October 21, li 



Garden and Forest. 



423 



Reforesting Waste Lands in Holland. 



THERE is a society in Holland called the Nederlan- 

 dische Heide Maatschapij, with objects similar to 

 those of the New Jersey Forestry Association, with an 

 official bi-monthly organ. It is encouraging to those inter- 

 ested in similar societies in America to know that the Heide 

 Maatschapij and the similar society in Denmark, after which 

 it was modeled, have been successful in many respects. 

 It is also gratifying to learn that even in Europe a great 

 deal of what has been accomplished is due to societies 

 similar to the state associations of the United States. The 

 objects of the Holland society are to promote the exploita- 

 tion of the dunes, heaths and other desert places, to give 

 advice, form nurseries, and sell trees at cost price, to edu- 

 cate the people in the principles of forestry by distributing 

 literature and by delivering lectures and to encourage the 

 Government to improve the waste land which it owns. It 

 has a membership of two thousand. Every member pays 

 two gulden annually, but there are many honorary mem- 

 bers and patrons who pay much larger sums for its sup- 

 port. This association has already accomplished a great 

 deal. It has induced the Government to continue the work 

 of foresting the dunes, for which twenty thousand gulden 

 have been already appropriated for experimental purposes, 

 and the work is under the direction of the society, and two 

 nurseries have been formed in which many seedlings for 

 dune planting are grown. This association has induced 

 individuals to improve their waste lands, and contemplates 

 buying and improving heath land for example sake. The 

 society is under the directorship of Mr. H. J. Lovink, an 

 able and enthusiastic forester. 



The Dutch dunes are similar to those of New Jersey, and 

 unless the soil is covered it is shifted by wind and wave. 

 More than four thousand acres of land in the neighborhood 

 of the town of Bergen is owned by the Government. This 

 is very much like the dune land near Avalon, on the Jersey 

 shore. There are residences surrounded by large trees in 

 the lee of the Dutch dunes, but everything has been planted, 

 even the famous forest between The Hague and Scheven- 

 ingen, the Atlantic City of Holland, and it will cost the 

 Government at least two hundred thousand gulden to 

 plant its dune lands in forest. Many private holders in this 

 region are not in favor of this work, some preferring to see 

 it in its unproductive state, mainly for hunting purposes. 

 The principal game, however, is rabbits, and their extermi- 

 nation has been decreed because they are very destructive. 

 Thirty years ago experiments were begun by the famous 

 geologist Staring for the planting of the dunes, but the work 

 was frowned upon and discontinued ; the trees which 

 he planted still remain. 



In the eastern and southern parts of Holland there are 

 vast stretches of rolling heath lands, a continuation of the 

 Luneberger Heide in Hannover, which stretches through 

 Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark to near the Zuyder Zee, 

 in Holland. The soil is sand and gravel, mainly glacial 

 drift, in which may be seen irregular ice-worn pieces of 

 rock from the Scandinavian Peninsula. There are reasons 

 for believing that at one time this region was in part 

 forested. The names of places in old Dutch often mean 

 forest or wood, and Mr. J. H. Schober, the pioneer of 

 heath planting in Holland, found part of the trunk of a 

 large oak buried deep in the ground in his plantation 

 at Schovenhorst. A few sheep can live upon the scanty 

 herbage, and as soon as a little humus forms on the sur- 

 face it is removed by the peasants to mix with manure. 

