358 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 445. 



pristine beauty of our scenery, and some of the best influences 

 of Nature, so constantly threatened in various ways by " prog- 

 ress and civilization," might be preserved. 



Nuenden, Germany. G. F. Schwarz. 



The Massing of Wild Flowers. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Public parks and extensive private grounds have more 

 to do in moulding public opinion in horticultural matters than 

 all the learned works of floriculturists or landscape-gardeners. 

 Theirs is an illustration that he who runs may read. Their 

 mistakes and their successes are patterned after on every 

 hand. Because of this it is a pleasure to note that those with 

 roomy grounds are beginning to look to our native shrubs, 

 vines and flowers for a part of their planting. 



As yet there is one fault to be found with nearly all of these 

 trials. They rarely show the breadth and plenitude of Nature 

 at her best. There is a narrowness of scope, a paucity of 

 effect, the more noticeable that it is in direct conflict with the 

 teachings of Nature. It is true that around our villages and in 

 long-settled portions ot our country desirable native plants are 

 scattered, and found mostly as single specimens. How could 

 it be otherwise when efforts to exterminate them have been 

 going on for years unchecked ? But away from the homes of 

 men and the haunts of cattle the scene is changed. Dame 

 Nature scorns the puny achievements of the modern gar- 

 dener. Look over the unbroken expanse of a wild prairie in 

 June and July, and you will see acres upon acres, one vast sea 

 of flowers. I have myself seen on a western plain hundreds 

 of acres, one waving sea of Phlox in billows of white, mauve, 

 pink and crimson, dashed with the flame of thousands of wild 

 red Lilies. The finest park can show nothing as grand or as 

 impressive. 



While such a display of this is beyond the power of man to 

 obtain, there are numberless other examples of Nature's uses 

 of wild flowers that may readily be adapted to extensive 

 pleasure-grounds. A low strip of ground, perhaps a quarter 

 of an acre, completely carpeted with sky-blue Houstonia 

 ccerulea, is one such object-lesson ; a tiny rivulet flowing 

 between banks thickly fringed with Lobelia cardinalis and L. 

 syphilitica in vivid spikes of scarlet and blue, is another, and 

 a solid mass of Cypripedium spectabile filling a little wooded 

 dell with rank, lush growth, a hundred of its royal banner-like 

 blooms in flower at one time, is yet another example of 

 Nature's lavish massing. 



It is not a difficult matter to secure these wild-flower carpet- 

 ings. First choose a judicious location and favorable soil, 

 then dot here and there plants such as you wish to occupy the 

 ground. Let them seed and spread after their own fashion, 

 and in a few years they will have taken complete possession 

 of the plot. Here at Oak Lawn we have found, to our cost, 

 that some wild flowers will not only fulfill this mission of car- 

 pet-bedding, but will invade the regular precincts of the formal 

 flower garden if not persistently weeded out. Conoclinium 

 coelestinum and Verbena aubletia are especial nuisances, the 

 wind taking their light seeds and carrying them here, there 

 and everywhere. Sabbatias, native Irises, Agaves, Phloxes, 

 Violets and Dodecatheons are more satisfactory, forming well- 

 defined clumps or masses, butnotspreading bevond bounds. 



Pineville, Mo. Lora S. La Mance. 



Notes from Germantown, Pennsylvania. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Few shrubs make a handsomer display in late August 

 than the chaste tree Vitex Agnus-castus. There are three 

 varieties with white, blue and lilac-purple flowers, respectively, 

 borne on spikes about six inches long, produced on the ends 

 of shoots of the present season's growth. The scarcity of 

 shrubs with blue flowers makes the variety of this color most 

 desirable, perhaps. This shrub gets partly winter-killed with 

 us, but this does not hurt it in the slightest. On the contrary, 

 the shoots seem to start more vigorously from the base and 

 give finer flowers than they otherwise would. Where it does 

 not partly winter-kill it would be best to prune it back well in 

 spring, as is done with Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora. 

 There is a species from northern China, Vitex incisa, which is 

 said to be hardy in New England. 



The pink cones on many Magnolias are both interesting and 

 beautiful at this season of the year. M. tripetala makes the 

 best display of any species, the pods being of good size and 

 rosy pink in color. The Japanese M. hypoleuca has larger 

 pods, being six inches in length on small trees, hut the color 

 is not as bright as those on our native tree. Magnolias are 



worth planting for the beauty of their fruit alone, for certainly 

 at this season of the year no trees are more ornamental than 

 these. 



