ii4 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 421. 



querque. On the alkaline flats near that city it is the com- 

 monest weed. The species extends also to California. It 

 is a semi-aquatic, growing, one to two or more feet tall, 

 bearing few leaves and a close spike of small white flow- 

 ers, with a bract of the same color at the base of each 

 flower, the whole inflorescence being surrounded by an 

 involucre of petal-like white leaves. Its nearest relative 

 here, but a remote one, is the Li/.ard's-tail, Saururus cer- 

 nuus, of our north-eastern states, a plant also found in 

 eastern Texas and westward to the ninety-seventh meridian 



or near it. 

 La Junta, Colo. &• N. Flank. 



Juniperus communis. 



THE common Juniper, the Paria of the European conif- 

 erous trees, grows over wide areas, especially in 

 the north, on barren, gravelly and stony soil, almost 

 unavailable for cultivation. In a great number of varieties, 

 from the dwarfed, procumbent forms of the higher Alps and 

 the extreme north, to the small but handsome trees of the 

 lower plains, this despised but bright and cheerful plant 

 lends a great diversity and beauty to the landscape. In 

 most regions it is associated with purple Heather and 

 cross-leaved Heather, Empetrums growing in immense 

 tufts, and dwarfish Birches gnarled and twisted by high 

 winds and starved into peculiar shapes. The Blueberry, 

 the Cranberry and other ericaceous plants abound in the 

 beautiful glades formed by these ever-varied trees. Under 

 its sharp branches the young seedlings of Birch and Alder 

 find protection against the destruction of browsing cattle, 

 and so to some extent the more valuable trees in a young 

 state are sheltered and guarded from injury. Unlike our 

 Red Cedar, the Common Juniper is of a bright green color, 

 particularly during winter and spring, but there are also 

 more or less silvery or glaucous varieties intermixed, such 

 as the Swedish Juniper, which, after all, is a rather unat- 

 tractive plant. The more common conical, irregularly 

 pyramidal or roundish forms of a bright green color, found 

 all over northern Europe, are, on the other hand, very 

 beautiful. The Juniper woods offer a peculiar irregular 

 and varied aspect. Trees of large size, twenty to thirty 

 feet in height, form the centre of numerous irregular groups 

 around which the younger plants in many different sizes 

 spring up in abundance. There are always wide vistas of 

 Heather and Blueberry, patches of Eagle Ferns, and here 

 and there, under clumps of Birch, Alder and Hagberry 

 (Prunus Padus),many kinds of Ferns and herbaceous plants. 



The Juniper is the advance-guard of the forest. It 

 appears in masses where the forest has been destroyed ; it 

 nurses the young seedlings into trees, and when the shade 

 of other trees in due time becomes too great, it disappears, 

 to spread over more open ground nearby. The wood of 

 the Juniper is hard, whitish and very fragrant. Many use- 

 ful things are made of it, such as tankards and drinking- 

 cans, which are often carved in beautiful and artistic 

 designs, wooden spoons, paper-knives, pails and vessels of 

 many descriptions, and handles for many different utensils. 

 The wood is valuable in many ways, strong and durable, 

 and when burned for fuel gives off a refreshing fragrance. 

 It is often used in gardening for poles and stakes, beautiful 

 and very durable fences for enclosing cottage gardens and 

 many other purposes. The fruit, a berry of bluish color, is 

 gathered and used in the preparations of drinks and liquors, 

 particularly for the flavoring of the non-alcoholic home- 

 brewed ale, so common in Scandinavia, which always 

 stands on the table of the "Shiga" in a can of Juniper 

 wood, ready for the thirsty traveler. 



Because so common, it is not esteemed at its full value 

 as an ornamental tree, but as such it possesses qualities far 

 superior to many of the Arbor Vitoes and Junipers com- 

 monly grown in gardens. Unfortunately, it is not easy to 

 establish, unless raised from the seed or cutting in a nursery 

 and frequently transplanted. Light gravelly, sandy and 

 stony soils, and preferably moist positions, are the best. 

