84 



TEE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



IMuixh 



botanist and extensive traveler had never seen 

 the tree in a state of nature, as he tells us he 

 then did "on the banks of the Chattahoochee, 

 near Columbus, Georgia." Si/lva Americana. 



On leaving his office, Governor Harrison 

 brought the Catalpa with him to his farm at 

 North Bend, on part of which this memoir is 

 now being written. The tree has been spread 

 about the neighborhood, and has became already 

 naturalized, though on a very different soil from 

 that of its native habitat. Some of the trees 

 have been cut, dressed and planted as gate posts. 

 Though taken at midsummer, July 2d, full of 

 sap, and immediately planted (1852), they are 

 to-day firm and sound. 



But to the differentiation. Supposing you 

 familiar with the species, it may be said of the 

 variety speciosa that the tree is taller, straighter, 

 less branched, more symmetrical, more hardy 

 then the species. The bark, snug, compact, 

 moderately furrowed, and not disposed to flake 

 off as it does in the species. The flowers, more 

 abundant, larger, of a purer white. The fruit, 

 usually longer sometimes, but not often exceed- 

 ing two feet; larger and generally distinctly 

 grained the entire length, cylindrical and not 

 elliptical on a cross-section like the species. The 

 seeds present the surest and safest distinguish- 

 ing mark of all these, as the coma is spread and 

 less pointed, the tissue soft and silky, and they 

 are larger. 



My dear sir, and gentlemen, hoping that all 

 this may not be considered the vaporing of an 

 enthusiast but, as it is the earnest effort to ad- 

 vance the noble study of our arboreal treasures 

 and the contribution of one deeply interested in 

 sylva?culture, he remains yours in the sentiment 

 e sylvis ad sylvas nuncio. 



EDITORIAL .VOTES. 



Trees by Mail. — As a usual thing the farther 

 one is away from railroad and express offices the 

 greater will be the necessity for experimenting 

 with trees, because these neighborhoods have 

 seldom any kind of novelties to afford any prac- 

 tical test, as older settled places do. For these the 

 mail offers good facilities for making forestry 

 experiments on a small scale. Most nurserymen 

 now send trees in this way, in the shape of one 

 or two year old seedlings. Twenty, fifty, or even 



one-hundred of these small trees can often lie- 

 sent within a four pound package, which is the 

 legal limit. We are moved to these remarks by 

 a list of Robert Douglas & Sons now before us,. 

 a firm that has done much to further American 

 forestry interests. 



Treatment of Catalpa Seedlings. — Some 

 years ago we noted that the proper way to grow 

 catalpa was to cut it back the first and second 

 year from seed, leaving only one shoot to grow 

 up for astern eachj'^ear. The '" tender" catalpa.. 

 treated in this way we have no doubt would be 

 "hardy'' even in Minnesota. Professor Burril 

 of the Illinois Industrial Univei'sity has grown 

 some in this way. The average height of the 

 trees is now sixteen feet, and they are as straight 

 as it is possible for trees to be. 



Something done at Last. — The public 

 pi'ints have been very urgent that something- 

 should be done to preserve or encourage forest 

 planting. In Pennsylvania, Governor Hartranft 

 was urged to recommend to the legislature that 

 something should be done. The governor with 

 that good sense for which he has been, of all 

 Pennsylvania's governors especially favored, 

 inquired what he should recommend ? To this he 

 never could get any other answer than that some- 

 thing should be done. So, tired of this urging, 

 in one of his addresses he did recommend that 

 something should be done. So the governor's, 

 recommendation was turned over to the House 

 Committee on Agriculture, which has now de- 

 cided that forestry in Pennsylvania must be 

 encouraged, and that something shall be done.. 

 So the committee has reported a bill which is at 

 this writing before the House for consideration ^ 

 that "any person who plants four shade trees 

 along the public highways, is to have one dollar 

 bounty given to him, payable out of the highway 

 taxes." The highways of Pennsylvania are in 

 a large number of cases nuisances during Win- 

 ter and early Spring, and it is hard to under- 

 stand how such a law is to add to the improve- 

 ment of the road-beds. But the stealing of the 

 money that should be spent on the road-bed in 

 order to encourage forestry, and to the extent 

 of planting four trees for a dollar is a new version 

 of "robbing Peter to pay Paul:" but it will 

 probably satisfy those who have been so afraid' 

 that Pennsylvania is soon to become an arid 

 waste that " something has been done.'' 



Early History of the Catalpa. — So many 

 have expressed an interest in Mr. Price's '■ Early 



