142 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 266. 



The evaporator should be set on an arch, well constructed, 

 Avith fire-box and an ash-pit. A necessary appendage to any 

 evaporator is a regulator, which of itself governs the flow of 

 sap into the evaporator, and relieves the sap slowly or rapidly 

 according to the rapidity of the evaporation. Thus arranged, 

 with store-tubs and drawing-tub metal-lined, we are pre- 

 pared (o gather the sap. It is presumed that the tubs are also 

 of metal, or, if wooden tubs, they should be painted white on 

 both sides to reflect heat and so keep the sap cool, which is 

 of great importance. The colder the sap-season the whiter is 

 the sugar. 



Sap should be gathered as fast as it runs. When convenient, 

 gather in the early morning when it is cool. Sap can easily be 

 strained three times: (i) into the drawing-tub, again (2) into 

 the storage-tub, and finally, (3) as it goes from the tub to the 

 evaporator. Care should be taken to set the evaporator level, 

 and the fire can be started as soon as the bottom of the evapo- 

 rator is covered. The shallower the sap is the faster it can be 

 boiled. 



One great advantage in using a corrugated evaporator is 

 that cold sap can be run into one end and syrup drawn from 

 the other end, there being a regular gradation of sweetness 

 from one end of the evaporator to the other, so that the sap is 

 boiled only once, so to speak, that is, without any dilution 

 with fresh sap before it is off and out of the way, thus saving 

 time, wood, color and flavor. 



An accurate syrup thermometer is an indispensable neces- 

 sity for accurate work. This should stand continually in the 

 back end of the evaporator. Sap begins to boil at a tempera- 

 ture of 213 to 215 degrees. When the thermometer indicates 

 219 degrees the syrup should be drawn off and it will weigh 

 eleven pounds to the gallon. If the syrup is boiled until the 

 thermometer indicates 220 degrees some crystals will be 

 formed in it. If a saccharometer is used it should indicate 

 from thirty-two to thirty-three degrees. If syrup is drawn off 

 at 219 degrees it should stand and settle, and then if the syrup 

 is poured off the sediment will remain in the bottom ; but, if 

 the nitre, so called, is not taken out when sugar is wanted, then 

 draw the syrup from the pan before the malic acid and lime 

 combine to form malate of lime. This syrup should not be 

 allowed to cool, but should be made into sugar at once. By 

 taking off the syrup thus early the precipitation to the bottom 

 of the evaporator is measurably prevented. A small pan for 

 sugaring off set near the evaporator, in an arch, is used to finish 

 off into sugar. 



In "sugaring off," the smaller the quantity the whiter the 

 sugar. To prevent boiling over use a few drops of sweet 

 cream, which will save stirring and prevent loss of color. 

 With all precautions for cleanliness complied with there will 

 be no need of using eggs or milk to raise a scum. Start the 

 fire slowly and skim without boiling the scum in. The process 

 of sugaring requires thirty minutes, and the cooling should be 

 done by dipping rather than sdrring. 



To make the whitest sugar possible, fill up a new sheet-iron 

 pan with sap caught early in the season and boil down to sugar 

 without stopping. For this sap bore one-half inch and no more, 

 as the best sap is found in the outer layers of the tree's growth. 



To recapitulate, tap low down with a three-eighths of an 

 inch bit ; tap shallow, from a half inch to one and a half inches 

 deep ; let no sap come in contact with wood ; use covers to the 

 sap-tubs, to keep the sap clean and cool ; gather in the early 

 part of the day ; keep ice in the holders, even if it has to be 

 taken from the ice-house ; strain the sap three times ; evapo- 

 rate at once ; skim often ; keep the sides of the evaporators 

 clean by wiping them frequently with a clean wet cloth ; clean 

 the entire evaporator and holders at least twice during the sea- 

 son of boiling. 



If nitre adheres to the bottom of the evaporator in the two 

 or three back spaces, clean it off every morning to prevent the 

 coloring of the syrup. This malate of lime is burned on to 

 the bottom, and no syrup can pass over it without being 

 scorched and discolored. 



Waterbury Centre, vt. Timothy Wheeler. 



Notes on the Forest Flora of Japan. — IX. 



