1878.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



51 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Forest Commissiojiers to Eu hope.— The 

 Nurseiymen's Association petitioned Congress to ; 

 send a commissioner to Europe to learn how to 

 preserve American forests and plant new ones; 

 and Dr. Hough will probably be sent there, as 

 we learn from the daily papers Congress is likely 

 to vote $6,000 for that purpose. Dr. H. has sub- 

 mitted a very full report of his last year's ope- 

 rations. 



Catal,pa Timber. — The Practical Farmer has 

 •a good word for the Catalpa, from the editor's 

 personal experience of its value. He says it has 

 an additional advantage over locust in being free 

 from borers. 



Natural Traksplantinc4. — A "Western pa- 

 per has the following curious paragraph: "A 

 blue ash tree seven feet in circumference and 

 eighteen feet in height, its top having been pre- 

 viously cut off, was recently dislodged by a 

 swollen stream !n Ohio, floated 340 yards, and 

 again took root, six ''eet above the present level 

 of the creek, and is doing well." 



Forestry of Ohio. — Ohio was a densely 

 timbered State, having about 14,000,000 acres, at 

 its settlement. Of these it is computed that 

 about 0,000,000 acres have yet the original stand- 

 ing timber thereon. 



Cambridge (Mass.) Botanical Garden and 

 Arboretum. — The annual report of the director, 

 Prof. C. S. Sargent, is full of interest. It shows 

 the progress which has been made in the work to 

 the 31st of August, 1877. We make tbe following 

 extract as of a matter of interest to all of us as 



w^ll as to the Harvard University, to which the 

 report is addressed : 



"Judging from the immense number of letters 

 which are annually sent me in regard to trees 

 and tree-planting, it seems evident that there is 

 a steadily increasing interest felt in arboricul- 

 ture, whicb it should be t'«? duty of the arbore- 

 tum to foster in every pos.sible manner. The 

 mere answering of the letters, communications 

 I and inquiries received from nearly every State in 

 j the Union, and from almost all the countries of 

 Europe, would have more than occupied my 

 I whole time ; and they nuist have been neglected, 

 I had not Mr. Francis Skitmer voluntarily assumed 

 charge of this department, and relieved me of 

 all correspondence of a merely routine de- 

 i script ion. 



I It is but five years since the first establishment 

 of the arboretum, but its influence and useful- 

 j ness are already evident. To its establishment 

 j can be directly traced the planting during the 

 past season of nearly half a million trees in the 

 I XeM^ England States alone. Through its influ- 

 ence attention has been called to the necessity of 

 ' the more general cultivation of the American 

 ; White ash, a tree of the first economic value, and 

 I now rapidly disappearing from all but the more 

 ' recently settled portions of the country. Up to 

 I the present year young ash for general planting 

 I could not be procured either at home or abroad. 

 I They are now raised in such numbers as to be 

 j within reach of all. 1 have been able to de- 

 I monstrate, also, that seedling forest trees, for 

 which the Eastern States, at least, have largely 

 I depended on foreign nurseries, can be produced 

 j equally well and at cheaper rates than abroad. 

 j So that in the future, this business, which 

 j promises an immense development, will be a 

 I source of profit to American industry, wliile 

 1 planters Avtll be saved the risks and expenses 

 which necessarily attend the importation of such 

 perishable goods as living plants." 



The work which Prof. Sargent is doing is 

 really a national one, and he deserves the liearty 

 thanks of "all who desire to see American arbori- 

 culture prosper. 



Natural History and Science. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



ABIES OR PICEA; WHICH IS IT? 



BY SAMUEL B. PARSONS. 



I have often been impressed with the mixed 

 nature o^ foreign nomenclature, and I now notice 

 that you propose to call all conifers with erect 

 cones Abies\ and those with pendant cones Picea. 

 You thus make our common Balsam Fir and its 

 congeners Jbies. It will be ditlicult to make 

 gardeners recosznize tbis distinction. 



If you will show an observing, intelligent man 

 a Norway Spruce and a Silver Fir as types of 

 their respective classes, and let him study them 

 well, he may go through the most varied mirsery 

 and will infallibly place all of each class by 

 themselves, whether the cones are erect or pen- 

 dant. The difference in the foliage of the two 

 classes is very marked and clear. You would 

 scaiTcly call the Norway Spruce Picea excelsa : 

 and yet if you preserve the old name of Abies 

 excelsa the distinction is so great that it is diffi- 

 cult to adojit .1 bies Balsamea as the true name of our 