 Here it retains its more pleasing characters — freshness and 



brightness of color. Its most natural, and also most pleas- 

 ing, associates in the garden, as well as in the woodland, 

 are White Birches, Spruces and plants of the Erica family. 



Newark, N. J. N. J. Rose. 



The Dauphin Chestnut. 



CHESTNUT-TREES of stately proportions and dignified 

 expression are of such frequent occurrence through- 

 out the eastern states that mere size does not entitle any 

 one tree to be singled from the many, but there are others, 

 as, for example, the great Chestnut at Dauphin, Pennsyl- 

 vania (see page 115), whose surroundings, as well as their 

 appearance, give them a claim to distinction. Dauphin is 

 a small town on the Susquehanna, directly above the 

 water-gap in Second Mountain, and lies between the 

 river and mountain, with a stream, Stony Creek, running 

 through the town. The most attractive point for the vis- 

 itor is a small and now apparently abandoned farm on a 

 shoulder of the mountain, almost overhanging the river, 

 less than five minutes' walk from the railway-station, and 

 little farther from the town. In what is still rather open 

 ground stands the great Chestnut, six feet in diameter, and 

 of unrivaled dignity, and, although one of its limbs has 

 been blasted by a stroke of lightning, there is no other 

 tree in the vicinity that equals it in impressiveness. The 

 land on which it stands is high enough on the mountain- 

 side to possess forever an unobstructed view of one of the 

 most beautiful reaches of the Susquehanna, which has cut 

 far into the broad lateral valleys and spreads like a lake 

 between the Dauphin water-gap and the next upper 

 one, four miles above. The wild shrubbery growing 

 along Stony Creek includes Ilex opaca, the only place it is 

 found in this region, and on the mountain-sides are famous 

 Laurel thickets, but the charm of the knoll where the Chest- 

 nut stands is in its far-reaching view. 



Places like this shoulder, or promontory, assert the fact 

 that people care less for mere beauty than for many other 

 things. The place is a rest and refreshment, and to the 

 casual visitor suggests itself as an ideal spot for a small 

 park or reservation, and it is only one of thousands equally 

 beautiful scattered through the country that might now, at 

 very slight expense, become places of recreation for each 

 growing town. 



As a general thing, the only places of recreation now to 

 be found in central Pennsylvania, with exceptions, of 

 course (and notably at Reading and Harrisburg), are 

 grounds leased by or belonging to railway and trolley 

 companies. The trolley companies well deserve their 

 dividends, for they have made accessible to the general 

 public many points that were either kept as private 

 grounds, or because of their distance from towns and 

 cities could not be reached by women and children who 

 now visit them daily by thousands in summer. 



Leaving aside the larger centres, there is hardly a town 

 of the type represented by Dauphin that has not close at 

 hand some special point — a spot generally valueless for 

 agriculture — such as this abandoned farm, with its primeval 

 Chestnut. Sometimes it is a waterfall, and these are very 

 rare in central Pennsylvania, or it is a grove of trees, or 

 extensive meadows, or bluffs like Chiques Rock, but there 

 is not a town or village that does not possess one spot 

 worth reserving for public use. 



Fifty years from now, when parks and playgrounds will 

 be as much a feature of ordinary life as the water-supply 

 and police are at present, our present apathy in providing 

 for the helpless members of the community will be incom- 

 prehensible ; but, apart from that provision, perhaps it will 

 also be felt that the most valuable portion of a town or vil- 

 lage is not that possessing the most expensive architecture, 

 but that where some elements of natural beauty may be found. 



Perhaps some time the original meaning of Pennsylvania 

 (from the Welsh "Perm," for headland), the "head wood- 

 lands"* may be recalled, and the most distinctive feature 



* Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania, p. 500. 



