February i, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



51 



and remained free as long as the supply of oxygen was kept 

 up. 



Perhaps the most interesting part of Professor Ward's investi- 

 gation is the account of his attempt to reconstruct the Ginger- 

 beer plant after having separated the constituent yeasts and 

 bacteria by means of pure cultures. He combined the differ- 

 ent forms one with another, and found that in order to recon- 

 struct the Ginger-beer plant it was only necessary to 

 combine Saccharomyces pyriformis and Bacterium vermi- 

 forme, the other forms having no special significance 

 in this case. When growing in a saccharine fluid the 

 Saccharomyces was proved, either by its direct chemical 

 action on the fluid itself or by excreting some substance dur- 

 ing its growth, to render the fluid especially well-fitted for the 

 growth of the bacterium in its sheath form. The better one 

 grew the better the other grew, and Professor Ward considers 

 this a clear case of symbiosis. Where the ginger-beer plant first 

 came from is unknown, but by placing lumps of unsterilized 

 sugar and pieces of unsterilized ginger in water. Professor 

 Ward was able to produce a Ginger-beer plant like that in com- 

 mon use. But the studies in this direction are to be carried 

 out more fully hereafter, and it is not yet certain whether 

 the Ginger-beer plant in the experiment last mentioned came 

 from the sugar or the ginger. 



The Coast Dune Flora of Lake Michigan. — II. 



OTHER evidences of the mingUng of species on the coast 

 dune are the appearance there of trees of different habits, 

 presenting novel and, at times, delightful conformations of 

 form and color. Within a small area I have seen the Black 

 Oak — the most common Oak of the sand region — and the Bur 

 Oak, the Black Willow (Salix nigra) and the Cottonwood. 

 Some of the trees supported a heavy growth of Frost Grapes, 

 which had climbed up their trunks and were bending down 

 their limbs. The ground at the root of the trees was covered 

 with dense undergrowth of Willows, Osiers and Hazel-bushes. 

 Celastrus scandens is another vine which twines among the 

 branches of the trees. The Poison Ivy (Rhus Toxicodendron) 

 is a common occupant of the ground ; it is always the low, 

 trailing form, sending up branches a foot or two high, not un- 

 attractive in foliage and pale fruit. Other trees often seen on 

 the shore are the Red Cedar, the Jack Pine and the White 

 Pine. One of the first trees to gain a foothold is the Cotton- 

 wood, seedlings of which are seen springing up in the damp 

 sand as low down on the beach as the waves permit, to be 

 washed out or buried, perhaps, by some heavy storm. On the 

 coast dune, which it may fringe for several miles in succes- 

 sion, this tree takes a low, spreading, and often, somewhat 

 bushy form, sometimes about as broad as it is high, the limbs 

 so low that the pendent racemes of fruit trace furrows in the 

 sand as they are moved to and fro by the wind. 



Rosa blanda is the most common Rose by the lake-shore. 

 R. Engelmanni and R. humilis also occur. A form with very 

 prickly stems, blossoming throughout the summer, and re- 

 sembling R. Arkansana, if not identical with it, is frequent. 

 Hudsonia tomentosa is another httle shrub, with prostrate 

 stems and numerous branches, very pretty when covered with 

 hoary leaves and a profusion of yellow flowers. 



The play of sunlight on the masses of foliage formed by the 

 various bushes, with their differing shades of green, is very 

 beautiful. There is a charming variety of color, subdued and 

 restful to the eye, which is dazzled by the glitter from the 

 white sand or the reflection from the water. The groups also 

 have a wavy outline, due to the little mounds of sand heaped 

 about them along the common dune. One or two kinds may 

 occupy the top of a hiUock and others clothe its sides or skirt 

 its base, the colors blending or contrasting. 



There are other herbaceous plants besides those already 

 mentioned, which give variety to the coast dune and the bor- 

 dering beach. The most common Golden-rod is Solidago 

 humilis and its variety Gilmani. They bear rather large heads 

 of flowers. S. nemoralis is frequent, and S. speciosa and its 

 variety angustata are sometimes seen, making handsome 

 reaches of showy flowers. Asters are not so common as Soli- 

 dagos in the coast sands, but Aster multiflorus, A. ptarmicoides, 

 A. sagittifolius and A. azureus are often found, the last two in 

 more sheltered situations among or near the shrubbery. 

 Cnicus Pitcheri is a Thisfle almost confined to the shore. 

 It is a low-branching plant, conspicuous by its hoary stem and 

 leaves, usually standing apart from other plants in the bare 

 sand. Zygadenus elegans, a liliaceous plant, may be found 

 growing in company with this Thistle farther down the lake. 