 The beating force of winds and rains has compacted and 

 leached the surface soil. Low Heather and crisp Lichens 

 cover the ground, reminding one of the sterile fields in 

 southern New Jersey. It is even more barren than the 

 fire-swept plains of Ocean County, in that state. With work, 

 this whole heath can be reclaimed. The huge experiment 

 which Mr. Schober has had the patience and patriot- 

 ism to begin proves that trees will grow there. A careful 

 working and a little enrichment of the soil are all that are 



needed at first. When Mr. Schober began his plantation at 

 Putten forty years ago it was all a desert heath. Conifers 

 from all parts of the world are growing there luxuriantly, 

 and, although his experiments will not be complete for 

 years to come, they show, at least, that a great variety of 

 conifers will grow on the heath-lands of Holland, and that 

 certain species are, of course, much better adapted to the 

 soil and climate than others. Many tests must be made 

 before conclusions as to the very best varieties are war- 

 ranted. Mr. Schober has planted also large quantities of 

 Scotch Pine, from which he receives a revenue. This wood 

 is cut and carefully sorted, and the poles are shipped to the 

 Belgian mines. What surprised me most on this re- 

 markable plantation was to see species from the Rocky 

 Mountains and the Atlas Mountains thriving in these heath- 

 lands. The most beautiful trees in this large pinetum, as I 

 saw them, were Abies nobilis and Cedrus Atlantica. — 

 [An interesting account of this remarkable experiment, 

 written for this journal by Mr. Dana, will be found in vol. 

 viii., p. 442. — Ed.] 



A great deal of private planting has been done in Holland 

 with very little encouragement from the Government. In 

 the southern part there are large areas in Scotch Pine and 

 coppice Oak. The Willow has been planted in immense 

 quantities along the Lek, the Rhine, the Maas and Waal. 

 In the sandy heath regions much of the soil has been 

 improved by planting one of the Lupines. Lupinus luteus 

 a beautiful plant which may be useful in America as a 

 green manure, since it seems to flourish on very sandy 

 soil. The American Locust, Robinia pseudacacia, is a 

 favorite tree here, since it grows well on poor soils, and it 

 is quite the custom to plant it along railroad embankments. 

 It is also a favorite shade-tree in many German cities, and, 

 when properly trimmed, it has few equals for the purpose. 

 Our Wild Cherry, Prunus serotina, also seems to thrive on 

 the heath lands. 



Amsterdam, Holland. Jollll (jlfford. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



Notes on Orchids. 



Dendrophyllax Fawcettii — An importation of this Orchid 

 is advertised for sale by Messrs. Sander & Co., and is de- 

 scribed as resembling Angreecum Fournierianum, with 

 snow-white flowers. It was first introduced to Kew from 

 Jamaica in 1888, and flowered in a stove in November, 

 when it was named by Mr. Rolfe in compliment to Mr. 

 Fawcett, the Director of the Botanical Department at 

 Jamaica, who found it in the Cayman Islands. It resem- 

 bles Dendrophyllax funalis (Angraecum funale) in having 

 no leaves, the long, fiexuose green roots performing the 

 double duty of absorption and assimilation. The flowers 

 are borne on long peduncles and are two inches across, 

 the large bilobed lip being pure white and the narrow 

 sepals and petals greenish white ; the spur is slender and 

 about six inches long. As a botanical Orchid this is of 

 quite exceptional interest, for, although there are several 

 other Orchids that never produce leaves, this is the only 

 one with flowers of any attraction. 



Schomburgkia Thomsoniana is described in a sale adver- 

 tisement as " undoubtedly the finest in the genus. Twenty 

 blossoms, like a cream-colored Laslia purpurata, with a 

 black-maroon lip, being borne on a spike." It was named 

 and described by Reichenbach in 1SS7 from a plant flow- 

 ered in England, its origin being unknown. In the year 

 following it was sent to Kew by Mr. Fawcett, who found 

 it in the Cayman Islands along with the Dendrophyllax. 

 In general characters it resembles S. Tibicinis, but is smaller 

 in all its parts ; the flowers are about three inches across, 

 the segments narrow, wavy and colored creamy yellow, 

 darker toward the apex ; the lip is three-lobed, the side 

 lobes folded over the column, the midlobe oblong, very 

 wavy and colored rich purple. This plant shares with its 

 ally the reputation of being difficult to flower under culti- 

 vation. Now that it has been introduced in quantity, we 

 may discover how to treat it, so as to get it to flower freely 



