5<H 



Garden and Forest. 



(Number 460. 



intelligent observation from those most nearly concerned. 

 The matter is one frequently and seriously discussed in all 

 its bearings, and there is scarcely an intelligent moun- 

 taineer in the district who is not ready with some more or 

 less pertinent and practical suggestions. Whenever the 

 Government is prepared to put in operation a well-consid- 

 ered scheme for the proper management and utilization of 

 the varied resources of these mountains, with due regard 

 to their use as a pleasure resort, game preserves and tim- 

 ber-producing forests, it will undoubtedly receive the 

 hearty support and cooperation of a large majority of the 



people most directly interested. „ , „, _ „ , 



Santa Barbara, Calif. Frank M. Gallalier. 



Shall We have a Bureau of Plant Registration ? 



THE question of establishing a bureau for the registra- 

 tion of plants, in connection with the present 

 Division of Pomology, was brought before the Section of 

 Botany and Horticulture of the Association of American 

 Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, by Professor 

 L. C. Corbett, of the West Virginia University. After a 

 careful consideration of the matter, the Section appointed 

 a committee to report upon the feasibility of the scheme, 

 and to suggest the outline of a plan to be presented to 

 Congress at an early date. The committee consists of 

 L. C. Corbett, Morgantown, West Virginia, chairman ; W. 

 A. Taylor, United States Department of Agriculture, Wash- 

 ington, District of Columbia ; Professor L. H. Bailey, 

 Ithaca, New York ; F. S. Earle, Auburn, Alabama, and 

 C. H. Shinn, Berkeley, California. 



The idea is to have some one place in the United States 

 where all plants placed upon the market can be officially 

 registered, numbered, and a description, together with speci- 

 mens of the bloom, seed, foliage and fruit, placed on 

 record. When it is not practicable to preserve the original, 

 colored casts are to be prepared, as in the case of citrus, 

 drupaceous and pomaceous fruit, 1 as well as vegetables. 

 In all cases where plants are sent for registration, speci- 

 mens of flowers, foliage, fruit, root, tuber or seed must 

 accompany the application. All vegetables must be ac- 

 companied by a given amount of seed (to be determined) 

 to be preserved for purposes of noting the duration of cul- 

 tural varieties, the influence of climate during any series of 

 years, or in any locality. A further purpose of the seed 

 shall be to grow plants for purposes of identifying the 

 sort. 



Ends Sought. — (1) To discourage the duplication of names, 

 and the renaming of old sorts for commercial purposes. 

 (2) To form a national herbarium of economic plants, 

 which shall be made up largely from type specimens. (3) 

 To simplify the matter of nomenclature. (4) To aid the 

 student of varieties as well as of variation of plants under 

 culture. (5) To secure to the originator of a truly valuable 

 variety some reward for his labor, the same as is now ac- 

 corded the inventor. 



The incorporation of such a clause (No. 5) will, I am 

 sure, secure the hearty cooperation of all plant-breeders, 

 nurserymen and seedsmen, and this cooperation we must 

 have in order to advance the scientific ends sought. 



It is further proposed that this central bureau be made a 

 part and parcel of the present Division of Pomology of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture. A very valuable 

 nucleus for the beginning of such work is had in the fruit 

 models now in the museum of that department. Every 

 one interested in this matter is invited to formulate his 

 ideas on the subject and send them to some member of 

 the committee, who will put them in such form that a bill 

 may be drafted at an early date and presented before Con- 

 gress. The reason for selecting a committee whose mem- 

 bers are so widely scattered is to find out as fully as 

 practicable the needs and wishes of different sections of 

 the United States. The hearty cooperation of all persons 

 interested in this subject is confidently expected. 



Agricult'l Experim't Station, Morgantown, W. Va. L. C. Corbell. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Dog-tooth Violets on Mount Ranier. 



WE shall take occasion to speak again of the beauty 

 of the alpine vegetation near the timber-line on 

 Mount Ranier, in Washington, and we have already pub- 

 lished a view of a mass of the beautiful alpine Erigeron 

 salsuginosus growing on the slopes of this mountain (see 

 vol. ii., page 319). The great floral display of Ranier, 

 however, is made by two species of Dog-tooth Violet, 

 the yellow -flowered Erythronium giganteum and the 

 white - flowered Erythronium albiflorum. These two 

 plants grow in the greatest profusion among the grasses 

 on the slopes of this mountain at an elevation of 

 about 6,ooo feet, attaining a size and luxuriance which 

 we have not noticed in any other part of the country. In 

 Paradise Valley, near the foot of the Nisgully Glacier, they 

 cover broad stretches, and their abundance is so great that 

 the white and yellow nodding flowers nearly hide the turf 

 above which they are raised on slender stems. When the 

 hot sun of July and early August lias reduced the snow- 

 banks to the depth of about an inch the plants push up 

 through the snow, each one making for itself a little open 

 circular space ; in two or three days more, or when the last 

 snow has gone, the plants are in full flower, and at the end 

 of another week, so short is the season of vegetation at this 

 high altitude and so rapid the development of plants, the 

 flowers have gone and the fruit has attained nearly its full 

 size. 



Some slight idea of the abundance of these plants on 

 Mount Ranier may be obtained from our illustration on 

 page 505 of this issue, made from a photograph taken 

 by Mr. Curtis, of Seattle. No picture, however, and no 

 words of which we have command can give any idea of 

 the delicacy, grace and beauty of these plants, which for a 

 few long summer days display their loveliness on these 

 wind-swept alpine slopes. 



Aster longifolius, Lam. 



UNTIL a few years ago this name was applied by 

 American botanists to one of the commonest and 

 most polymorphous species of the eastern seaboard. But 

 in 1882, after a critical study of type specimens in the 

 European herbaria, Dr. Gray showed* that the plant 

 which had been passing as Aster longifolius was really the 

 Linnsean A. Novi-Belgii, and, on the other hand, that 

 Lamarck's A. longifolius was a northern species little 

 known to American collectors ; and although the species 

 is defined in the Sy?ioplical Flora, it is still almost as little 

 known as before. 



This obscurity is due, no doubt, to the fact that outside 

 British America the plant occurs only along the northern 

 borders of the United States, and possibly in the Rocky 

 Mountains. Apparently not rare through Canada from the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence westward to the Saskatchewan and 

 Great Slave Lake, the species extends southward to Halifax, 

 the mouth of the Kennebec and the White Mountains in 

 the east, and to Lake Superior and northern Minnesota 

 farther west. Plants from Montana and Colorado have 

 been referred here, but the specimens at hand (Scribner's 

 No. 94 from Teton River, Montana, and L. F. Ward's No. 1 

 from Citadel Butte, Montana) seem to have little affinity 

 with the eastern plant. J" 



Like the related species of Aster, A. longifolius presents 

 a broad range of forms. As it occurs along the Maine 

 coast it is often treacherously near A. Novi-Belgii. But 

 farther inland, along the St. John and Aroostook Rivers, 

 where as yet no forms of A. Novi-Belgii have been detected, 

 the plant appears in its more typical form. Yet there one 

 is puzzled by intermediates, for A. longifolius has a strong 



* Proc. Amer. Acad., xvii., 167, 169. 



I Since the above was written I have seen a specimen which is clearly Aster 

 longifolius, collected by Dr. Geo. G. Kennedy in the Blue Hills, West Quincy, Mass. 



