24? 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 276. 



IN another column of this issue we publish a letter 

 giving some account of the acquisition by the city of 

 Philadelphia of several small parks and squares. The 

 value of these breathing-spaces and playgrounds can 

 hardly be estimated now, and they will increase in useful- 

 ness as the city grows. From the brief narrative which 

 we publish it will be seen that for the possession of these 

 pleasure-grounds the city is largely indebted to the public 

 spirit, the foresight and the sagacious business manage- 

 ment of Mr. Thomas Meehan. Mr. Meehan has all his 

 life long been an ardent devotee to botanical science, and 

 his attainments in this direction are recognized the world 

 over. As an editor and an author his name is identified 

 with the horticultural literature of the country. This ser- 

 vice in his later years in the councils of his adopted city 

 fatly rounds out a life which has been devoted to the diffu- 

 sion of knowledge among his fellow-men, and the throng- 

 ing population of the great city of the future on the banks 

 of the Delaware who will find health and refreshment in 

 the parks which he has done so much to establish will 

 bless his memory for generations to come. 



Botanical Notes from Texas. — Vll. 



THE time of my visit to Austin included the last two weeks 

 of July, 1892. The city is east of the ninety-eighth me- 

 ridian and south of the thirtieth parallel. The Colorado River 

 ilows near the city ; it can hardly be said to divide it, though 

 there are a few buildings on the trans-Colorado side. The 

 river valley, just above the city, is very narrow, the river hav- 

 ing torn its way through a series of high, rocky hills, which 

 are dignified by the name of mountains. The capitol is a 

 building of which Texans are justly proud. It is built of 

 handsome red granite, which Nature manufactured for the 

 people of the state within its own boundaries. Next to the 

 national'capitol at Washington and the state capitol at Albany, 

 New York, it is the largest public building in the United States. 



The vicinity of Austin presents a fine field of research for 

 botanical students. It affords the riparian flora of its own lati- 

 tude, mingled with plants which the river has brought with it 

 almost from New Mexico, and the more western species that 

 are to be found on the mountains, while many familiar eastern 

 plants are here. 



One of the handsomest, as well as one of the commonest, 

 plants of central Texas is Malvaviscus Drummondii, a mal- 

 vaceous plant, becoming two or three feet tall and bearing 

 rather large scarlet flowers. The small, reddish, depressed 

 fruit is edible and pleasant. Our plant is commonly cultivated 

 over most of this state. It is often so abundant in a wild state 

 as to be a weed. As May Apple, Spanish Apple, and some- 

 times as Horse Apple, it will readily be recognized by Texas 

 readers of Garden and Forest. There are several species of 

 Ruellia growing in the vicinity of Austin. Of these, R. stre- 

 pens and R. ciliosa extend northward into Kansas. These 

 species, especially R. ciliosa, are known everywhere within 

 their range as wild Petunia. As Ruellia is not nearly related 

 to Petunia, the name is misleading and should be dropped. 

 Besides, Ruellia sounds as well as Petunia, it may be pro- 

 nounced as easily, and tells the truth. 



Cyclanthera dissecta, a member of the Cucumber family, is 

 quite often to be seen throughout Texas west of the ninety- 

 seventh meridian. Its dissected leaves and green, obliquely 

 ovoid, spinose fruit will easily lead to the detection of this 

 species. It is somedmes seen in cultivation as a covering for 

 arbors and windows. The species has an extended north and 

 south range, being found in Guatemala and extending north- 

 ward in central Kansas, to within a half degree of the fortieth 

 parallel. As far eastward as Austin, Chilopsis saligna, a hand- 

 some small tree, is only seen in cultivation. I first saw it along 

 Nueces River, near Uvalde. From that stadon it extends far 

 westward. Its light purple flowers and long terete pods closely 

 resemble those of Catalpa, to which it is nearly related. It is, 

 mdeed, little more than a narrow-leaved Catalpa. Grouping 

 (he species by its narrowly lanceolate leaves, some people have 

 named our plant Flowering Willow. Others, judging from its 

 flowers as well as from its leaves, call it Willow Catalpa. 

 Usually a shrub of low stature, it sometimes, especially in 

 cultivation, becomes quite a tree. I measured an individual 

 in a yard at Austin that was a foot in diameter and probably 

 thirty feet tall. 



