252 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 277. 



for many other purposes than the increase of flowers, 

 attention must be given to this work during- all the growing 

 season. Surplus wood and suckers should be thinned out 

 in summer, as clean-cut wounds will heal more quickly 

 then than those made in cold winter. Many trees and 

 shrubs which bleed freely, like the Yellow-wood and 

 Maples, heal better if pruned when in full leaf. Coarse- 

 growing shrubs should always be restrained so that they 

 do not smother out others of more delicate habit. Shoots 

 which are making too strong a growth should be stopped 

 in midsummer by pinching, which will not only preserve 

 the symmetry of the plant but will encourage the growth 

 of flower-buds and fruit in full-grown specimens, and 

 will induce smaller ones to yield flowers and fruit at 

 an earlier age than if left to themselves. Some trees 

 which are tender if left unpruned will ripen up their wood 

 and endure the winter if the tips and branches are pinched 

 back in summer. This is especially useful in wet seasons 

 when the branches continue to grow until cold weather. 

 This pinching will also enable many kinds of trees 

 and shrubs to ripen their fruit better, so that altogether 

 this summer work of carefully removing superfluous 

 interior branches which cross each other and exclude the 

 light and air from the head of the tree or shrub, the 

 shortening-in of overstrong branches which mar the 

 symmetry of the tree, the rubbing away of surplus buds 

 and pinching back of branches in the summer, are among 

 the most important of garden operations. 



The Chinese Wistaria. 



THE Chinese Wistaria was introduced into European 

 gardens in the early part of this century. Its vigor- 

 ous constitution, .its adaptability to a widefange of climate, 

 its abundant flowers and graceful habit have made it a 

 universal favorite. This year it has been especially beau- 

 tiful in Central Park, where it covers many arbors and shel- 

 ters. On the top of the great Pergola, near the lawn, which 

 is nearly two hundred feet in length, the flowers seemed to 

 be massed in great heaps, and they hung over the edge in 

 profuse wreaths and garlands for the entire length of the 

 structure. After the flowering season of the plant is over 

 its foliage covers these shelters with thick and graceful, 

 but not too heavy, masses. The Wistaria is also seen to 

 excellent advantage when it climbs into the open heads of- 

 deciduous trees. This year a Linden in the park, which 

 was completely, though loosely, draped with the abun- 

 dant lilac clusters of flowers, looked like a large bou- 

 quet. The Wistaria is often used for this purpose in Japan, 

 and several of Mr. Parsons' most interesting studies repre- 

 sent trees festooned with its flowers. It is very useful also 

 in forming effective arrangements of color in the autumn. 

 When climbing over a mass of Staghorn Sumachs or other 

 trees, whose foliage turns to scarlet or other bright colors, 

 its green leaves do much by their contrast to increase the 

 effectiveness of the mass. 



When young plants of Wistaria are cut back to a height 

 of six or eight feet and pruned in for some years, the stem 

 will stiffen until it is able to stand alone, and the top will 

 spread out into a broad head, and in this way it becomes 

 an attractive specimen. When planted in tubs, and trained 

 to this erect form, the Wistaria, when in flower, makes an 

 excellent plant for conservatory decoration. The illustra- 

 tion on page 256 is from a photograph, taken by Mr. Paul 

 Dana, of a Wistaria trained in this manner, which is grow- 

 ing at Dosoris. There are some other species and varie- 

 ties of Wistaria, probably the most promising of which are 

 the blue and white formsof W. multijuga, which has proved 

 perfectly hardy as far north as Massachusetts, and bears ra- 

 cemes of fragrant flowers from two to two and a half feet in 

 length. W. multijuga, which is probably a native of China, 

 although its origin is obscure, promises to be a great ad- 

 dition to our gardens. It flowers nearly two weeks later than 

 W. Sinensis, and the flowers exhale a delightful fragrance, 

 in which particular it differs from the other species. 



Our Coniferous Forests. 



AT the Nurserymen's Convention, held in Chicago last 

 XV. week, Mr. Robert Douglas read a paper, from which 

 we take the following extracts : 



I well remember sailing up the St. Lawrence in May, 

 1836, when in sight, for the first time, of an indigenous ever- 

 green forest, saying to myself, " Well, now I can ramble in the 

 woods to my heart's content ! No gamekeepers here ! No 

 finger-boards cautioning me to beware of man-traps and 

 spring-guns !" We reached Quebec May 21st in the midst of 

 the spring fleet, for even at that early day vessels came from 

 Great Britain — coming in ballast, and going back laden twice 

 a year with lumber, which was brought from the interior in 

 rafts to Quebec. 