The Crape Myrtle, Lagerstrcemia Indica, though its tops get 

 winter-killed here in severe winters while the plant is young, 

 is able to withstand the cold when well established. The 

 common pink one is now in bloom about Germantown, and 

 the specimens draw the attention of every passer-by. The 

 varieties with white and with crimson flowers seem quite as 

 hardv. 



Germantown, Pa. Joseph Meehan. 



The Forest. 



The Burma Teak Forests. — V. 



REVENUE DERIVED FROM OTHER KINDS OF TIMBER. 



'"THE removal of these obstructions placed at my disposal a 

 *■ large extent of good Teak localities that had never been 

 touched by the axe of the lumberman, and fortunately the exist- 

 ence of this wealth of growing timber was unknown to my 

 friends, the merchants of Rangoon. 



It has already been stated that up to 187980 nearly the whole 

 surplus revenue was derived from the sale of Teak timber. In 

 i860, however, as soon as the financial success of forest admin- 

 istration in these provinces had been secured, large quantities 

 of other woods, not teak, sound, carefully selected pieces of 

 those kinds which were likely to prove useful, were brought 

 down from the forests to Rangoon. At the monthly sales 

 these timbers were sold at the Government timber depot with 

 the view of bringing other kinds of timber to public notice. 

 At that time these operations yielded no profit, nor was this 

 anticipated. They cost a good deal of money, but the object 

 I had in view was attained. A demand gradually sprang up 

 for several kinds, and among others one kind, Pentace Bur- 

 manica, a Tiliaceous tree, formerly quite unknown to trade, 

 was discovered to be useful tor tea boxes and furniture. After 

 I had left Burma in 1862 these operations were discontinued 

 for some time; they were, however, afterward resumed and 

 yielded a small surplus of 30,000 rupees a year on an average 

 during the three years ending with 1878-9. 



As population increased in Burma, and as cultivation ex- 

 tended, the trade in other kinds of timber and bamboos 

 increased considerably. Outside the demarcated reserves the 

 cutting of other trees, not Teak, is and always has been free 

 for the extension of cultivation as well as for the domestic and 

 agricultural requirements of the people residing within a cer- 

 tain distance, usually five miles from the forests. Timber 

 and bamboos exported for trade, or used for the manufacture 

 of cutch (the extract of the heart-wood of Acacia Catechu, an 

 excellent material for tanning), are paid for at fixed rates. From 

 the demarcated reserves bamboos and timber of other kinds 

 are exported under special arrangements. But, as already 

 mentioned, the total revenue derived from bamboos and 

 woodsof other kinds forms a small proportion only of the total 

 surplus forest revenue. 



YIELD OF TIMBER AND REVENUE. 



The result of working the forests of lower Burma, under 

 the system commenced in 1856, will be better understood by a 

 glance at the following figures, exhibiting for five unequal 

 periods, during the thirty-eight years from 1856 to 1893, the 

 number of trees girdled, the timber extracted from the forests 

 and the net revenue realized. In 1886 the kingdom of upper 

 Burma was annexed to the British Indian Empire. The present 

 figures relate to lower Burma only, that is to those provinces 

 which in 1856 were known as Pegu, Martaban and Tenasserim, 

 and which, with Arakan, were until 1886 known under the 

 designation of British Burma : 



Timber extracted Annual net 



annually. revenue. 



1 ton = 50 cub. ft. Rupees. 



25,200 208,000 



45.4CO 542,900 



18,700 945,000 



Trees girdled 

 Periods. annually. 



12 years, '56— '57 to '67-68, 24.300 

 11 " '6S-'69 " '78-'79, 7.900 



10 " '79-'8o " '88-'89, iS.ooo 



5 " 'Sg-'go " '93- - 94, 20,300 6S,ooo 1,870,000 



The system of girdling the trees several years before they 

 are cut has this effect, that the girdled timber constitutes, as it 

 were, a store which is drawn upon gradually at the conveni- 

 ence of the persons employed in extracting the timber. Thus, 

 a large proportion of the timber girdled during the first period 

 of twelve years was not brought to market until many years 

 later, and served to swell the out-turn of the second period. 

 Again, the diminished girdlings during the second period took 

 effect in diminishing the timber extracted during the third 



