332 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 285. 



ing monument of American skill and perseverance. It is 

 more than that, it is a work of genius, and the more it is 

 studied the more we wonder at the prophetic power of the 

 designers in providing so far in advance for the wants of 

 a city, which only existed at that time in imagina- 

 tion. Whenever any radical change in this design is 

 proposed, the project should always be examined with 

 reference to its effect upon the fundamental character of the 

 work as a whole. It is just as truly a unit in conception as 

 if it consisted of a single broad meadow. 



The Height of Ignominy. 



T T was the custom in France, under the old regime, to pun- 

 ■»• ish contumacious noblemen who declined to come to judg- 

 ment by cutting their signorial forests (hois seigneuriaux) to 

 within three feetof the ground. TIms was called "La coupe des 

 bois k hauteur d'infamie," or " La coupe infamaute," and was 

 one of the punishments of treason. It was also inflicted as late 

 as 1665, in the reign of Louis XIV., upon certain men of note 

 who had incurred the royal displeasure by the contumacy of 

 declining to appear in court for their political offenses. These 

 gentlemen, though they were fortunate enough to save their 

 lives by escaping, did not get rid of fearful punishments by 

 decree, and were duly sentenced in their absence, some to the 

 gallows, others to breaking on the wheel, decapitation, whip- 

 ping with banishment, and banishment alone. As a final mark 

 of infamy, their chateaux were to be destroyed and their woods 

 cut a trois pieds de terre. Earlier in the century certain other 

 nobles, who had dared to repeat the offense of meeting to con- 

 sider the necessity of the assembling of the States General, 

 after it had been once forbidden, were condemned to the 

 same punishment for having fled the country rather than 

 to abide their fate at hon:ie. 



In the generally barbarous condition of political government 

 under the Bourbon rule, it is gratifying to see, that in their 

 respect for the forest, the lawmakers of that epoch were civil- 

 ized and already perceived the dignity and importance of the 

 possession of trees. Even in dire vengeance it was only the 

 profit of the trees that was taken away from the guilty pos- 

 sessor, the roots being left to furnish another growth that 

 should be of value to a succeeding generation. To burn a 

 forest, as our reckless settlers do, would have seemed to those 

 prudent Frenchmen, always alive to the material interests of 

 the country, a woeful waste, and they contented themselves 

 accordingly with reaping only one harvest, not destroying 

 future crops completely, allowing thus the soil to retain those 

 forest-conditions, the value of which is so unwisely ignored 

 by our wood-cutters. 



It might be of advantage to our people, if some equally 

 pregnant object-lesson could be furnished them, to make them 

 understand the true signification of the "height of ignominy." 

 What peasant of those cruel days could have failed to be im- 

 pressed with the woe that had befallen the lawful lord when 

 his giant Oaks were despoiled, and only a dreary waste of 

 stumps was left to show where the great forest had stood, the 

 pride of its possessors, and an evidence of their generations 

 of ownership of the property ? To make the felling of a wood 

 a mark of disgrace was to enhance the value of all trees in 

 the eyes of the people, to emphasize the importance of the 

 forest and to point the moral of the worth to every one of this 

 bountiful gift of Nature. The coppice-growth springing from 

 the wreck would, for years to come, remind the older villagers 

 of the great trees that once occupied the ground, and would 

 serve to impress still more upon the children the sufferings of 

 the seigneur who had been so sternly dealt with by the king, 

 in the destruction of the bois under which their fathers and 

 mothers had played, and of the magnificence of which they 

 loved to tell. To destroy those woods was to rob the country- 

 side, to inflict a vengeance that fell, not only on the lord, but 

 on the vassal, for whereas certain private spites of his own 

 might have found a certain satisfaction in the personal suffer- 

 ings of his master, the peasant could not but be moved by the 

 doom that took from himself his chance of fuel, sometimes 

 stealthily gained after a high wind, which strewed the ground 

 with broken branches, or his occupation as forester or char- 

 coal-burner in the glades. Thus the king found a signal 

 method of impressing the consequences of incurring his dis- 

 pleasure upon all his subjects, rich and poor alike, while 

 awakening in them a due respect for the forests, to cut which 

 was so awful a penalty that it followed treason and defiance of 

 lawful authority. 



Botanical Notes from Texas. — X. 



