432 



Garden and Forest. 



| Number 453. 



ful and the love of natural things. All who believe that 

 there is a higher part of our nature which is worth culti- 

 vating, will recognize the aesthetic side of gardening as 

 one of its most healthful influences. 



Since horticulture offers so many advantages for health- 

 ful relaxation and profitable employment, it is logical to 

 argue, as Professor Lazenby does, that the elements of the 

 art ought to be taught in our common schools, especially 

 since the world is full of men and women who are idle, 

 and therefore both useless and unhappy, because they have 

 never been taught to do anything. Many of the essential 

 facts in regard to the constitution of the soil and the 

 growth of plants can certainly be taught to children, and 

 in a practical way girls and boys can be instructed in the 

 methods of propagating plants from seeds and cuttings and 

 graftings. They can learn something of the common in- 

 jurious weeds and insects of the region in which they live ; 

 they can gain a familiar acquaintance with our native trees 

 and shrubs, and learn something about our useful birds. 

 Such instruction would not require any abridgment of the 

 present curriculum ; indeed, one practical result of the 

 healthful variation from constant devotion to books would 

 be greater mental alertness and aptitude for all kinds of 

 study. Especially would this prove helpful in establishing 

 the habit of investigating things rather than memorizing 

 words. It would mean, too, the improvement and adorn- 

 ment of school-grounds, and this would have a refining influ- 

 ence on both teachers and pupils. It must be remembered 

 that horticulture is something more than a mere manual 

 calling. It is a science as well as an art ; it develops the facul- 

 ties of the mind just as any other branch of education does, 

 while the practice of it would improve the bodily vigor of 

 pupils. An elementary knowledge of gardening is the 

 foundation of a trade or calling to every boy and girl, 

 and, even if it was never pursued for a livelihood, there 

 are few persons to whom such knowledge would not 

 prove a comfort and delight. Every one who has a house 

 with a few rods of land attached would find in it at some 

 time of life a solace and refreshment, if not a pecu- 

 niary profit ; and if modern education aims to make well- 

 rounded men and women, it can be said for this primary 

 instruction in gardening that it will help certainly to 

 develop faculties which would otherwise be dormant, 

 to furnish unfailing recreation for mind and body, and to 

 make life fuller and richer, more natural and wholesome. 



An Arizona Cactus Garden. 



AN effort has been made during the past three years to 

 _/"\_ bring together on the grounds of the University of 

 Arizona all species of Cacti indigenous to the United 

 States. This garden is, as yet, far from complete ; never- 

 theless we now have some three hundred and fifty 

 specimens representing more than a hundred species. The 

 greater number of these plants have bloomed and pro- 

 duced fruit during the past year. Recently, quite a number 

 of Mexican species have been added to this garden, but 

 under our present circumstances it is not possible to grow 

 plants which will not withstand our winter climate. In 

 this connection I might state that we find such Mexican 

 species as Anhalonium prismaticum, Lem., Echinocactus 

 myriostigma, Salm., and E. ingens, Zucc, perfectly hardy 

 at Tucson. Out of twenty-three Mexican plants of the 

 genera Cereus and Mamillaria only half a dozen survived 

 the frosts of last winter, while of fourteen species of Echino- 

 cactus not a single specimen was badly injured, although 

 some of the latter have a much more southern range than 

 the former. 



The garden occupies a large triangular plat directly in 

 front of the main University building. When plants are 

 received they are set out in this garden, where they require 

 little attention other than that which nature gives them. 

 So far as possible, specimens are obtained directly from the 

 localities in which they grow ; usually a half dozen or 

 mure plants of the same species, showing as great variation 



as may be found. Plants obtained from dealers have, as a 

 rule, been small and otherwise unsatisfactory when com- 

 pared with those collected in the field. 



