182 



IHE GARDF.NKR'S MONTHLY 



[June, 



Dnjjwoml ? It crnwR here aloiifj tbc banks of the 

 Nooslu) UiviT, find I have been told (h:it it^nuvs 

 in the swamps of Viririnia. It is of u dwnrlisli 

 hal)it.«:ro\\ ini: from eii^lit to ton feet liiuii ; loliiuje 

 reseinldes tlie white h)weiini; Dniiwood, luit 

 smaller; the flower and berry is white (so I have 

 been informed). They are not quite in bloom yet. 



/■/^/TOR/AL NOTES. 



Ik.ACK Walnuts and Oi:cirAi:i>s. — Corres- 

 pondents have become friLjhtened ai)ont Blaek 

 Walnut trees. They believe them injurious to 

 trees ^rowiui; near them. Others iirowincr under, 

 or even elose to them. suffer, because the AValnut 

 is a i^ross feeder, and takes all the eatables to 

 its own taljle; but it has no ill effect in any other 

 wav". We have known of Walnut trees of im- 

 men.se age and size within fifty feet of old apple 

 trees, and both apparently well satisfied with 

 their companions. 



Pine Lumrer of Utah. — At a recent meet- 

 ins: of the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia, .specimens of boards from the coni- 

 fers of Utah, were presented from Mr. A. L. 

 Siler. Juniperus Virginiana, the common Red 

 (Jedar, is precisely like the wood of the Red 

 Cedar of the Atlantic States ; thonuh growing so 

 man)- miles inland, and at so high an eleva- 

 tion. Juniperus occidentalis, the Western 

 Cedar, ha.s, however, the heart wood brown 

 instead of a rcsy red, as in the Eastern kind. 

 Pinus ponderosa, more nearly resembles the 

 wood of Pinus palustris,or Yellow Pine of the 

 Ea^t. It is known as the "Heavy Wooded 

 Pine," but we doubt whether it is as heavy, foot 

 for foot, as Pinus palustris. Abies Douglasii is 

 the "Red Pine," and much like, in character and 

 apparent qualities, the Norway Spruce, or 

 "Deal" of Europe. It is evidently a much 

 better wood. Pinus tlexilis has no common 

 namii among the settlers in Ut;ih. The wood is 

 a whitish brown, rather soft, and showing hardly 

 any grain. Pinus edulis is the " Pinou" of the 

 Mexicans. The wood is as white as a piece of 

 Linden, and brittle. It takes on a remarkably j 

 smooth surface under the plane, and may be of ^ 

 8ome great use by these peculiarties. The mo.st j 

 remarkable wood of the whole is the Pinus j 

 aristata, or " Cat Tail Pine." The color is j 

 almost as dark as Mahogany, and the fibre is i 

 curiously twisted and contorted, so that it is j 

 difficult to get a piece for a boai'd free from a j 



flaw ; but where a good piece is found, it ex- 

 hibits a fuie hilk-likc grain, and it would, no 

 doubt, b^ very useful in fine ornamental work. 

 Mr. Siler remarks thar, the Pinus ponderosa, 

 called " Heavy Wooded Pine" in the books, 

 is known as the " liong lit'afed-Pi.ie" in Utah. 



SCRAPS /INI) OUHRIRS. 



A Large Chfst:<ut Tree.— In Ryberry 

 township, Montgomery county, Peima., a chest- 

 nut tree, on the farm late of N. Richardson 

 measures 20 feet in circumference four feet from 

 the ground, which is the smallest pliu;e. This 

 tree is traced back to four generations, which 

 have i)icked the nuts from under it. 



The Birch. — As we look on these trees gen- 

 erally in our gardens, or even in our forests, we 

 have little idea of its great use of the birch lo 

 man. A lumber paper telis us that the 4»irch w 

 a true liardy mountaineer, loving the rugged 

 mountain side and luxuriating in the wiUl savage 

 glens of the cold North. It is the bust tree seen 

 on approaching that hitherto inaccessible spot,, 

 the North Pole, disappearing entirely at the 70th 

 parallel. The ancient Caledonians made canoes 

 of birch branches and bark, covering the outside 

 with skins. From birch they made every imagi- 

 nable kind of implement and vessel. The writer 

 has seen, in the remote part of the Highlands, cot- 

 tages in which every utensil was made of birch, all 

 being cut out of the solid timber in the most 

 primitive fashion. Fancy, if ye can, ye eliit of 

 the modern tea-drinking world, your cups and 

 saucers composed of wood. Yet such was once 

 the fashion, and our glorious ancestors "punck 

 bowl" and "bicker" were made of such primitive 

 material. It is recorded, that «luring the year* 

 272, ;^00 and 310, years of great famine, the 

 inhabitants of Britain were compelled to eat 

 birch-bark. In Sweden, it has been used to mix 

 with corn for food. In Russia and Poland, thi» 

 tree enters largely into constructive arts, from 

 the fittings and furnishings of the palace to the 

 manufacture of the tobacco pipe. 



PER.SIMMON Gum. — It may not be generally 

 known, says the /^wra/ J/eAseng«r, of Petersburg, 

 Va., that the common Persimmon tree of this. 

 State {^Diospyros Virpriniana) yields at a certain 

 sei son a gum, which, when boiled and strained,, 

 afterwards being dried in thin layers, is equal in 

 adhesive quality to ordinary gum arable of the 

 shops. The method is to cut with an axe or 



