
and in situation where it is not
exposed to the sun for more than
four hours day. When subjected
to the sun all day they lose bril-
liancy of coloring, and this is also
the result when they are allowed
to get dry at the root. The morning
is the best time to apply water,
and care should be taken not to
wet the leaves. The first of June is
early enough to plant out.
A better thermometer could not
be found hardly than the average
plant, S avs the Philadelphia In
Quirer. If it thriVeS you may be
sure that the atmosphere of the
room is all right, but if it Wits
and dies you may be equally sure
that the air Of the apartment in
which it is given home is Vitiat-
ed. Where plants will not live hui
man beings cannot find a healthy
existence. This, Of course, holds
good with those plants which do
not call for excess of heat or very
great moisture. Keep your window
greenery bright and flourishing,
and you will preserve your own
bloom as we'll.
The weeping birch, Betula alba
pondula, is simply a variety of the
common white birch. 1t grows in
the Highlands of Scotland and is
there called the prOOying birch.
Sir Walter Scott thus alludes to it:
When weeps the birch with silver
bark and long disheveled hair.
And Prof. Wilson gives descrip-
ton of it in the following lines:
On the green slope
OF a romantic glade we set us
down,
Amid the fragrance of the yellow
broom,
While DER our heads the weeping
birch tree stream'd
Its branches, arching like a foun-
tain shower.
The shipping of nursery trees is
largely confined to a period of four
weeks in the spring and three in
the fall. One Rochester firm is now
packing retail orders, amounting
to over $4,000 a day, and it has
nearly 400 men on the pay-rolls.
Another firm ships 1000 trees and
shrubs each year, and uses 100000
feet of lumber, $500 pounds of strap
iron and fifty kegs of nails, in the
manufacture of its cases. A feature
of the business is the use of long
cellars for the handling and pack
ing of tender stock. The prepare
lions for shipment are usually at
tended by danger of injury to stock
by frost, but in these cellars, which
are provided with a large numbe
of bins, stock may be handled in
all kinds of weather.
Garden beds should be prepared
with an abundance of fertilizer and
tender snnuals may be sown. For
this it is good plan to prepare a
litter Of light straw or some boards
to cover the ground at night and
on cool days. This makes it pos
sible to plant seeds at least week
earlier than would otherwise be
safe, and the plants get just so