The difficulties encountered in studying these plants 

 from skeletons and dried flowers and fruits are very great, 

 as may be noted from the unsatisfactory work that most of 

 our recent authors on this group have given us as a result 

 of their labor. The growing in greenhouses under an en- 

 vironment so entirely different from that which surrounds 

 them in their general habitat and the publication of the 

 results of their study is even more unsatisfactory. The 

 founding of species on such plants, showing all the striking 

 variations which they take on when grown in moist places, 

 under unnatural conditions, has left us as a heritage a 

 synonymy which it is absolutely hopeless to attempt to 

 untangle. Our only hope of getting a correct understand- 

 ing of these plants is by studying them in the field and 

 bringing them together and growing them under condi- 

 tions comforming as nearly as may be to their natural 

 environment. The variations encountered even under nor- 

 mal conditions are such that one is bewildered by the 

 multiplicity of forms representative of a single species. 

 Not only are specific characters poorly defined, but generic 

 ones, as yet, have not been drawn with any degree of sat- 

 isfaction. Although the spine characters are fairly constant 

 in many species, in others no dependence whatever can be 

 placed upon them. 



In this garden not only are records kept of the flowers 

 and fruit characters of each species, but herbarium speci- 

 mens are made, and photographs, from one-half to two- 

 thirds natural size, are taken of flowering and fruiting 

 branches, or of the entire plant if not too large. 



An interesting species of Cylindropuntia grows in con- 

 siderable abundance about five miles east of Tucson, but, 

 so far as known, only in this one locality.* It seems to 

 be nearest related to Opuntia Thurberi, Engelm., but differs 

 from that plant, so far as one can judge from the incom- 

 plete description and examination of type material in the 

 Engelmann herbarium, in its longer, more strongly deflexed 

 spines, smaller and different-colored flowers, etc. It may 

 be known from all related species by its bright scarlet fruit, 

 four strongly deflexed spines and peculiar cork-like margin 

 to the seeds. This plant and O. leptocaulis are the only 

 Opuntias with which I am familiar that produce small 

 lateral branches no larger than fully developed fruits, the 

 function of which seems to be to drop to the ground and 

 develop into new plants. The fruit matures in December, 

 but remains attached to the plant until the following May. 

 It has an agreeable acid flavor and its bright color makes 

 it very conspicuous against the green stems. 



University of Arizona. ./• W. Toumey. 



Five Ornamental Oaks. 



PROFESSOR S. C. MASON, who has charge of the Hor- 

 ticultural Department of the State Agricultural College 

 of Kansas, writes some interesting notes under the above 

 title to The Industrialist, a bright little paper edited and 

 published by the faculty and students of that college. 

 While the trees are specially recommended for Kansas 

 planting they are all good over a very wide range of terri- 

 tory, and they all belong to the biennial fruited section 

 which are much more easily transplanted than the White 

 Oaks. Indeed, Black Oaks a dozen feet high are often 

 taken from the woods and planted in the streets of towns 



* Opunlia tetracantha, n. sp. An irregular branching shrub 6 to 15 d. m. hi<h ; 

 primary branches erect or ascending; from a stout woody trunk 5 to 8 c. m. in 

 diameter, and bearing numerous short, lateral branches at irregular intervals ; u'ti- 

 inate branches 12 to 15 m. m. in diameter ; joints cylindrical, 25 to ^oc. m. long, with 

 a reticulated woody skeleton; tubercles at first prominent, 16 to 22 m. m. long, but 

 on old stems more or less inconspicuous; pulvini sparingly covered with wool 

 and bearing a small crescent-shaped tuft of light biown bristles at the upper mar- 

 gin ; spines usually four, stout, loosely sheathed, straw-colored, strongly deflexed. 

 flattened, 2 to 3.5 c. m. long, occasionally one or two smaller ones, not increasing in 

 size and number after first season's growth; glands conspicuous, a half dozen or 

 more between the spines and bristles; flowers greenish purple, 1.5 to 2 c. m. 

 broad; truit ovate to suoglobose. narrowly but deeply umbilicate, 2 to 25cm. long, 

 juicy, scarlet, usually ncjrly smooth, but sometimes some of the pulvini bearing 1 

 to 3 slrong deflexed spines ; seeds irregular. 3 to 5 m. m. in diameter, commissure 

 broad, with conspicuous spongy appearance. 



