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THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[November, 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Eucalyptus as a Febrifuge. — The ease with 

 which mere notions come to be regarded as true 

 scientific deductions is the source of much trouble 

 to those who desire to advance no further than solid 

 facts warrant. The reputation the gum trees of 

 Australia, species of Eucalyptus, have received as 

 " Fever trees," is a good illustration of this. It has 

 been shown in these columns that the immense 

 growth of these trees necessarily involved a great 

 draught on the moisture reservoirs of the earth, and 

 that any rapid-growing tree would dry a swamp as 

 well as the Eucalyptus. The benefits were as 

 likely to come from the draining of the soil as from 

 any peculiar virtue in the resinous exhalations 

 from the tree. We have now some actual facts, 

 contributed by J. E. Woods, of Queensland, a bo- 

 tanical writer of considerable reputation. He says 

 the"Hodgkins diggings" is a region famous for 

 fever and ague ; yet species of Eucalyptus are not 

 only abundant about the tract, but that prevaihng 

 winds blow through hundreds of miles of these 

 trees before they reach the infected district. — In- 

 dependent. 



Tree Planting in the Isle of Man.— By 

 direction of Sir Henry Loch, Her Majesty's Com. 

 missioner of Woods and Forests, a large extent of 

 Crown lands in the Isle of Man is about to be 

 planted with forest and ornamental trees. About 

 five hundred acres are now being so planted on 

 the mountain called Archallagan, where cabins 

 have been erected by the contractors for the ac- 

 commodation of the men. 



Yellow Pine. — In this country it has come 

 about that no one knows what he is reading about 

 when " yellow pine " is referred to. A number of 

 very different species are called yellow pine. 

 White pine has, however, hitherto been spared the 

 endless confusion which seems inseparable from 

 the use of common names. White pine has been 

 Pinus Strobus everywhere, except perhaps some- 

 times on the Pacific, where Pinus Lambertiana is 

 known as white pine. Sugar pine is, however, so 

 general for that species, that white pine will prob- 

 ably not become general. But now we have 

 Forestry telhng its reader that " yellow pine " is 

 Pinus Strobus, which is so well known as white 

 pine. 



Willows. — In the discussions on forest culture, 

 little is said of the willow, which forms a very in- 

 teresting department. The white willow, Salix 



Candida, is often used for coarse work. S. Vinnu- 

 natis and S. Russelliana, are the most commonly 

 used in the eastern United States, under the name of 

 Osier, or basket willow, and S. Forbyana, a variety 

 of S. rubra, or the red willow is often used for 

 fine work. In the Editor's recent visit to the 

 Northwest a number of fine species were noted 

 which would evidently be worth introducing for 

 basket making purposes. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Russian Mulberry. — We have inquiries about 

 this coming in once in a while, though we have 

 several times told all we know of it. It is a variety 

 of the morus alba, the common white or silk-worm 

 Mulberry, and good enough to grow for silk or 

 timber, but we do not know that it has any special 

 value over any other variety, which are numer- 

 ous in this species. 



Forestry in California. — We are indebted 

 to a Santa Cruz correspondent for much valuable 

 information in regard to forestry in California, of 

 which we shall make good use as opportunity offers. 



The Blue Gum in Florida. — " R. E. P.," 

 Jacksonville, Florida, writes: "I notice in the 

 Monthly for August you say, 'The Blue gum 

 seems at home in Florida,' and add that one at 

 Leesburg is ' twenty feet high, with trunks eighteen 

 inches round, four years from the seed.' That may 

 be so, but I know that the E. globulus winter-kills 

 here. It has been tried here by quite a number of 

 persons, and I do not know of any one living at 

 present." 



[It is just as well that it does not, for from the 

 Editor's examinations in California it is a timber 

 tree of very little value after it has grown. It is a 

 rapid grower — capital where rapid screening is 

 desired — but there are American trees of rapid 

 growth, and of more value when grown.— Ed. 

 G. M.] 



Catalpa speciosa in Arkansas. — "L."says: 

 " I find the Catalpa in this vicinity on Black River, 

 and I have just procured a three-foot log of it for 

 the American Museum of Natural History, New 

 York. There are trees along Black River, in Clay 

 county, Arkansas, fully four feet in diameter, but 

 the growth after the first fifteen or twenty years is 

 very slow. My three-foot specimen— z. c. three 

 feet in diameter — is about 200 years old, by the 

 rings. This holds with dozens of logs examined 

 in the same neighborhood. " 