THE flora of Japan is rich iij Evonymus, there being 

 no less than nine species found within the limits of 

 the empire. Of these the best known in our gardens is the 

 evergreen Evonymus Japonicus, now cultivated in all tem- 

 perate countries, and its climbing variety usually known as 

 Evonymus radicans. Evonymus Japonicus is a small tree 

 generally distributed at low elevations, and more common 

 in the south than at the north, although it grows naturally 



in the cold climate of southern Yezo, where, however, it 

 does not attain a large size, and where its presence maybe 

 accounted for by the thick covering of snow which pro- 

 tects it in winter. The scandent variety is a hardier plant 

 found carpeting the ground under the forests of Hokkaido, 

 and in the mountain-regions of Hondo climbing high on 

 the trunks of trees, which it encircles with great masses of 

 lustrous foliage borne on stout branches standing out at 

 right angles sometimes to the length of several feet, with 

 leaves which vary from an inch to four or five inches in 

 length and correspondingly in width, and which show the 

 connection of the climbing plant with the arborescent type. 



There is a second arborescent Evonymus in Japan, a va- 

 riety of the widely distributed and variable Evonymus 

 Europaeus, to which the name var. Hamiltonianus is given. 

 This handsome plant, with its stout branchlets, large leaves 

 and showy fruit, was introduced from Japan several years 

 ago by the late Thomas Hogg, and it is now well estab- 

 lished in the Arnold Arboretum, where it flowers and fruits 

 freely. It is one of the commonest of the Japanese species 

 in all mountain-regions, and grows at least as far north as 

 central Yezo, where it becomes a tree twenty to thirty feet 

 in height. 



Evonymus alatus, a variable plant in the development of 

 the wings on the branches, to which it owes its specific 

 name, and in the size of the leaves and fruit, in some of its 

 forms, is also very abundant in the north and on the moun- 

 tains of central Japan. The wing-branched variety, which 

 is the only deciduous-leaved Evonymus which I saw in 

 Japanese gardens, where it is rather a favorite, is now well 

 known in those of the United States and of Europe, where 

 it is valued for the peculiar pink color the leaves assume in 

 very late autumn. The variety subtriflora, a more northern 

 plant, with slender terete branchlets and small fruit, is, I 

 believe, unknown in gardens. It is one of the commonest 

 shrubs in the mountain-forests of Japan, and on the shores 

 of Lake Chuzenji, in the Nikko Mountains, I saw it rising to 

 the height of fifteen to eighteen feet with slender diverging 

 stems. 



In northern Japan there are three other species of Evo- 

 nymus, all tall shrubs, with large leaves and large showy 

 fruit suspended on long slender stalks, which may be ex- 

 pected to thrive in our climate, and to be decided acquisi- 

 tions in our shrubberies. Of these Evonymus Nipponicus 

 and E. oxyphyllus produce globose fruit, and E. macrop- 

 terus more or less broadly winged fruit. 



Of Celastrus nothing need here be said of the now well- 

 known C. articulatus, which is one of the commonest plants 

 on the mountains of Japan, except that its leafless branch- 

 lets, covered with fruit, are sold in the autumn in great 

 quantities in all Japanese towns, where they are used in 

 house decoration, for which purpose they are admirably 

 suited, as the bright-colored fruit remains on them for many 

 weeks. The second Japanese species, Celastrus flagellaris, 

 I only saw in the Botanic Garden in Tokyo, where there is 

 a single small plant; it is a common Manchurian species, 

 but appears to be exceedingly rare in Japan. I judge that 

 it has no particular horticultural value. ' 



Half a dozen genera of Rhamnaceae are included in the 

 flora of Japan, among them Zizyphus, perhaps an introduced 

 plant, often cultivated as a fruit-tree ; Berchemia racemosa, 

 a twining shrub with long slender branches, very or- 

 namental during the last weeks of summer, when the half- 

 ripened fruit, which is produced in large terminal clusters, 

 •is bright red ; two or three species of Rhamnus, of no hor- 

 ticultural value, and the curious tree, Hovenia dulcis, an 

 inhabitant also of China and the Himalaya region, and in 

 Japan often cultivated for the thickened sweetish fruit- 

 stalks, which are edible, although insipid in flavor, and 

 which enjoy among the Japanese a certain reputation for 

 curative properties. Hovenia was first introduced into 

 Europe eighty years ago and is occasionally seen in the 

 gardens of southern France and Italy. In the northern 

 states, where it has probably been tried, it cannot be ex- 

 pected to survive the winter. In general appearance this 