"DERBERIS SWASEYI, Buckley, was found, many years 

 -*-' ago, by the botanist whose name it bears, near Perdinalis 

 River. Its botanical characters, written by Buckley, were pub- 

 lished in Young's Botany of Texas. Since that time it has 

 been rarely, if at all, seen by botanists. While at San Marcos, 

 I learned, incidentally, that a species of Berberis was growing 

 in the northern part of Hays County, very unlike B. trifohata. 

 A specimen of it, furnished me by a star-route man, led me to 

 think that it was Swasey's plant, and I concluded to visit the 

 locality and examine the growing plants. The mail man kindly 

 offered me a pass over the route in his hack, but he assured 

 me that it would be the roughest ride that I had ever taken, 

 and that I would have to pass through Purgatory on the way. 

 But what are fifteen miles of rocky road, and even Purgatory 

 itself, when a new plant, or an old lost one, is to be found ? 



The day chosen for the trip was a pleasant one. Oldfamiliar 

 plants were often to be seen along the way, and occasionally 

 a strange and hitherto unknown one presented itself. We 

 made one halt to leave the mail at Purgatory Post-office, 

 and one more to regale ourselves with the luscious ripe 

 dewberries that were abundant by the road-side. The road 

 was fully as bad as my friend had described it. But Purga- 

 tory was only a pleasant and fertile valley, among the sterile 

 hills, covered with fields of growing Corn and Cotton. A small 

 creek, that waters the valley, bears the same unmeaning 

 name, which had probably been given to the valley by some 

 pessimistic early settler, whose dreams of success had never 

 grown into realities. Just beyond the valley, on the slope of 

 the mountain, we found one Barberry. Two bushes were 

 growing in the enclosure of a farmer. He said that they were 

 natural productions and not planted by him. At the time of 

 my visit, during later days of April, the plants were bearing 

 nearly ripe fruit. One of the plants was a low bush, not rising 

 over three feet. The other one was at least six feet tall. An 

 individual, growing in the highway, was at least eight feet tall. 

 The plants, as seen by me, may be described about as follows : 



Berberis Swaseyi, Buckley. An evergreen shrub, three to 

 eight or more feet tall ; leaflets, two to four, usually three 

 pairs, with a terminal one, basal pair very small, remote and 

 near the base of the petiole, glaucous and reticulate, sinuate-den- 

 tate and spiny; fruit in bracted racemes, globose or obconical, 

 deeply depressed, sunken at the summit, whitish, with a tinge 

 of red in the sun. Said to be common in the mountain-region 

 of central Texas, west of the ninety-eighth meridian. The fruit 

 on one of the bushes varied a little in size and form from that 

 on the others, owing, perhaps, to growing in the shade and 

 being less mature. Berries on the lowest plant were like those 

 on the tallest plant. 



It will be seen that this description differs somewhat from 

 Buckley's, and from Coulter's description of B. Swaseyi. Per- 

 haps, neither Buckley nor Coulter ever saw growing plants of 

 the species. Swasey may have seen only a low form of it. 

 But it can hardly be other than his species. Perdinalis River 

 is thirty or forty miles north of the station that I have men- 

 tioned. 



New Braunfels is a thriving German town, about thirty miles 

 north-east of San Antonio. It has a mountain-born river 

 of its own, though only about a mile long, from its birth- 

 place at the base of a mountain to where it loses itself in the 

 Gaudalupe. Comal River is a deep and rapid stream, afford- 

 ing strong and abundant water-power, which is largely utilized 

 for milling and manufacturing purposes. New Braunfels will 

 always be held in pleasant remembrance by botanists, as hav- 

 ing been, for a long time, the home of Jacob Ferdinand 

 Lindheimer, one of the most ardent and successful of our 

 plant-collectors. He was one of the founders of the city, and 

 found his last resting-place in its cemetery. 



Lindheimer was born in the old free city of Frankfort, in 

 Germany, on the twenty-first day of May, 1801. His family is 

 ancient and honorable and related to the family of Goethe. He 

 received a liberal literary education, and practiced gymnastics 

 under the training of the celebrated Professor Jahn. In 1830 

 he joined in an uprising of the people against the government. 

 It being unsuccessful, he thought it prudent to leave the father- 

 land and come to a country where there is no need of rebel- 

 lions. His first residence was in St. Louis, where he made the 

 acquaintance, which developed into a life-long friendship, with 

 the late Dr. George Engelmann. 



He went, in 1834, with a German colony to Mexico, but, not 

 pleased with the condition of affairs there, he came to Texas, and 

 joining the Texas republicans he assisted them at the decisive 

 battle of San Jacinto in making their attempt at independence 

 a successful one. At the close of the war he settled in Hous- 



