HARDY FRUITS AT THE WEST.-The late unusually severe winters at the West have enabled the residents to discover the hardy varieties of fruit, as those which have escaped unscathed may with safety be so classed. The following list, made up from intelligent correspondents of the Annual Register, may be relied on for endurance in future years.

Apples.-I. C. ALLEN, of Lena, Ill., furnishes the following results of his experience: Very hardy-Oldenburgh, late strawberry. HardyEarly Joe, early Pennock, sops-of-wine, Cooper, Fulton, fall orange, mother, Fallawater, Hubbardston nonesuch, Jonathan, limber-twig. Tender-early harvest, summer bell-flower, Belmont, Hawley, Jersey sweeting, Rambo, twenty-ounce, Baldwin, Dominie, English russet, King, Newtown pippin, golden sweet.

E. ORDWAY, of Freeport, Ill., gives the following list of such varieties as have withstood the late severe winters there: Tallman sweeting, yellow bell-flower, seek-no-further, golden russet, Northern spy, white winter pearmain, wine-sap, Fallawater, maiden's blush, red Canada, sops-ofwine, and large and small Romanite.

SAMUEL EDWARDS, La Moille, Ill., gives the following as the most hardy and valuable: red June, high-top sweeting, hocking, early Pennock, Keswick codlin, maiden's blush, fameuse, Westfield seek-no-further, yellow bell-flower, white winter pearmain, Fulton, red Romanite.

DR. S. L. PENNINGTON, Sterling, Ill. Hardy, or but slightly injured -yellow bell-flower, Westfield seek-no-further, fameuse, black Detroit, wine-sap, pomme grise, Lowell, red June, willow-twig, early nonpareil. Tender Baldwin, Porter, Rhode Island greening, Roxbury russet, Ortley, sweet-bough, Rambo.

E. H. SKINNER, McHenry Co., Ill. For summer-Red Astrachan and
Carolina red June. For autumn-Porter.
For autumn-Porter. Early winter-fameuse.

Winter and spring-Jonathan, Rawles' Janet, English russet.
J. S. SHERMAN, Rockford, Ill. Sweet June, Baldwin, Tompkin's
County King, Wagener, and most of the hardiest in Western New
York, except Rhode Island greening, and sweet-bough. Maiden's
blush and yellow bell-flower succeed admirably.

B. W. STEERE, of Adrian, Mich., mentions as particularly tender, English and Roxbury russets, Gravenstein, Baldwin, and Rhode Island greening-the latter becomes hardier with age, but is an uncertain bearer.

AMASA STEWART, of Le Seur, Minnesota. Early harvest, early strawberry, red Astrachan, maiden's blush, fameuse, Harrison, white bellflower. The Rambo was tender.

F. K. PHOENIX, Bloomington, Ill., who has also made extensive observations in Wisconsin, names the following hardy apples: Summer— Carolina June, sweet June, red Astrachan, sops-of-wine, Benoni, summer pearmain. Autumn-autumn strawberry, Dyer, fall orange, Haskell sweet, Gabriel, Northern sweet, Oldenburgh, St. Lawrence. Winteryellow bell-flower, Carthouse, limber-twig, Romanstem, white winter pearmain, seek-no-further, Tallman sweet, wine-sap, monstrous pippin, English golden russet, willow-twig, winter sweet paradise, Campfield sweet. OHIO POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 1857, from the report of various members: Carolina red June, fine in Central Indiana, poor in southern

Michigan; late strawberry, good in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois; American summer pearmain, generally and highly esteemed; Hawley, promising well; maiden's blush, everywhere hardy and productive; Fallawater, second quality, but everywhere valuable; white pippin, one of the best for central and southern Ohio; white winter pearmain, highly prized in Indiana and Illinois, unknown in Ohio; Pryor's red and Rome beauty, southern Ohio; red Canada, northern Ohio. The following sorts have generally done well: Winter sweet paradise, Broadwell, Tallman sweet, Danver's sweet. The Northern spy had done well in Kentucky, St. Louis, and Indiana, although diminished in keeping qualities.

In addition to the preceding lists, the following has been furnished by M. R. PATRICK, of Sackett's Harbor, N. Y., a place remarkable for its intense winters and severe winds. Vigorous growers and perfectly hardy-Hawthornden, sops-of-wine, late strawberry, Jewett's red, Orne's early. Nearly as hardy-Early harvest, summer queen, fall orange, Hawley, King (Tompkin's), American golden russet, Swaar, Benoni, red Astrachan, Ribston pippin. Somewhat tender-Rambo, Dyer, Gravenstein, fameuse. Half hardy-Jonathan, Dominie, sweet Baldwin, Danver's sweet, Belmont, Canada Reinette, yellow bell-flower. TenderBaldwin, twenty-ounce, Tallman sweet, fall pippin, sweet-bough, summer rose, early strawberry, early Joe, Jersey sweet, Oldenburgh, Roxbury russet (very poor), Westfield seek-no-further, ladies' sweet, Esopus Spitzenburgh, Porter, Lowell, lady apple, Newtown pippin, English russet, Northern spy, red Canada, Rhode Island greening, Peck's pleasant.

