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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



feature of this idea is its comparative inexpensiveness. 

 The value of a single city tree is variously estimated in 

 sums ranging into the hundreds of dollars. Let us say 

 that the average value of an urban tree is fifty dollars 

 and the cost of the label is twenty-five cents. Is not 

 the value of that tree increased far more than the fraction 

 of its value represented by the financial investment in 

 the label ? 



We hear much lately of university extension educa- 

 tion. We learn of the extending of education into the 

 shop, on the farm and to the factory. Here seems to 

 be long-neglected opportunity for an inexpensive form 

 of extension education which should touch the large 

 masses of the people from the poorest to the wealthiest, 

 for the streets are used by all. So far as the writer has 

 been able to ascertain, not a single large city in America 

 has adopted the idea of labeling its trees. 



One day a year, Arbor Day, has now been set aside for 

 the purpose of planting trees ; why cannot this idea be 

 further extended by increasing the value of the planted 

 trees with appropriate labels? There are many localities 

 where sufficient plantings have already been made ; it 

 is suggested that Arbor Day be celebrated in such places 

 by labeling the trees which have already been planted 

 and thereby materially increase their value to the com- 

 munity. A widespread public interest in trees will do 

 much toward the proper planting of many of the fre- 



quently traveled rural highways whose beauties would 

 be so greatly enhanced by the addition of bordering lanes 

 of beautiful shade trees. 



The labeling need not be restricted to trees ; many 

 cities and towns are richly provided with public squares 

 and parks well planted with handsome shrubs. Surely 

 the value of these plants will be greatly increased if labels 

 bearing their names are placed upon their branches. 

 Perhaps the best method of attempting such an under- 

 taking is by means of municipal appropriations; and the 

 actual work supervised by either the city forester, the 

 park commission or any similar body whose duty it is 

 to care for and protect the city's plants. 



It is suggested that the data contained upon the label 

 should include at least three things, namely, the common 

 name, scientific name and place of nativity of the labeled 

 plant. Such labels should be neat and durable ; they may 

 be either the expensive enameled kind or else a well- 

 designed sheet zinc type. 



As an inexpensive means of increasing civic pride and 

 increasing popular knowledge concerning plants, the 

 labeling of our city trees presents an apparently long- 

 neglected opportunity which should soon be taken ad- 

 vantage of. 



It has been said that he who plants a tree is greater 

 than he who takes a city. Might this not be changed so 

 as to include the one who labels a tree? 



WINTER GREENERY 



BY BESSIE L. PUTNAM 



CTRANGE how the majority of people take it for 

 k -' granted that there is nothing worth looking for in 

 the woods in winter! Of course, if they only looked, 

 they would find beautiful things in abundance, with 

 plenty of woodland greenery when the snows permit it 

 to be seen. And this applies out of the mountain dis- 

 tricts where the laurel and rhododendron dominate ; out 

 of the zone of pines and hemlocks. 



In the deciduous woods we shall have to look down to 

 the ground perhaps, but in many places the Christmas 

 fern is found in abundance, rivaling the Boston fern of 

 the greenhouse in outline and verdure, if not in the 

 length of the fronds. This species, Aspidium achrosti- 

 choides, thrives well in cultivation if given a partially 

 shaded location, and is certainly a valuable acquisi- 

 tion. 



The partridge berry, Mitchella repens, abounds in many 

 places, its bright scarlet berries being most conspicuous 

 unless the grouse has been ahead of you and captured 

 them for dessert. Gray says that one may expect an 

 albino in almost any form of vegetation, but expresses 

 surprise as well as delight upon receipt of a white form 

 of this berry. It seems almost unbelievable, and yet, we 

 have white blackberries, despite the incongruity in 

 nomenclature! A pleasing experiment is to place a few 

 of the vines before the fire, where the heat will not quite 

 burn them, and note how as the air expands between the 

 two layers of each leaf, they swell up like miniature 

 puffballs. The most interesting feature in this berry is the 



two eyes, mark of its origin from a twin flower. 



Several of the orchids present interesting phases of 

 life, even in winter, the most noticeable being Goodyera 

 pubescens, with its numerous rosettes of white-veined 

 leaves hugging the ground. The network of veins with 

 which they are covered would lead the uninitiated to 

 insist that this can be no orchid, since it is in the class of 

 parallel-veined plants. But a glance at the lower side 

 of the leaf at once discloses the delusion. 



Then there is the Putty-Root, Aplectrum Hyemale, with 

 green and white leaves, glistening, and very much fresher 

 in appearance than we shall ever see them again. Our 

 foremothers found in the mucilagenous corms a satis- 

 factory source for mending broken china, hence the 

 popular name. The corms live two or three years, con- 

 sequently that of last year is attached by a string liga- 

 ment to the new bulb, and the name Adam and Eve is 

 thus apparent. 



Delicate ferns may still be found green in sheltered 

 places, their fronds with a deeper coloring because of 

 the moisture in air and ground. A stray dandelion, the 

 flower of all seasons, may be looked for in open pastures 

 during the winter thaw. With the February breaking of 

 ice, the strudy Skunk Cabbage sends up its purplish caps, 

 the odor as well as the color being suited to the carion 

 loving fly. But do not pass it in contempt. It is not a 

 vile plant, despite its odor; and the way in which the 

 central spadix is covered with a mosaic floral design in 

 creamy white is well worth closer examination. 



