tween. The most fastidious taste will leave also the columns free, and will allow vines upon the eaves or cornices only, on which the branchlets will be kept well pruned in. These compact lines of green thus form a pleasant contrast with the house, like lambrequins upon the windows of a room. For these effects vines only have been generally used, and few know how much finer are the branches of the Salisburia -a Japanese tree introduced into England a hundred years ago, and known in this country for many years. It has a clean and light-colored leaf like that of the maiden-hair fern, with a peculiarly beautiful radiation from its stem. Its long branches have few branchlets, and are closely furnished with leaves. plant for the distant future, and form a | and columns, leaving free the spaces bebeech walk one thousand feet long, with a stone monument recording the time of planting and the name of the planter, will at the end of a hundred years be found famous, and men will rise up and call him blessed. Another possibility is in the weeping-beech. Those who know it growing alone, with its cathedral form, its picturesque contortions, and its graceful beauty, scarcely realize how remarkable it may be when planted in double rows for a walk. The outside branches can be allowed to grow unchecked, forming a picturesque mass, while the inside limbs can be trimmed close to the trunk until a sufficient height is reached, when they can be allowed to interlace and make a dense canopy. A single row would also form a very unique walk. As the tree grows, the lower limbs can be cut off close to the trunk, when the upper branches will arch over in picturesque curves, sweeping the ground, and leaving a broad walk each side of the trunk. A tree which I planted forty years ago, and which is now a leaf-inclosed house, covering two thousand square feet, will give the visitor the best illustration of its possibilities. Another good effect can be produced by planting it upon the edge of a terrace or bank which is higher than the street. It will then throw out its giant arms and grasp the sidewalk, leaving room beneath its canopy for the pleasureseeker to walk and wonder at its beauty. Somewhat the same effect can be produced with the weeping slippery-elm, the branches of which sweep in long graceful curves. For a simple arbor formed by a single tree, there is great beauty in the weeping-sophora. The deli cate softness of its foliage is surpassed only by the parasol curves of its branches. Many men have seen and dreamed of a rustic vineclad house. Every one who has a house or piazza desires to cover it with vines. If the house is of wood, it is frequently injured by them, and a piazza is often so covered from column to column that no air can reach the house. The true medium is to cover only the cornices ARTIFICIAL FOREGROUND, AT MR. S. B. PARSONS'S, FLUSHING. Planted at each or every alternate column of a house, it can be pruned to a single stem until it reaches the cornice, along which it can be trained horizontally. When the whole cornice is covered, the effect is very bright and striking. The weeping-larch can be trained in the same way. Admirable archways can be made with the tamarisk or clematis, the one with a light green feathery foliage, the other with large flowers, purple, crim TRIMMED HOLLY. son, yellow, and white. A compact column of foliage, dark green and glossy, is made with the weeping silver-fir. Planted near together, a row of this last would make a perfect hedge or screen. Few trees in form and color can equal the Chinese cypress. Of all pyramidal trees it is the most completely cone-like in its form-straight as an arrow, compact in its habit, regular in its gradation, and well defined in its outline. Its color is unequalled by that of any other tree-a light pea-green of a most refreshing tint. Its leaves are like small twisted cords, delicate as the edging of a lady's collar, and in mass giving the appearance of green feathers. Its only fault is its late foliage. We have looked at it only as a single tree: for an avenue or close screen, its effect would be striking. For the latter, no trimming would be required to make it, when planted close, a green wall of exquisite color. For an avenue, a fine effect will one day be produced by alternate planting of the red-twigged and white linden, when, like a line of battle, they will flash in the sunlight their white and green banners. A mass of the euonymus, or burningbush, with its scarlet autumn seed-vessels, is a thing to be remembered. The variegated althea, one of the most constant of plants with variegated leaves, is proof against winter's cold or summer's heat, and will make a hedge of great beauty. The oak-leaved hydrangea, when trimmed hard, makes a low mass of color of great richness. The kalmia and rhododendron should be planted together, either in groups upon the points of curves, or in double and treble lines on each side of a curving walk. A fine effect is created by four lines, the outermost rhododendrons, the next kalmias, the third hardy azaleas, and the last, next the walk, Daphne cneorum. Many others could be named capable of charming combinations, all of which would suggest themselves to an earnest and appreciative admirer. Many of these can give greater pleasure when combined with graceful structures. To glass in any shape there is, with many, an insurmountable objection. The word suggests only illkept greenhouses, dirty flower-pots, and straggling plants, requiring a gardener difficult to find, and a source of annoyance rather than pleasure. There is a structure, however, which requires no other care than that which can be given by a common laborer. A servant of the house can keep it in order as easily as a room. It need not be a costly structure. It can have a span roof, not of glass, but of boards. thus require very little care, and would afford a charming promenade for the family-a garden of greenness in the midst of the severity of winter. If desired, orange-trees only could be used, and a veritable orange grove could be formed at