February 19, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



73 



light, and thus striding to increase its height growth, to 

 be the first in stretching out its crown and to be the first in 

 attaining the end of its biological destination to bear seeds. 

 The trees are increasing their height vigorously, the trunks 

 are regular in shape, clear of limbs, straight, and their 

 diameter is not decreased so rapidly in proportion to the 

 height. The forester will maintain the full cover in 

 order to get all the advantages of the serviceable strug- 

 gle among the individuals until they reach their full height. 

 Then he should break the roof cover to give perfect free- 

 dom to the crowns, and to get all the light possible, which 

 will increase the width of the annual ring, and thus the 

 volume of tree. Tree No. 309, 140 years old, and tree No. 

 19, 149 years old, have perfectly free crowns and stand, as 

 the record states, in the open forest. That would be 

 exactly the condition under which they would be placed 

 in a properly managed forest. 



The following are the measurements of these trees : 



No 



Age. 



Diam. 



Hei) 

 Tree. 



;ht. 

 Log. 



Voli 

 Tree. 



me. 

 Log. 



Accre 

 Average 

 Annual. 



ion. 

 Current. 



3H 



3°9 



'9 



53 

 149 

 160 



12.5 



25-5 



25-5 



60 

 I02 

 I 1 I 



35 

 86 



83 



19.96 

 142. 18 

 176.96 



1784 



HI- 13 

 170.23 



0.37 

 O.99 

 I I I 



O.42 

 2 40 

 2.12 



Comparing these figures with those given in the table it 

 will be seen that while Long-leaf Pine, under its present 

 conditions, is not of much value when it is fifty years old, 

 producing only four cubic feet in a log twenty-four feet 

 long and eight inches in diameter ; the same Pine, properly 

 situated, would produce four times as much in a log thirty - 

 five feet long with twelve and one-half inches in diameter. 

 Not only would it grow well, giving an average annual 

 accretion of 0.37, instead of 0.21 cubic feet, but it also 

 promises to be thrifty in the future, for the current accre- 

 tion is o 42 instead of 0.37. The difference in the rate of 

 growth will be more appreciated when compared at the 

 age of 140 to 160 years. While a tree in a dense forest 

 forms a log of 67 to 82 cubic feet, in the open forest the 

 tree produces 148 to 177 cubic feet in a log of a larger size ; 

 while the 140-year-old tree, with deficiency of light, 

 increases its volume for the next twenty years 16 cubic 

 feet ; the same tree with plenty of light in eleven years 

 gives an increase of 36 to 37 cubic feet. This shows plainly 

 that Long-leaf Pine in its rate of growth is very sensitive to 

 light conditions. That Long-leaf Pine is a light-needing 

 species may be also shown by the measurements of trees 

 growing under shade and cover of neighboring trees. In 

 the tree records there are such trees noted 70 to 120 years 

 old with a total volume not exceeding 4 to 8 cubic feet. 



It is left to the reader to draw his own conclusions as to 

 what would be the profit to the southern states should the 

 Long-leaf Pine be placed under forestry management in that 

 section. , 



Washington, d. c. A. A. Mlodziansky . 



A Botanical Journey in Texas. — 11. 



CONTINUING our journey up the Rio Grande, late in the 

 afternoon we reached Shumla, a railway station 

 about three miles beyond the Pecos River, but much nearer 

 the Rio Grande. Early in the morning of the next day, 

 equipped for a botanical ramble, I visited the Pecos River, 

 a long stream extending from its junction with the Rio 

 Grande through Texas and nearly across New Mexico. In 

 years of rain it is a large stream. The railway bridge across 

 the river at this point is a marvel of engineering science, 

 being the highest bridge in North America. Its extreme 

 length is twenty-one hundred and eighty feet, and it is 

 three hundred and twenty-one feet high. The river here is 

 very narrow, as is the bottom of the canon through which 

 it flows, and the bridge practically spans the entire valley. 

 The extreme height of the bridge is so great that it appears 

 too light and airy to support even its own weight, much 



less the weight of the heavily loaded trains that cross it. 

