UH 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



iMay, 



for tluMii, and tho Eucn'yptus ^lobu'us is thore- 

 foro a faiu'iful (K'lusion, as far as any IxMicfits 

 our low, rial, swampy an<i malarious country is 

 to derive from its <j[enoral «iilture here, an in 

 Italy. 



As a proof of tho unusual mildness of the 

 season, I will say I plucked a Louis Phillippe 

 Rose in my ijarden, in bloom, January 20th, and 

 the same bushes are now set with buds. The 

 Marechal Neil buds look as thouij;h a few more 

 <lay.s' warm sun would open them. 



NORTHERN RANGE OF THE WILLOW 

 OAK. 



I$Y J. STAITFFER, LANCASTER. I'A. 



In the current number of your Journal for 

 April, 1H78, pa^e 113, .T. M. says : " It would be 

 interestiuij to know the farthest northern point 

 that the Willow Oak, Quercus phellos has been 

 found growing wild." In the spring of 1862, 

 Mr. Hensel, Sr., brought me a branchlet, with 

 leaves on it, of a beautiful large tree, growing 

 in an open field, as he informed me, desiring a 

 name for it, stating where it grew. I considered 

 it the Willow Oak. June 13th, 18G4, stopping, 

 with others, on our way to the Susquehanna, at 

 the public house in Martin ville, Lancaster Co., 

 Pa., it occurred to me that we were near the 

 locality of said oak. On inquiry, one of the 

 party had seen the tree before, and Professor 

 Porter, then of Franklin College, had given him 

 the name. We walked out a short distance, and 

 sure enough, there stood a vigorous tree, densely 

 covered with its pretty foliage, forming a full 

 round head, about thirty feet high, a veritable 

 Quercus phellos. How it came there the oldest 

 inhabitant could not inform us. This brings it 

 somewhat farther north than Philadelphia. 



EDITORIAL NOTES, 



Value of Fast-growing Timber. — It is 

 worth noting on how slender foundation gener- 

 ally accepted theories often stand, and it ought 

 to be a lesson not to take all preaching for sound 

 doctrine. We all know how universally accepted, 

 a half century ago, the belief was that rapid-grow- 

 ing timber was good for nothing — only that which 

 grew slow was worth touching. People saw that 

 the Hickory and Oak grew slow, and that the 

 Willow and Poplar, which grew fast, were only 

 fit for the paper mill. But now we find that the 



Ailanthus.Catalpa, Osage Orange, Mull)orry,and 

 tlie faster-growing kinds of Oaks. th(^ IJlue (ium, 

 and other fast-growing things, are among the 

 best timber trees in the world. 



It was the old notion that liard timber grew 



slow that created such a ghost in the public 



mind about the disast<'rs to the nation to come 



from the disappearance of the forests. When 



timber gets scarce enough to make it prolitable 



to raise more, the enterprising " Yank" will get 



I up a new supply on short notice ; and he will not 



I want to send a commissioner to Europe to find 



out what trees grow fivstest in the American 



climate, but will look to American facts for 



I American people. 



The Massachusetts Premiums for Tree- 



I Planting. — The prizes for tree-planting offered 



! by the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Ag- 



I riculture have closed with tlurt^'-two entries, 



principally from the eastern part of the State. 



This competition necessitates the planting, this 



Spring, fourteen acres with White Pine seed, 



four acres with Scotch Pine seed, .')2,0U0 White 



I Ash plants, and 30.500 European Larch. 



Tea Culture in the South. — There is little 

 doubt, from all the facts l)efore us, but the real 

 Chinese Tea plant can be grown well, and the 

 article made cheap enough to have a commercial 

 value in some of the Southern States; and we 

 look for it in time to be as high among staple 

 Southern farm products as sugar or oranges. 



The Catalpa Tree. — Mr. E. E. Barney, of 

 Dayton, O., has collected facts and issued a neat 

 pamphlet in regard to this tree, which we are 

 glad to see, having been among the first to call 

 attention to the great durability of its timber. 



Dogwood Timrer. — It is found that the tim- 

 ber of Cornus florida, our common Dogwood, is 

 quite equal to Box Wood for some puposes to 

 which, in England, Box Wood has been wholly 

 in use ; and there is an annually increasing de- 

 mand for it on America. Recently one of the 

 American Line steamers from Philadelphia car- 

 ried out four hundred and fifty logs of it among 

 its cargo ; and a number go with many others. 



Sycamore Timber. — The "Sycamore" of 

 English forestry Ls the Acer pseudo-platanas. 

 In this country we call it Sycamore Maple, to 

 avoid confusing it with the Sycamore or Button- 

 wood. The Journal of Forestry says the timber 

 is highly prized in Lancashire for cloth-finishing 



