Evening star., 1932-04-22
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

Buds from sticks OF WOOD! Green
leaves from black bark
Light green lilac leaves, soon 10 turn
darker, from gray-black twlgs!
"Pouf!" breathes the magician, upon
bare boughs, and out OF them comes
pouring a veritable army OF green-clad
servants.
Each such servant is really sort OF
chemical laboratory. fully equipped 70
do all the things which must be oone
to help the roots keep the tree or snrup
or plant alive and growing.
Intelligent curiosity will never cease
to marvel at this Did the plants learn
these photo-synthetic feats IN the IN
fancy of the world, told once Tor all
how to do it" by superior mlno, or
did they build up these amazing proc
esses by a trial-and-error cropping with
the little abilities they had?
One is brought back to the mystery
of the first cause. and left there oum-
founded at what he sees on every
branch and bough in the spring
The successive unfolding OF pink
blossoms on cherry and craoapple
trees, of the named sorts, furnishes
much amusement to the observer VINO
delights in such things.
He does not know the name OF one
sort from another, perhaps, but ne
knows something beautiful when ne
sees it. This season has not been q
particularly good one for the small
ornamental trees
The little blizzard OF early March
put real crimp into them, at a time
when they must have felt sure, In their
tough little insides, that true spring
had come at last
Cruel cold blasted their buds, and
the weather since (up until the last
few days. was tot of the sort to make
nowering trees rejoice.
Yet most Of them have done their
best, in many instances Towering out
with almost old-time ability. Color is
bit off this year, but this is not to
be wondered at.
Forsythia and other early Towering
shrubs are a trif1e thin this Spring, a
good point, rather than a fault, par
ticularly in the forsythia. This shrub,
with its heavy canes of yellow bios
SONS, Is almost too full for beauty in
normal years.
The thinner quality Of this season
gives this shrub daintier appearance
one very becoming against the ripen-
ing green OF grass and barberry and a
few other things, such as the lilacs.
This sparse Towering becomes the
growth Of the forsythia better than its
heavy mass of blossoms present In
more normal times If variety could
be created with fewer blooms, it would
make an instant appeal to home own
ers who do not altogether admire the
forsythia in its present form.
Sparse boomers and shrubs of thin
character have their good points. The
American witch hazel bush, bush
which Is not planted as much as II
should be, Is sprawly thing. but lovely
Another shrub with few blossoms, but
beautiful, is the Rhodotypos kerrioides
sometimes called the jetbead or even
jethead Such plants have their place
in gardening era which calls for more
and larger blooms, and for the so-called
double flowers in place of the single.
Japanese barberry. the sort exten-
sively used for untrimmed hedges, Is
doing itself proud this Spring, being one
Of the very first to come into leaf, In
many instances retaining a large num-
Der of red berries. which show up tc
excellent advantage amid the new
foliage.
Barberry is one thing for which the
admiration of the garden observer grows
year by year This season it Is far
ahead of the privet in turning green
Retaining its foliage far into the cold
season, the barberry is surely one Of
our most dependable garden denizens
It might properly replace many faded
evergreen the observer sees as he goeI
around town.