230 THE PLANT WOKLD 



General Items. 



The enthusiasm of North Carolinians for the Appalachian Park can 

 hardly be appreciated by people at a distance who do not know of the 

 dangers that menace some of our most beautiful shrubs and trees. The 

 spoon and ladle makers, the rustic furniture fiends, and now the pipe 

 manufacturers, have wrought great havoc in our rhododendron and 

 kalmia thickets. Many roots of the kalmiahave huge knots or lumps, 

 caused probably by some insect, just where the stems enter the soil. 

 Often these roots are nearly a foot through. The pipe-makers are be- 

 ginning to use them for the same purpose as briar roots, and for sev- 

 eral seasons their agents have gone through the neighborhood buying 

 up acres of " ivy," as the kalmia is frequently called here. The diggers 

 are paid a dollar a day for their work, but there are plenty of small 

 landholders who will sell the knots for only fifty cents a ton, so that 

 there is more money in it for the digger than for the owner. The many 

 hills shorn of their evergreen robe, so gloriously spangled in spring- 

 time, and left an unsightly jungle of dying bushes, dead branches and 

 upturned earth, show the track of the ivy digger. But the unapprecia- 

 tive old farmer does not regard him as a vandal. Surveying the ruined 

 hillside, he will chuckle, as he tells you : " Never expected to have 

 somebody to pay me for the privilege of doin' that grubbin'. 'Spected 

 to pay out hard dollars to get it done myself." — L. Greenlee, in Country 

 Life in America, Christmas Annual. 



We are accustomed to think of all members of the Composites as 

 herbs of a few feet in height. There are, however, many shrubs and 

 one or two trees which boast of the blood of the biggest, if not the best, 

 family. One of the most peculiar species is a succulent plant which 

 appears in the "pedregal," or recent lava fields of Central America and 

 Mexico ; its thick, gray-barked trunk attains a height of 10 to 15 feet 

 and has very few branches ; the wood is soft, spongy, and always satu- 

 rated with water. 



And hidden away in the jungles of the Malay Peninsula there is a 

 fleabane which, according to Mr. H. N. Eidley, of the Singapore Bo- 

 tanic Gardens, attains a height of 70 feet. This remarkable tree ( Verno- 

 nia arhorea Ham.) produces a light, yellowish or brownish timber, of 

 fair value. Being local, rare, and at home in that rapidly changing cor- 

 ner of the world, the tallest Composite is likely to become extinct within 

 a short time. — 0. W. Barrett. 



