338 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 443. 



250 feet in diameter, and is almost circular, with a detached 

 group about 150 feet away, covering an area some twenty-five 

 feet square. A thorough search of the vicinity, including the 

 damp, mossy, wooded margins of the swamp, where the 

 Kalmia produces seedlings freely, revealed not a single seed- 

 ling plant of this Rhododendron. 



The only apparent means of perpetuation and increase 

 seemed to be by natural layering. In fact, it is quite impossi- 

 ble to pick out an independent specimen from the group, as 

 the multitude of overlapping branches, heavy with most luxu- 

 riant leaves, force one another to the ground, where they take 

 root, and the vigor of the new root-system establishes in each 

 case an almost independent plant, while remaining part of the 

 great system of layers. This network of layers, forming the 

 great group, has become a thick and impenetrable mass of 

 stems and heavy foliage, reaching in places to a height of ten 

 or fifteen feet and hugging the ground at the margins. A 

 study of the mass would lead one to infer that this species of 

 Rhododendron, at least, will thrive luxuriantly in a soil made 

 up entirely of vegetable mold, provided a certain degree of 

 moisture can be maintained ; also that it finds a most conge- 

 nial home under the shade of tall trees, where the sunlight 

 finds its way through the leaves but sparingly. 



The preservation of this interesting group should be assured 

 in some way, either by purchase or by the enactment of laws, 

 to protect the plants from the depredations of visitors, who 

 come in increasing numbers each year, I am told, breaking 

 them down and taking away by the wagon-load not only the 

 flowers, but often masses of roots and branch. 



New Haven, Conn. -^- ** . Loe. 



Church Bouquets. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The floral baseballs that in many places appear for 

 bouquets are, perhaps, never so distressing as when seen in 

 churches. To sit for an hour before the imprisoned flowers, 

 cruelly crowded into a space only large enough for half a 

 dozen, and with no spray or leaf to veil their misery, is a mis- 

 fortune of itself, and it is intensified by the frightful combina- 

 tions of color too often used. Simple combinations, good in 

 design and coloring, of the material at hand from week to 

 week throughout the season, would make a series of object- 

 lessons that surely might fitly accompany the sermons in 

 many a country, village or suburban church. 



I have taken great pleasure in supplying bouquets for a 

 church of this village lately, and the attention they have 

 attracted, as well as the favorable comments heard, seems to 

 prove that this is an opening for unobtrusive yet effective 

 floral missionary work. I have not used imported hot-house 

 flowers, nor anything strange or unusual, although sorely 

 tempted to do so once or twice by delightful gifts of Orchids 

 from more sophisticated regions, but merely the every-day 

 material available in gardens or wildwood. 



The examples have included such simple arrangements as a 

 glass rose bowl filled with Nasturtiums in variety, with buds 

 and leaves ; jars of the branches of wild Crab Apple, culti- 

 vated Cherry and Apple blossoms, and once (a delightful find) 

 of English Hawthorn, the branches mingled with delicate 

 sprays of Bridal Wreath. These were all disposed openly in 

 jars or vases of harmonious tints— clear glass seeming always 

 a safe choice. 



Necessity often led to combinations, and the first and most 

 refined of all seemed at first glance most difficult to treat. In 

 a slender white and light green Japanese vase ten inches high 

 I placed, perhaps, two dozen May-apple blossoms (Podophyl- 

 lum) on their full-length stems, removing the green umbrella- 

 like leaves from all but about five or six, and below them an 

 encircling, but not overcrowding mass of Maiden-hair Ferns. 

 Another Sunday a crystal rose bowl held a loose bunch of 

 nodding Bluebells with their own foliage, some of the flowers 

 being as pink as the buds, and others flesh-colored, or nearly 

 white. An extremely decorative bouquet was made of splen- 

 did pink Pajonies of immense size, veiled in the "smoke" of 

 the Purple-fringe tree. This was for a special occasion, and 

 was very large. A receptacle was constructed to suit it by prop- 

 ping an ordinary glass fruit-jar in an olive-green, horizontally 

 ribbed jardin ; ere seven and a quarter inches high and seven 

 and a lulf across at the top, slightly larger below. With clear 

 rose-pink Pseonies the combination is magical if the flowers are 

 judiciously distributed among the feathery heads and massed 

 more closely toward the base of the bunch. 



