SCHOPF AMERICAN TRAVELS. 



trouble was thai nothing of the first qtiaUty has been produced, be- 

 cause of thin soil, bad seed, and unskillful cultivation. 



The taste for garden flowers is likewise very restricted ; however, 

 a few florists are to be found. Dr. Glentworth, formerly a surgeon 

 in the army, has a numerous collection of beautiful bulbs and other 

 flowers which he maintains by yearly importations from Holland. 

 But as a rule one finds in the gardens nothing but wild jasmine, flower- 

 gentles, globe-amaranths, hibiscus syriacus, and other common things. 

 The beautiful gilliflower, the ranunculus, auricula, etc., of these they 

 are little aware. 



[I, 239-241.] All the hills about [Nazareth to Schoneck], as far 

 as the eye could reach, were grown up with the bush oak (Quercus 

 nana, Dwarf oak).* Only here and there stood a chestnut, quite alone, 

 or one of the other oaks. We overlooked in part and in part passed 

 through some thousands of acres of land bearing nothing but this 

 description of oak. Their twisted and bushy stems seldom exceeded 

 a height of three to four feet; at times we observed trees of ten to 

 twelve feet, or even fifteen feet, but very few of them. These oaks 

 seem to take possession of this dry and infertile hill country as if by 

 privilege. And there is found among them besides scarcely any va- 

 riety of other plants. We noticed only the Actcua racemosa (which 

 we missed hardly anywhere along the whole road), the Galega z'ir- 

 giniana, Sophora tinctoria, Gerardia, and a few others, along with a 

 dry bristly grass. In the lower valleys between these hills the other 

 oaks occur, as also the chestnut oak which is seldom seen elsewhere 

 in this region. The land grown up in this dwarf oak is of very little 

 value. The people living near by set fire to the bush every spring, 

 in order to give air to the grass beneath, and so furnish their cattle 

 a little pasture. However, the growth comes out again, although the 

 bark is almost coaled. Fire seems to do them little hurt, whereas 

 the chestnut and other tree-oaks stand among them dry and scorched. 



[I, 347-348.] The blue magnolia or mountain magnolia (Mag- 

 nolia acuminata, Linn.) was one of the more conspicuous trees pecul- 

 iar to this mountain region [near Bedford]. They call it here the 

 cucumber tree, because its long cones, before they ripen and open, are 

 in shape something like that fruit. The seeds, seed-receptacles, and 

 in less degree the bark and twigs have in common with other mag- 

 nolias a very pleasant bitterness of taste, and the seeds are often used 



* I his bush oak was similar to that growing on Long Island and called Qu. Iliii/olia by Von 

 Wangenheim Vid his Ain'rikanis lie Holzart n p. 79). Marshall, in his American Crov", calls it 

 Dwarf black oak 1 Quercus nie:r'i puiiiila\. But Marshall makes dwarf VHri- ties of almost every kind 

 of oak, according as it is a gr .wth of poor, thin soil Thus he has a Qiirrcus alba minor, Harren white 

 oak. Qurrcu- rubra nana. Dwarf Barren oak. Quercus prinus humilis. Dwarf Chestnut or Chin- 

 quapin (Jak. In this way there might he dwarf varietir s of every sort of tree, whereas there is a lack 

 of nourishment in the soil and the question may still be put wherever this oak is an independent 

 variety. 



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