 A narrow winding path leads down the left bank of the 

 canon to the river, and it is only when the visitor reaches 

 the bottom of the canon that he realizes the great height 

 and magnitude of the bridge. 



The vicinity of Shumla proved a good locality for botan- 

 izing. The bluffs adjoining the Pecos are, perhaps, as 

 much as any portion of western Texas, a favorite haunt of 

 the Resurrection Plant, Bird's Nest, or, as Mexicans call it, 

 Siempre vive, the Selaginella lepidophylla of botanists. 

 Individual plants everywhere on the bluffs crowd their 

 neighbors and car-loads of them could now be gathered, 

 and, perhaps, have been gathered here. This species is 

 remarkable for the plan that it has devised tosa\e itself 

 from dying of thirst. Its broad laciniate leaves, which in 

 wet times are completely spread and prostrate, as dry 

 weather comes on coil themselves so tightly that their 

 upper faces remain fresh and green, while their lower faces 

 become faded and dry, giving to the plant the appearance 

 of a rounded dead mass of vegetation, something like a 

 small bird's nest. The plant is not dead, but sleeping, 

 and when the rains come, or when immersed in water, it 

 quickly revives and opens its green surfaces to air and sun. 

 The plant roots deeply in the crevices of rocks, so that it 

 requires the use of a trowel, or several vigorous kicks from 

 a stout shoe, to loosen its hold. 



Sotol, Dasylirion Texanum, the great native forage plant 

 of this region, is common on the high mesas and mountain 

 sides. It becomes five to eight or more feet tall, with two 

 or three feet of the upper portion of its stems covered with 

 greenish liliaceous flowers. Domestic animals could hardly 

 subsist here without this provision for their wants by 

 nature. They eat, in the winter, the cabbage-like head 

 which this plant forms in the late summer to protect the 

 growth and inflorescence of the coming year. Agave hete- 

 racantha, the Lechuguilla of Mexicans, is common from 

 Devil River to New Mexico. Its thick and radical 

 leaves are serrated with ugly curved spines. There are 

 several species of Agave growing in western Texas and in 

 New Mexico, more species, probably, than have been 

 allowed. They differ principally in the arrangement and 

 color of their flowers and in the size and form of their 

 fruits. There appear to be two species with bright yellow 

 flowers. The genus needs a thorough revision by a mas- 

 ter workman, but only after a year or more of careful col- 

 lection and study of the species as found in Texas, Mexico 

 and New Mexico. The common Century Plant grows nat- 

 urally in the lower Rio Grande region of Texas, though I 

 have never seen it credited to that state. 



The most conspicuous and, perhaps, the most remark- 

 able shrub growing upon the mesas of western Texas is 

 St. Jacob's Staff, Candle Wood, Ocotillo, Fouquieria splen- 

 dens. It is a tall shrub, more nearly related to Tamari.x 

 Gallica than to any other native or naturalized shrub of 

 Texas. It usually branches from the base or near it. The 

 stems are strict and thickly armed from the base to the 

 summit with pairs of strong spines, from whose axils fas- 

 cicles of thick roundish leaves proceed. The structure of 

 the stems is largely cellular, but the outer portion of thorn 

 is woody, dense and hard. The bases of the spines appear 

 to arise in the cellular part, leaving the wood full of holes 

 in their decay, apparently upon the plan on which Opuntia 

 frutescens forms its wood. The bright scarlet flowers are 

 borne in long terminal racemes. When in full blooom it 

 is certainly one of the most attractive of Texas shrubs. 

 Though I have seen thousands of individuals of the species, 

 yet none of them were "almost leafless,' - :ls we are told 

 that all of them are. Perhaps they may become so later 

 in the season. Mexicans use the stems of this shrub for 

 fence palings. They sometimes grow and make a living 

 fence. The species is common from Devil River to 

 Mexico. 



It may be said in commendation of the plants of this arid 

 region of the country that they appear to have carefully 

 studied the conditions under which they live, and have well 