the North amid frost and snow. A skillful mechanic could so construct this house that with little labor it could be taken away every spring, leaving as a part of the lawn this unique collection, which would be looked upon as an Italian Nordmann Fir. Irish Yews. Weeping-Hemlock. Gingko. ARTISTIC GROUP. ple and thoroughly practicable at moderate expense. It will afford so great increase of enjoyment that, when appreciated, it can not fail to be adopted as a very desirable accessory to a country dwelling. The sides can be of glass; the length can | garden of rare beauty. This plan is simbe a hundred feet, and the width twenty feet. It should be kept as a cool-house. To guard, however, against extreme cold, which occasionally comes, a sunken flue could be run under a path from the extreme end to the chimney of the dwelling of which it would form a part. This flue would be used so rarely that one of the house servants could easily give it at tention. In this house could be placed camellias, laurels, laurustinus, Cape jasmine, sago-palm, oranges, the more tender rhododendrons of exquisite color, and many other plants which flourish in a cool-house, or are not injured by a little frost. They should be planted in the ground on curving walks, and no pots should be allowed. The plants would We have mentioned a few only of the possibilities of horticulture. They are limited only as nature is limited. Those whose eyes are fully open to all artistic capabilities will find their resources grow, and will be able to invent new combinations of plants as certain in their results as those of mental or moral culture; and in connection with this work, they will become imbued with a sense of the beauty and meaning which nature reveals only to the reverent artist. sterdam became New York, and Orange, or Beverwyck, was known as Albany. In 1647 Fort Willemstadt was built upon the hill at the head of State Street, near the site of the old Capitol, and later on it gave place to Fort Frederick. The Indians called Albany Pempotawuthut.* In Governor Dongan's report on the Province of New York, in 1687, we are told that “at Albany there is a Fort made of pine-trees fifteen foot high @ foot over with Batterys and conveniences made for men to walk about, where are nine guns, small arms for forty men, four Barils of powder with great and small shott in proportion. And truly its very necessary to have a Fort there, it being a frontier place both to the Indians @ ffrench." Under the Dongan charter, in 1686, Albany became a city of one mile on the river and three and a half miles long. All outside of these limits belonged to the Colonie Rensselaerwyck. In 1683, Albany County comprised all the territory north of Dutchess and Ulster counties on both sides of the river, and Albany was looked upon as the fount of authority in church and judicial matters. The Albany Dutch Church, founded in 1640, was the only one north of Esopus, until long after 1700, that had an established ministry, save the church at Schenectady. In this Albany church preached the well-known dominies Schaats, Dellius, Lydius, Van Driessen, Van Schie, Frelinhuysen, Westerlo, and Johnson; and here, ALBANY, or Beverwyck, is one of the also, were all the children baptized soon oldest of the permanent European settlements in the United States. In 1610 the Dutch navigators came up the Hudson, or, as the Indians had christened it, the Sha-te-muc, and built trading houses to traffic for furs with the various Indian tribes. As early as 1614 a stockade fort was erected on an adjacent island, and three years later was swept away by a freshet of unparalleled violence. A new fort was built in 1623 on Market Street, now Broadway, below State Street, and was called Fort Orange, in honor of the Stadtholder of Holland. For a time the village was called Beverwyck, and also the Fuyck, or Hoop-net; but when James, Duke of York and Albany, came in possession of New Netherlands, Nieuw Am *Farm-houses. after birth, and the names entered on the Doop Boek.† "As Israel's tribes to Zion's holy hill, Up to the courts the worshippers would come, From where is Saugerties; where Plattekill, Flatbush, Blue Mountain, Malden, KiskatomAll daughters fair of mine. But passing fair Those faithful ones who travelled leagues to Till innovation brought stoves, bell, and spire, Floors, straight-backed pews, voorleser,* and a choir." The great festival days were Keestijd, t Nieuwjaarsdag, Paaschdag, § and Pinksterfeest. Christmas was of little importance among the Dutch, for New - Year was the day, and then it was that the right fat, jolly, roistering little St. Nicholas made his appearance, sometimes accompanied by his good-natured vrouw, Molly Grietje. T Should you enter the bouwery on NewYear's Eve, you would see the children gathered round the immense fire-place singing in muffled voices their evening hymns to the good saint, as follows: "Santa Klaus, goedt heilig man! Van Spanje aan Oranje, En brang deze kindjes eenige graps."** The clerk who gave out the hymns, etc., and led the singing. Christmas. Whitsuntide. ** "Santa Claus, good holy man! Go your way from Amsterdam, From Amsterdam to Spain, From Spain to Orange, And bring these little children toys." Or, "Sint Nicholaus, myn goden vriend, New-Year's Day was devoted to the universal interchange of visits. Every door was thrown wide open, and a warm welcome extended to friend and stranger. It was a breach of etiquette to omit any acquaintance in these annual calls, when old friendships were renewed, and family differences amicably settled. And here came the famous New-Year cake. The Paas eggs were the feature of Easter. The Pinkster festivities commenced on the Monday after Whitsunday, and now began the fun for the negroes, for Pinkster was the carnival of the African race. The venerable "King of the Blacks" was Charley of Pinkster Hill," so called because he was the principal actor in the festivities. Charles originally came from Africa, having in his infancy been brought from Angolo, in the Guinea Gulf; and "Saint Nicholas, my dear good friend, |