February 15, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



81 



stated that tlie flowers are i^ to 2 inches long. The particular 

 vine I have mentioned is in a very thrifty condition ; the 

 flower is tubular witli four short lobes scarcely spreading, 

 covered on the outside with a coat of short, bright scarlet 

 hairs, which conceal the yellow tube except at the apex. The 

 flower-buds, many days before opening, show these colors 

 and add greatly to the apparent abundance of tlowers. The 

 flowers, after opening, are from }( to i inch long, and keep 

 fresh upon the vine for ten or fifteen days. The inflorescence 

 is solitary and axillary, but as the flowering branches are 

 very short, as many as six flowers seem to appear at each joint 

 of the vine. Maturing at different periods, fresh flowers and 

 buds are seen for several months upon the whole length of 

 vine. The leaves are opposite, ovate, acuminate, glabrous, 

 shining; margin entire ; the length of leaf from one to four 

 inches. The stem is tetragonal, twining, and will grow from 

 ten to twenty feet long. The plant is allied to the Bouvardia 

 and was introduced into England about 1842 from Brazil, 

 state College, Pa. George C. Butz. 



Correspondence. 

 The Treeless Plains. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — We are readers of Garden and Forest and sympa- 

 thize with the efforts of the paper to instruct the public with 

 regard to the importance of preserving the American forests. 

 We are particularly interested in forestry and should like to 

 see it discussed in detail, particularly with reference to the re- 

 gion west of the one-hundredth meridian and east of the 

 Rocky Mountains, now treeless. This part of the country has 

 not been an unqualified success, although large enough to 

 support a nation. The few attempts at planting trees there 

 have so far been subterfuges used to obtain possession of the 

 public domain, and have only demonstrated the fact that 

 forest-trees cannot be grown there. Will not Garden and 

 Forest urge the importance of this region on its readers that 

 they may come to think more seriously of its possibilities ? 



Blue Springs, Mo. E. J. Walker &= Co. 



[Trees, in order to grow, require evenly distributed and 

 abundant rainfall, and the reason that the great elevated 

 plateau east of the Rocky Mountains is destitute of trees is 

 that it does not enjoy a sufficient precipitation of moisture 

 to enable them to live. Rain causes trees to grovi^, but 

 ■trees do not produce rain. The Timber-culture Act, which 

 sought to cover these plains with trees, was abortive be- 

 cause, conceived in ignorance of the true conditions of the 

 country, it sought to produce results which were physically 

 impossible. Trees will grow anywhere between the one- 

 hundredth meridian and the Rocky Mountains where suffi- 

 cient water can be obtained for irrigation ; but unless the 

 ground is artificially watered most of this great region 

 must remain treeless, except in the immediate neighbor- 

 hood of streams. — Ed.] 



Thfe Sierra Club of California. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir,— The second issue of the Bulletin of the Sierra Club has 

 appeared. It contains three articles, any one of wliich would 

 easily furnish the basis for a sixteen-page magazine article. 

 One is by Mr. Hubert Dyer, a capable young chemist, a gradu- 

 ate of the University of California, and for some time an 

 assistant in the agricultural laboratory there. It is upon the 

 Moiuit Whitney trail, and is illustrated by a map and by two 

 reproductions of Mr. Dyer's photographs, one of " False 

 Mount Whitney," or " Sheep Mount," or " Mount Corcoran " ; 

 the other of the true Whitney, the highest peak in the United 

 States. Mr. Dyer and several friends have wandered for 

 weeks in the fastnesses of the Sierra Nevada, and few young 

 Californians have seen more of the "Whitney Alps," and the 

 vast sea of mountains about the head-waters of Kaweah, Kern, 

 South Fork, Cottonwood and Lone Pine, where hundreds of 

 great peaks rise about the still greater shoulders of Tyndall 

 and Whitney. 



Mr. R. M. Price describes in most vivid language a difficult 

 and dangerous descent, in company with Mr. L. de F. Bartletr, 

 of the Grand Caiion of the Tuolumne, one of the most mag- 

 nificent of the Yosemites of the Sierra, where mighty water- 

 falls " plunge amain" down granite cliffs. 