The memory of Ehrete, the celebrated botanical artist of the 

 last century, is well perpetuated by Ehretia elliptica, which far- 



ther south is very abundant. It is a common street tree in 

 Corpus Christi. The species is particularly interesting to 

 United States botanists as a tree representative of the Borage 

 family. Its thick, usually entire leaves are very scabrous on 

 tiieir upper face and oblong-ovate in oudine. Its whitish bor- 

 rage-like flowers are produced in panicles. They are succeeded 

 by small, yellow, plum-like fruits, which are edible. The 

 largest trees of the species that I have seen are growing on the 

 rich bottoms of the Guadalupe River, near Cueno. Some of 

 them are eighteen inches in diameter and proportionally tall. 

 The Mexican name of the species, Anaqua, has been corrupted 

 by Texans into "Knockaway." It readily adapts itself to dif- 

 fering conditions of soil, and as a low shrub it often covers the 

 most sterile knobs. The saying has become proverbial, 

 " Poor as a Knockaway hill." The species has an extended 

 western range. 



Ptelea trifoliata is a small tree common within the territory 

 covered by these notes. It is known as Hop-tree, from the bit- 

 terness, and as Wafer Ash, from the form of its fruits. P. 

 angustifolia, which sometimes bears its congener company, 

 extends much farther westward. Greater injustice has been 

 done to plants in their classification than by this separation of 

 the two as distinct species. With that understanding they 

 may as well remain as they are. Ailantus glandulosus, a well- 

 known foreigner, has been extensively introduced into the 

 southern portion of central United States. It is largely planted 

 as a street tree in Austin and other Texas cities. The species 

 is valuable in forestry for its extremely rapid growth, its strong, 

 durable wood, and for the facility with which it runs wild, 

 springing up everywhere in unoccupied lands. When at 

 Nacogdoches I noticed that it had literally taken to the woods. 



Kansas City, Kansas. E. N. Plank. 



Notes of Mexican Travel. — V. 



AROUND TOLUCA— CONTINUED. 



T^HE city of Toluca, white-walled and fair, and verdant and 

 -'- shady with parks and avenues of trees, lay in the serene 

 sunlight, as yet scarce awake from its midday siesta, when we 

 climbed into a rickety old diligence and turned into the high- 

 way leading toward the south. Our desdnation for that even- 

 ing was Calimaya, a village ten miles out and at the eastern 

 base of the volcano. Over plain roads, over hill-roads, through 

 several villages with broken pavements of cobblestones, we 

 toiled on through the later hours of the afternoon. Clouds 

 early obscured the sun, and, as we slowly iieared our destina- 

 tion, a vast and black thunder-cloud bore down upon us from 

 the east. We could hear the rustle of the rain falling upon the 

 Corn. It was close upon us when the coach came to a stop in 

 the village. We knew we should find no hotel there, so our 

 baggage was hastily piled in the portal of an inn for animals, 

 and my assistant was left to guard it, while I, with my official 

 paper, hurriedly sought the municipal palace and the president 

 of the village. It goes without saying to all acquainted with 

 Mexican courtesy, that I was kindly received by the president 

 and his secretary. But those easy-going gentlemen were dis- 

 mayed at my undertaking to work the mountain during the 

 rainy season. For three hours of the evening, while a tempest 

 was raging without, to lend force to their forebodings and warn- 

 ings, they rehearsed to me the difficulties and perils, and ad- 

 vised me, all out of a too tender regard for their guest, to 

 abandon my attempt and come again in the winter. No room 

 in their poor little village was good enough to receive us, so 

 when the rain stopped we were gathered together, with our 

 effects, in the council-hall, and mattresses were brought and 

 spread for us on the carpeted floor. At daybreak we made 

 our escape from our overkind friends. When on the street I 

 felt that to retreat would not be doing "like an American," as 

 the Mexicans say. Confiding my perplexity to a kind old shop- 

 woman, she found us good quarters in the home of a wealthy 

 family. Our landlord sent out for the Government forester in 

 charge of the mountain, and I engaged him to guide and escort 

 us, with men and pack-animals, on the following day. 



In the uncertain light of the breaking day the dusky figures 

 of our party might have been seen filing up a side street of 

 Calimaya and entering a lane leading among uncultivated fields. 

 Four or five miles of ascending trails in the open country 

 brought us, when the sun was well up, into a Pine forest. It 

 was a rather open forest, remarkably free from undershrubs 

 and grassy. In clearings, more or less complete, near the bor- 

 ders of the forest, were patches of Potatoes and fields of Bar- 

 ley. Higher openings were pasture-lands, the short sweet 

 grass being cropped close ; but cows grazed throughout the 

 grassy woods, several milk ranches being located on the 

 mountain-side. In the fringe of the forest, belts of the Mexi- 