In 1837 I traveled from Quebec to Niagara Falls, and forests 

 were everywhere in sight. Farmers were girdling the trees 

 and growing crops among the gaunt dead Pines, which looked 

 like goblins on a moonlit night. 



On my way to Vermont m 1838 I saw fields fenced with 

 White Pine stumps only a little way east of Troy, New York. 

 East of Bennington, Vermont, they were cutting down the tim- 

 ber and making it into charcoal. On the east side of the Green 

 Mountains farmers were felling the trees in wind-rows and 

 burning them. During the spring of 1844 I traveled through 

 virgin forests in Michigan, and at tliat time tlie northern part 

 of that state was covered with White Pine, and the same was 

 true of northern Wisconsin, the Michigan peninsula and Min- 

 nesota, and I never imagined that lumber, especially pine lum- 

 ber, would ever become scarce in this country ; but when I 

 traveled to the Pacific coast in 1849, ^"d passed through more 

 torest in the first four miles from the shore of Lake Michigan 

 than I found all the rest of tiie way to the base of the Sierra 

 Nevada Mountains, I became convinced then that the time was 

 not far distant when the country would regret the wholesale 

 destruction of its noble Pine-forests. In 1868, and many years 

 since that time, I have traveled in Colorado and otherfar west- 

 ern states, and found many magnificent coniferous forests, but 

 the axe and the fires have destroyed them, and valuable spe- 

 cies will never grow there again. For several years I have 

 longed for a sight of such forests as I saw long ago, but was 

 not gratified until last year, when, in company with my son, I 

 spent the late summer and fall in the forests of Washington, 

 Oregon and northern California. We spent day after day for 

 two weeks around Puget Sound in the immense forests, where 

 the trees were 100 to 200 feet taller than the tallest trees on the 

 Adantic slope. Here history is repeating itself, and I was 

 laughed at for my forebodings, as I had been laughed at on 

 this side of the mountains a generation ago. 



Where will you find your coniferous forests on the five-hun- 

 dredth anniversary of the discovery of America ? My belief is 

 that they will stand where the forests have been cut down and 

 burned over, fOr Nature is more provident than man, and will 

 do the best she can, but the conifers that Nature will produce 

 in these burned and desolated regions will be neither orna- 

 mental nor useful. The same fires that sweep away every ves- 

 tige of trees and seeds of the valuable evergreens open the 

 persistent cones of the scrub Pines that hang unopened for 

 fifteen years at least, according to my observation, waiting for, 

 what is to them, the friendly fire. The Wisconsin Gray Pine 

 (Pinus Banksiana) is already faking the places of the nobler 

 Norway and White Pines. P. contorta is covering the burned 

 lands in Colorado and the burned Pine-lands in the Rocky 

 Mountain districts, and other species of worthless Pines occu- 

 pying the burned Pine-lands both in the far west and in the 

 south. But even these worthless Pines have to fight with other 

 comparatively worthless trees for a foothold, for the Aspens 

 and other Poplars, the Birches and like kinds, producing seeds 

 that are carried long distances by the winds, find tfie burned 

 lands in the finest condition for germinating delicate seeds, 

 and divide the land with the Thistle, which delights in burned 

 land. 



Darwin says the Oaks are driving the Pines to the sands, 

 but without forest-fires the Oaks would make little headway. 

 There are Oaks in every Pine-forest that I have explored ; fires 

 cannot destroy them ; they are gaining grodnd continually, as 

 far as my observation goes. There are other causes operat- 

 ing against valuable evergreens. Nature has a vast family to 

 feed, aside from producing seeds to continue the species. 

 Passenger pigeons, mourning doves and other birds and 

 squirrels must be fed. The White Pines produced millions of 

 seedlings when bearing trees were in plenty ; the birds are 

 taking all the seeds where the trees are scarce. 



Then again, evergreen trees with delicate foliage are not 

 able to compete with the coarser kinds ; they are scorched and 