Mr. W. W. Price gives a more complete description of the 



Placer County grove of Sequoia gigantea, which he was the 

 first to make known. The first memorandum of this dis- 

 covery was read before the California y\cademy of Sciences in 

 August, 1892, and published in Zoe, Garden and Forest and 

 other papers. The new grove is "at an altitude of 5,100 feet, 

 and nearly seventy miles north of the Calaveras Big Trees." 

 It has been known to the mountaineers for many years, but 

 not to the botanist. Mr. Price was led to visit the place be- 

 cause of a report obtained in the region by Miss Irene Hardy, 

 teacher of English literature in the Oakland High School. 



The three articles, taken together, so emphasize the present 

 needs of California in respect to forest-reservations, such as 

 outlined by Secretary Noble, that they ought to be in general 

 circulation. It would be a national misfortune if the next Ad- 

 ministration should pay any heed to the querulous complaints 

 of a few sheep-men who live by stealing public pasturage, and 

 a few politicians who only see their own petty interests. 



The Sierra Chib, John Muir, President, contains among its 

 members some of the most thoughtful, well-educated and in- 

 fluential men in California, and its work is certain to be felt in 

 every direction. It opposes, after full and free discussion, the 

 Caminetti bill to curtail the Yosemite National Park. It favors 

 the proposed topographical survey of California by the state 

 and the general Government. It has voted to do all in its power 

 to aid the passage of the Paddock Forestry bill. In every move 

 it has made the Sierra Club has been well and wisely directed, 

 and it does not lack the necessary funds, and, still more, es- 

 sential fighting quality. At the present rate of growth it will 

 have a thousand members in a few years — mercliants, profes- 

 sional men, horticulturists and men of affairs in every de- 

 partment of human acfivity. 



Berkeley, Cal. Charles Howard Shinn. 



Valves in Heating- Apparatus. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir,— Are valves necessary on hot-water pipes to properly 

 regulate the temperature of plant-houses or any horticultural 

 buildings in which heat must be provided by such heating 

 apparatus? Is there any means of controlling the tempera- 

 ture of hot-houses under all conditions of sunshine and cloud 

 and sudden changes of temperature in the open air without 

 the use of valves ? Would you advise the building of a hot- 

 water heater for horticultural purposes without valves ? Is 

 there any danger of steam being generated in an apparatus 

 furnished with valves, provided an open vent or valve is fixed 

 on the highest point of the boiler and on the highest point of 

 the flow-pipe ? 



Edd)', New Me-xico. W. S. 



[If a number of greenhouses require different tempera- 

 tures, and are heated from one set of boilers, stop-valves 

 should be used on each flow-pipe in each house in order to 

 regulate the temperature in the different houses. If, how- 

 ever, only one house is being heated, flow-pipes would be 

 convenient and advisable, but not necessary to control the 

 temperature, as it could be controlled by regulating the fire. 

 The only means of regulating the temperature in a green- 

 house without valves is by sash-ventilating and by watch- 

 ing the fires. The omission of valves in the hot-water 

 heating system is not advisable, except in the case of small 

 conservatories. If all the flow and return pipes at or near 

 the boiler should be valved and the valves shut off, steam 

 would be generated in the boiler, and it would burst. 

 Valves should not be placed on either flow or return pipes 

 except in the grapery or in houses that require freezing, in 

 which case the valves are shut off and the water drawn 

 from the pipes. If valves are used on the flow and return 

 pipe at the boiler they should be chained and locked, so 

 they cannot be closed except by the person in charge of 

 the key. — Ed,] 



Flowers in Winter. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The ease with which some of our common plants can 

 be forced into bloom in ordinary living-rooms during winter 

 should lead to their more frequent use in this way. At this 

 time of the year a few standard but relatively expensive things, 

 like Hyacinths, are favorite window decorations, but sprigs of 

 oin- common shrubs, our native bulbs and perennial plants 

 are seldom seen flowering indoors, although their treatment 

 for this purpose is of the simplest character, and presents no 