A highly glazed vase nine inches high and seven and a half 

 inches in diameter in the largest part, fluted vertically into 

 melon-shaped divisions and shading in color from yellow- 



green at the base through greenish yellow, and reddish yellow 

 to deep yellow-red at the neck, was made to serve for a good 

 many bouquets despite its odd coloring. Nearly anything 

 looks well in it except pink, rose, crimson or magenta flowers. 

 Quite a family of bouquets that appeared from time to time in 

 this vase were based on red, yellow-red, yellow and white 

 Zinnias mingled with Gladioli of harmonious hues, with their 

 own leaves, and the different small-flowered white Clematises, 

 Cinnamon-vine, useful and delightful for bouquets and house 

 decoration generally, and, still later in the season, with trailsof 

 Hop-vines. The gracefully drooping clusters of hops seem to 

 lend themselves to such work in the most obliging fashion. 

 This combination was varied by the use of perennial Sun- 

 flowers, certain red, yellow and white Dahlias, white Speciosum 

 Lilies, etc., as opportunity offered, and occasionally a spike of 

 Water Hyacinth was set against a background of scarlet just 

 above the dark red of the vase, which carried out the color 

 scheme by showing through its drooping drapery. For a fea- 

 ture of all of these bouquets was the use of the fine white flowers 

 of the vines among the stiffer ones to give softness, and long 

 branches trailing from the vase, as it stood on a small table, 

 quite to the floor inside the altar-rail. Big bunches of Golden- 

 rod and Asters looked wonderfully well in it, and nothing that 

 went to church in the green-yellow-red jar attracted, nor de- 

 served, more attention than some branches of pure yellow 

 leaves from a Hard Maple relieved by the first spray of the 

 scarlet, green, red and yellow foliage of the soft Maples that in 

 certain favorable seasons transform some of our common- 

 place village streets into long aisles of shimmering cathedral 

 colors. 

 Brighton, ill. Fanny Copley Seavey. 



The Forest. 



The Burma Teak Forests. — III. 



GIRDLING OF TEAK. 



T T will now be necessary to explain that a Teak-tree before it can 

 *■ be cut must first be killed by girdling it. The only practi- 

 cable method of bringing the Teak timber of Burma to mar- 

 ket is by floating it. To the water's edge the logs are dragged 

 by oxen, by buffaloes and by elephants. The dragging is done 

 during the rains and the early part of the dry season, when the 

 ground is moist and slippery, so that heavy timber glides easier. 

 Down the smaller streams the logs are floated singly during 

 the rains, and when they reach the main stream they are col- 

 lected and formed into rafts. Teak timber has about the 

 weight of Oak or Chestnut ; unlike the wood of Pines and other 

 coniferous trees, it does not float unless it is perfectly dry, and 

 from time immemorial this has in Burma been effected by 

 girdling the trees. A broad circular cut is made through bark 

 and sap-wood right into the dark brown heart- wood, which, when 

 first cut, has a beautiful golden yellowish brown color. In 

 Teak, as in all trees with a distinctly marked heart-wood, the 

 sap ascends through the sap-wood only ; hence, if the com- 

 munication of the sap-wood below and above (he girdle is 

 interrupted, the tree is killed. Within two or three days the 

 leaves wither and the tree dies. But if the smallest thread of 

 sap-wood is left the tree continues to live. Timber well girdled 

 dries completely and seasons evenly, for it is on all sides freely 

 exposed to sun and wind. Smaller trees dry sufficiently if left 

 standing after girdling for one or two years ; larger trees must 

 stand longer. When a Teak-tree is felled green that side of 

 the trunk which is in contact with the ground takes a long time 

 to dry, the timber seasons unevenly, it is less useful and less 

 durable, and when thrown into the water it does not float 

 readily. 



This excellent practice, as a matter of course, I maintained, 

 but one of the many battles I had to fight during my Indian 

 career was against those who condemned this practice as use- 

 less, as barbarous, as injurious to the timber, and likely to 

 damage the reputation of Burma Teak, while others described 

 girdling as the outcome of German theories. In reality it was 

 an old Burmese practice, to which the good reputation of 

 Burma Teak was mainly due. 



annual yield fixed. 

 The next question which presented itself to me after my first 

 tour through the forests in 1856 was, what proportion of the 

 first-class trees might be cut annually in the different forest 

 districts. Although the proportion of first and second class 

 trees had been found to vary much in different localities, yet, 

 upon the whole, I considered myself justified in assuming that 

 there were as many trees of the second class in the forests as 

 of the first class ; further, that the younger trees, those of the 