From the preceding lists it will be seen that the following have proved hardy wherever tried, without exception, viz.: sops-of-wine, late strawberry, white winter pearmain, wine-sap, fall orange, Fallawater, maiden's blush, Carolina June, and red Astrachan.

Pears.-B. W. STEERE, Adrian, Mich., gives the following list: Tender-Bartlett, Seckel, Winkfield, Oswego beurre. Hardy-Flemish beauty, Tyson, Rostiezer, Doyenné d'été, beurre d'Anjou, belle lucrative, Onondaga, and Lawrence.

The OHIO POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY, in its transactions for 1857, gives from the report of some of its members the following pears as having proved valuable at Cincinnati: Walker, Fontenay, Jalousie, Andrews, Gray Doyenné, Urbaniste, belle lucrative, Flemish beauty, Kirtland, Doyenné Sieulle.

I. C. ALLEN, of Lena, Stephenson Co., Ill., furnishes the following list of pears, the results of his experience in that region. Very hardyFlemish beauty. Hardy-Stevens' Genesee, Susette de Bavay. Half hardy-Doyenné d'été, white Doyenné, Easter beurré, Glout Morceau, Bilboa, Henry IV., Seckel, Tyson, Bergamotte Cadette, Aremberg. Tender-Bartlett, belle lucrative, beurre d'Anjou, Beurre Bosc, Catillac, Chaumontelle, Dearborn's seedling, Angoulême, Louise Bonne of Jersey, Madeleine, Vicar of Wakefield, Van Mons' Leon le Clerc.

Cherries.-The dukes and Morello cherries, such as early Richmond, Mayduke, belle magnifique, belle de Choisy, Morello, etc., all succeed well at the West, while the heart and bigarreau varieties generally fail. Small Fruits.-Currants, Houghton's gooseberry, and the smaller fruits generally, succeed well throughout the West.

THE FLOWER-GARDEN.

FOR WHOM PREPARED.-What we shall say of the selection and culture of flowering plants and shrubs, will be adapted to beginners, rather than amateurs, to the open ground-not the green-house-for there are ten thousand gardens, where flowers may and should be cultivated, to one green-house; and there are ten thousand who need the elements of the art to one who would be benefited by its higher instructions. The work, therefore, will be practical rather than scientific, plain, rather than classical.

BEST KIND OF SOIL.-For a flower-garden, a light, mellow soil is by far the most preferable; the mould of the beds and borders should be sifted, and raked nearly level, or with a gradual slope. The most modern flower-gardens are those which are made out of a lawn, or grassplot; but where this is not already in existence, turf may be laid, after the beds are formed. It is essential that the lawn or grass-walks should be frequently trimmed, and more frequently rolled, to prevent the grass from running to seed, and overrunning the flower-beds, and to keep down the worms, and give it a neat, regular, carpet-like appearance. The beds intended for the more tender flowers, should be protected from the cold, cutting winds, by hedges or plantations of shrubs, and the whole intersected, here and there, with winding gravel walks. The practice formerly adopted, of dividing the flower-garden into a number of small beds, and surrounding each with a path or gravel-walk, is now laid aside by those whose taste is considered the most correct; or, at least, is confined to very small plots of ground.

A flower-garden should be so situated, as to form an ornamental appendage to the house; and, where circumstances will admit, placed before windows exposed to a southern or south eastern aspect. The principle on which it is laid out, ought to be that of exhibiting a variety of color and form so blended as to present one beautiful whole. In a small flower-garden, viewed from the windows of a house, this effect is best produced by borders laid sideways to each other, and to the windows from which they are seen; as by that position the colors show themselves in one mass; whereas, if placed end ways to the windows of the house, they divide the whole in appearance, and occasion a scarcity of show.

Without great neatness in the treatment of the spot devoted to flowers, much of the pleasing effect which otherwise would be produced on the mind is counteracted. Neatness consists in something more than the mere weeding and raking of beds and borders, hoeing and sweeping of alleys. It is perceptible even in the mode of tying up, trimming and training plants-even in the style of suspending a collar or label round the neck of a carnation.

A little attention to these matters, at the beginning, induces a habit of doing even the minutest things in the flower-garden with good taste, and of avoiding any arrangement that may be unsightly.

THE SHRUBBERY.-Shrubs follow so closely in order after flowers, that we cannot refuse their assimilation in our pages; indeed, so many of

them are embellished with flowers, and many of them, too, at a season when our flowers have lost their loveliest charms, that they have a double claim on our regard; some of them are also so hardy, as to brave our severest winters, and bloom even amid our more chilling days. Summer's loveliest gem-the virgin rose-belongs also to this tribe of plants; the myrtle, with its delicate petals; the clematis, with its climbing tendrils and odoriferous sweets; the lilac, with its ornamental coronals, and numerous other favorites of Flora, exhibit claims to our admiration.