 It is a singular companionship for a plant one may find in a 

 Cedar-swamp or by the mossy brook-side amid the stones. 



Anemone multifida is found in similar situations, and Campa- 

 nula rotundifolia, var. arctica, is more widely spread. This is 

 usually a taller plant than the type, and has narrower leaves 

 and larger flowers. The Bug-seed (Corispernium hyssopifo- 

 lium) and the Winged Pigweed (Cycloloma platyphyllum) are 

 also met with, the latter an introduction from the west. Both 

 have spreading bushy tops when not growing too thickly, 

 branching close to the ground like the Tumble-weed. More 

 humble plants are Euphorbia polygonifolia, which spreads flat 

 on the ground, and Cakile Americana, the American Sea- 

 rocket, a fleshy plant, with small, but numerous, pink or pur- 

 ple flowers. Both these annuals grow in the damper sands, 

 and are strictly plants of the beach, the Cakile establishing it- 

 self nearer the water than any other. 



A Wild Bean (Strophostyles angulosa) is frequent near the 

 shore. It is variable in habit, being sometimes nearly erect 

 and from six to twelve inches high, or with a procumbent stem 

 that may be six or eight feet long. It often climbs over bushes 

 and bunches of grass, if near at hand. The stems and terete 

 pods, and sometimes the whole plant, are tinged with purple. 

 The Beach Pea (Lathyrus maritimus) grows along the base of 

 the coast dune, and forms patches of considerable extent. The 

 stems are from one to two feet long. The leaflets are large, 

 and the handsome racemose flowers are purple, changing to 

 blue with age. It is one of the most attractive plants of the 

 lake-shore. It is easily propagated, the perennial root being 

 tenacious of life, and spreads readily along the railway em- 

 bankments which approach the shore. Petalostemon violaceus 

 is another showy plant of the same family which comes down 

 to the beach, making a large bunch of stems which rise from 

 a strong, deeply growing root. 



Among the Sedges the most characteristic Cyperus is C. 

 Schweinitzii. It has a stiff and wiry culm, one to two and a half 

 feet high. Cyperus filiculmis is a prettier and more ornamen- 

 tal plant, with a shorter and more slender culm, terminated 

 by a dense, roundisti head, or by several on spreading rays of 

 unequal length. Of Carex the more usual kinds are such dry- 

 ground species as C. cephalophora, C. Muehlenbergii and C. 

 Pennsylvanica, the latter near the base of trees. Equisetum 

 hyemale, the Scouring Rush, is seen in the lower and damper 

 parts of the dune, with coarse stems sometimes three or more 

 feet high. 



The plants mentioned have all been seen along the beach 

 or on the first ridge of sand which borders it, and form the 

 mass of the coast flora. Other less noficeable ones might be 

 added, with estrays coming in occasionally, especially upon 

 the more sheltered slope facing away from the lake. Of these 

 the handsome Hypericum Kalmianum, Potentilla fruticosa, P. 

 anserina, and farther north P. tridentata and Rosa Sayi are 

 most worthy of notice. The plants named are oftenest seen, 

 and seem best fitted to endure the rough treatment to which 

 they are exposed from the fierce winds of the lake. They vary 

 a good deal in the effectiveness with which they bind the loose 

 sands, but the humblest shares in the work by offering points 

 of resistance. The roots usually run deep and are consider- 

 ably branched, some of the most abundant grasses and shrubs 

 dividing extensively and forming a network of roots and fibres 

 in the loose soil. 



Englewood, Chicago, 111. E. J , Hill. 



Notes on the Forest Flora of Japan. — III. 



THE general character of the composition of the Japa- 

 nese forests having been briefly traced in the first 

 chapters of these notes, I shall now say something of the 

 most important Japanese trees ; and as their botanical 

 characters are already pretty well understood and their 

 economic properties are only of secondary interest to the 

 general reader, these remarks will relate principally to their 

 quality from a horticultural point of view. A comparison 

 with allied eastern American species will perhaps be use- 

 ful ; it will, at any rate, show that, while Japan is extremely 

 rich in the number of its tree species, the claim that has 

 been made, that the forests of eastern America contain the 

 noblest deciduous trees of all temperate regions, can, so far 

 as Japan is concerned, be substantiated, for, with few ex- 

 ceptions, the deciduous trees of eastern America surpass 

 their Asiatic congeners in size and beauty. 



To begin with the Magnoliaceae. In the number of 

 genera of the Magnolia family Japan is not surpassed by 

 any other botanical region, eight of the twelve genera be- 

 ing represented in the empire, while in the United States 

 there are only four. In Japan arborescent Magnoliaceae 



