412 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 451. 



Now, public officials and the executive officers of great 

 corporations will pay heed to the claims of art in their con- 

 structions as soon as the people demand it. That no such 

 demand is made, however, is hardly a proof that the 

 aesthetic sense is lacking in America, for there is abundant 

 evidence that our people appreciate good work when they 

 see it, and our architects, painters and sculptors have 

 proved that they have ideas and can express them. The 

 trouble is, we have lived so long in a society which utterly 

 ignores art in its public works that the people, as a rule, do 

 not know that thereis any other way of doing things. Never- 

 theless, if the looked-for improvement is to come soon, the en- 

 gineer must not wait to be driven by an educated public sen- 

 timent. He is a creator. He must take the lead, and what 

 he does must be the result of a trained taste and a thorough 

 instruction in the principles of aesthetic design. If Professor 

 Marvin is correct in his statement that none of our technical 

 schools offer a training of this kind to the young engineer 

 it is high t ; me that this defect was remedied An architect 

 is considered quite uneducated if he has not been schooled 

 in the rules of art and cannot apply these principles to his 

 work. There is no reason why the engineer should not 

 recognize the claims of art, should not love what is beauti- 

 ful, and should not do his work artistically. He comes close 

 to our lives in a hundred ways at home, in our business, 

 in our pleasure. He should direct and refine public taste, 

 and not lag behind it in this movement toward a higher 

 level. 



The second growth of timber upon stump lands is being 

 investigated by the University of Minnesota, and the results 

 are to be published in a bulletin. Minnesota being the last 

 state in which White Pine is found in considerable quanti- 

 ties, it is the best available field for such a study, and it is 

 well that the work is begun before it is altogether too late. 

 It is much to be regretted that this study was not taken up 

 by the older states and in time to make plain the utility of 

 protecting the forests against fires from the beginning. 



That American forests may be restocked as they are in 

 Europe by logging in such a manner as to provide with 

 certainty the necessary conditions for a second growth 

 there can be no doubt; but how far nature can be ex- 

 pected to restore forest growth under the methods of 

 lumbering now practiced, is quite another question, and 

 its answer will be awaited with interest. This work we 

 allude to has been placed in charge of Samuel B. Greene, 

 Professor of Horticulture and Forestry in the University, 

 with Mr. H. B. Avres in the field. 



Cedrus Atlantica. 



A FEW months ago a view of a forest of the Mount 

 Atlas Cedar, in Algeria, was published in this journal 

 (vol. viii., p. 355), and our illustration on page 417 of this 

 issue shows in greater detail the trunk of two venerable 

 wind-swept Algerian Cedars. It is made from a photo- 

 graph taken last year by our correspondent, Monsieur 

 Maurice L. de Vilmorin, of Paris, to whose courtesy we 

 are indebted for the privilege of reproducing it. 



T 



Early Autumn in the Pines. 



HE Pines are gorgeous with color now as the leaves 

 ripen, with no frost to mar or blacken them. The 

 Sassafras is among the first to show the deep dyes of scar- 

 let and crimson. Earlier in the season, while the leaves 

 were deep green, clusters of dark blue fruit, supported by 

 fleshy red pedicels, made it one of the most attractive trees 

 in the woods or in the garden. It becomes a good-sized, 

 shapely tree, and is handsome and fragrant the entire year, 

 and it is quite free from insect depredators. The only 

 difficulty we have to encounter in its cultivation is its lia- 

 bility.^! sucker, but with a little oversight it is easily kept 

 under subjeaSjon. The Sumachs, of which we have several 

 species, are pll aglow, of course. Rhus copallina, the dwarf 



Sumach, shows bronze-purple leaves surmounted with large 

 panicles of crimson fruit, while R. typhina, the Staghorn 

 Sumach, has bright scarlet leaves and yellow downy stems, 

 with crimson fruit ; like the Sassafras, this plant, too, suck- 

 ers badly in cultivation. The Poison Sumach, R. venenata, 

 is handsome in the distance, with whitish fruit hanging in 

 slender, drooping clusters beneath the rich color of its 

 leaves. 