The distinction, therefore, between flowers and shrubs is merely that the former are of the herbaceous kind, that is, their stalks are generally soft and succulent, and require, comparatively, but little watering, themselves imbibing a considerable share of moisture from the atmosphere; while the latter are harder and firmer in the stalks, approaching nearer to the nature of trees, except in having shorter stems and more bushy heads. Shrubs are all perennials, and are divided into two kinds, deciduous and evergreens; the former lose their leaves in the winter, and do not regain them till the following spring; the latter only shed them when new leaves are ready to appear.

Deciduous shrubs are divided into flowering and ornamental kinds. They grow from one to ten or twelve feet high; and some sorts, in favorable situations, attain a much greater height: the creeper kinds, if properly trained, will reach to fifty or even a hundred feet. They may be raised from seeds, sown in the spring months, and planted out in the autumn; and propagated by suckers, cuttings, or layers. They require mostly a good rich loamy soil; and many of the flowering and more tender kinds should be protected in a greenhouse from the inclemency of the wintry season.

The evergreen kinds of shrubs are also divided into flowering and ornamental; and are, like the deciduous, raised principally from seed, and propagated by slips, cuttings, suckers, and layers. They attain a similar height and the parasitical kinds, as they are termed from living principally on the nourishment they derive from clinging to trees, as the ivy tribe, grow as high as the creepers among the deciduous shrubs. They will thrive in almost any kind of soil, and being particularly hardy, vegetate amid the severity of winter as in the genial warmth of summer; but the American evergreens, of which we have now many elegant flowering varieties, thrive only in peat or boggy earth.

When shrubs are planted for hedges, they, in their first growth, should be timely trimmed and trained, and kept free from weeds, the sides cut even, and the tops sparingly touched, till nearly at the required height, except that the weak and runaway tops should be nearly leveled with the rest, that the whole may advance with regularity.

The beds and borders of a flower-garden should, in no part of them, be broader than the cultivator can reach to from each side, without treading on the beds; the shape and number of them must be determined by the size of the grounds and taste of the person laying out the garden; only, as a sort of general rule, do not allow less than three times as much grass-plot as flower-bed, exclusive of the gravel-walks, which ought not to be very numerous.

Although the grandest display is produced by a general flower-gar

den, that is, by cultivating such a variety of sorts in one bed or border, as may nearly insure a constant blooming; yet bulbous plants, while essential to the perfection of the flower-garden, lose much of their peculiar beauty, when not cultivated by themselves. The extensive variety of bulbous roots furnish means for the formation of a garden, the beauty of which, arising from an intermixture of every variety of form and color, would well repay the trouble of cultivation; particularly as, by a judicious selection and management, a succession of bloom may be realized throughout the summer months.

As, however, bulbous flowers lose their richest tints about the time that annuals begin to display their beauties, there can be no wellfounded objection why the latter may not be transplanted into the bulbous beds, so that the opening blossoms of the annuals may fill the place of those just withered, and continue to supply the flower-beds with all their gaiety and splendor.

THE CLASSES OF FLOWERS AND SHRUBS.-Flowers are divided into annuals, biennials, perennials, bulbous, tuberous, and herbaceous. Annuals are plants that live only one summer.

Biennials are plants that do not produce their flowers until the second year, and then die after they have ripened their seeds. Some, however, are included in this class that live three or four years, as the hollyhocks, snap-dragons, Canterbury bells, etc.

Perennial Plants are those permanent plants which are not woody, but which generally die down to the ground every year and spring up again the year following. There are some, however, which are called evergreen perennials, which never die down to the ground, such as pinks, carnations, several kinds of saxifrage, etc. Perennials have the great advantage over annuals and biennials, that they do not require renewal from seed, but are propagated by division of the root or division of the plant.

Bulbous Plants are perennials, and they are propagated by separating the offsets, which may be considered as a kind of division of the root. Bulbs enjoy the advantage of being more independent of a fixed residence in the soil than many other plants. During their period of rest, they may be kept out of the ground, be made the subject of merchandise, and be transported to very considerable distances. Meanwhile their vitality is still in full force, and important changes, such as the formation of the future blossom, is going on within them. In due time, they again require the nutriment supplied by the rains and the earth; just as an animal that has lain torpid all winter, seeks his food on awakening in the spring. The capability of propagation by offsets is another point of interest belonging to bulbs. Young progeny, exactly resembling the parent plant, are thus produced with certainty. Bulbs often are the subjects of the first attempts at horticulture by juvenile gardeners; and are occasionally the only means by which city residents can gratify their taste for growing flowers. By far the great majority of bulbs produce exceedingly handsome blossoms, often odoriferous and even highly scented.

Tuberous-rooted Plants.-Tuberous-rooted plants are propagated by separating the tubers; and when these tubers are furnished with eyes like the potato, they may be cut into pieces, preserving an eye to each ;