18T6.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



119 



seem more tree-like than others. The Austrian 

 Maple, Acer Austriacum, is hardly different bo- 

 tanically, but grows to a large size. This is what 

 the Chronicle says : 



" Strutt, in his Sylva Britannica, gives an etch- 

 ing of a Maple growing in Boldne churchyard, 

 within the New Forest, that Gilpin considered 

 the largest (and probably the oldest) in England ; 

 and here, under the shade of this tree, and amidst 

 the scenes he so much loved, he elected to be 

 buried. Close to the ground this tree is stated to 

 have been 12 feet in girth, and at 4 feet from the 

 ground 7 feet 6 inches, and 45 feet in height. I 

 have, however, met with several Maples, in Wor- 

 cestershire equal in magnitude to this " Boldne 

 Maple ; " and on the banks of the river Teme, 

 near Powick, 3 miles west of Worcester, is one 

 much larger, the trunk dividing into three huge 

 arms, supporting a multitude of lesser branches 

 and dense foliage. This wide-spreading tree 

 measured 15 feet in girth near the base at the 

 time when it was sketched, and would be much 

 more higher ^l^p from the divarication of the boles. 

 It was rather more than 40 feet in height, and 

 must be of very considerable age." 



Russian Timber. — The Gardeners^ Chronicle 

 Bays : "As evidence of the traffic in Pine Tim- 

 ber, (whether simply sawn or dressed) between 

 foreign ports and this country, we may mention 

 that an official return shows the town of Memel 

 to contain fifteen steam mills and twenty wind- 

 mills, all employed in sawing timber. The wind- 

 mills, once a characteristic of this port, are grad- 

 ually disappearing, the new establishments being 

 all provided with steam-power." 



QUERIES. 



Larch Timber.— A. B. C, Ottawa, 111.— The 

 timber of the American Larch is of little value, 

 it is the European which is so popular. Even 

 this varies considerably in the qviality of the tim- 

 ber. In some localities it is liable to the attack 

 of a small fungus which causes the tips of the 

 leaves to decay before their natural time, and it 

 is probably this which makes the difference in 

 the quality of the timber. The Larch will grow 

 on rather wet ground, but it only really thrives 

 to best advantage on ground that is rather dry. 

 It is on the whole one of the most valuable tim- 

 ber trees we have. 



White Cypress. — A correspondent inquires 

 which kind of Cypress it is that produces the 

 white kind. There is but one known species, the 

 Taxodium disiichum. But there is some differ- 

 ence in the timber that does not show itself in 

 characters that botanists can take hold of for 

 scientific purposes. It is the same with other 

 trees. The Liriodendron is an example. There 

 is the white poplar and the yellow poplar of 

 the cabinet makers. The wood is very differ- 

 ent one from another, but the Liriodendron that 

 yields the one or the other, seems exactly the 

 same to the botanist. 



Rate of Growth in the Oak.— M.— You are 

 mistaken. There are some trees that grow 

 faster than oaks truly, but most oaks grow faster 

 than you think. Faster than some maples. We 

 have no doubt that under most circumstances 

 many oaks would beat the sugar maple. 



ATURAL miSTORY AND fSCIENCE. 



CO MM UNICA TIONS. 



THE ROOT-CAP. 



BY BYRON D. HALSTED, BUSSEY INSTITUTE, MASS. 



The idea held by the earlier botanists, that the 

 tips of all roots consisted of spongy masses of 

 tissue, by means of which plants were enabled 

 to soak up their food from the soil, has, with the 

 aid of the microscope, been entirely discarded. 

 The term spongiole, which was given to these the- 



oretical bodies, is a land-mark of departed ignor- 

 ance, and furnishes a striking contrast with the 

 knoivn structure (viz. : the root-cap), with which 

 the tip of every growing root is covered. 



With the leading botanists of to-day a root is 

 considered to be an outgrowth protected by a 

 cap. This definition seems very short, but if 

 anything further is added, there comes with it a 

 number of exceptions. 



The name which this covering to the root-tip 

 has received is in itself very descriptive, as it ia 