The Sweet Gum, or Liquidambar, is resplendent with 

 varying shades of color. Some of the trees have bronze- 

 purple or rich chocolate-colored leaves, others take on deep 

 crimson and scarlet hues, while still others are as yellow as 

 the Hickories, and each tree has its individual character so 

 far as autumn color is concerned, which it maintains year 

 after year. The round seed-pods sway on slender pedicels 

 from the corky-ridged branchlets, and, taken altogether, it 

 is one of our most interesting and beautiful trees at all sea- 

 sons. The Sour Gum. or Tupelo, is also a handsome tree, 

 almost uniformly with bright scarlet or crimson leaves, and 

 it holds its bluish, sour fruit daintily on the ends of the 

 twigs. The Swamp Maple, with red twigs and bright crim- 

 son leaves, is a conspicuous feature in all the damp places, 

 while the soft or White Maple is one of our least attractive 

 trees. Its branches break easily in a strong wind and for 

 several years past the leaves have been attacked by a fun- 

 gus causing them to mature prematurely and fall early. 

 The Oaks are still mostly a bright green color, only here 

 and there are the leaves tipped with scarlet and crimson. 



The Fringe-tree, Chionanthus, has been unusually hand- 

 some this season ; all summer, beneath the large glossy, 

 leaves, the abundant fruit has hung in graceful, drooping 

 panicles, which have looked like small green-olives ; until 

 about a month past they have been deep purple, covered 

 with a soft bloom. The Flowering Dogwood, Cornus 

 llorida, is very showy now with clusters of bright red fruit, 

 and two species of Viburnum are scarcely less so, one with 

 flat-topped cymes of dull red fruit, the other with abun- 

 dant purple fruit. Many other shrubs and vines are full of 

 fruit, which, with a li t tie judicious handling, would make 

 an autumnal garden more brilliant than the flowers of 

 summer. The Holly, with its attractive foliage and deep 

 red berries, remains all winter, as does the abundant scarlet 

 fruit of Ilex verticillata and I. laevigata. The shining black 

 fruit of the Inkberry, together with its evergreen foliage, 

 gives it a place among the shrubs that are ornamental in 

 winter, and the Bayberry, with gray lruit and partially per- 

 sistent leaves, belongs in the same company. The Ground- 

 sel-tree, Baccharis halimifolia, is now decorated with pure 

 white silky pappus, which remains a long time, and fairly 

 covering it, but the contrast is a'most too sharp with the 

 brilliant color of other shrubs which surround it. 



The more humble autumn flowers must not be over- 

 looked in all this wealth of color in trees and shrubs. 

 Great stretches of purple and gold meet the eye as it 

 turns from the dense woods to the countless array of 

 Golden-rod and Sunflowers, and Golden Asters (Chrysopsis 

 Marianna and C. falcata), together with hosts of the finest 

 species of Asters in the country. Among these are Aster 

 Novae-Angliae in varying shades of deep purple to rose, the 

 showy A. spectabilis and the stately A. puniceus. A. 

 nemoralis and A. concolor are also handsome, and many 

 more show occasional forms well worthy of cultivation. 



But, after all, no garden looks more attractive than some 

 of the groups here of Nature's own making, although, if we 

 are wise observers, we may find hints for arranging forms 

 and color so as to produce rich effects. For example, here 

 is a dense background of Cedars along a sluggish stream 

 with lower deciduous trees in front, the mass of foliage 

 sloping downward gradually until it mingles with the 

 dwarf Huckleberry and other shrubs of the Heath family 

 only a foot or two in height. Imagine this belt of varying 

 width, but always several rods across, and extending in a 

 sinuous unbroken line along the water-course, and you have 

 in autumn a picture of singular effectiveness. 



Vindand, n.j. Mary Treat. 



