December 6, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



509 



qualities required in a plant for a specimen are a low bushy 

 habit, good foliage Which holds on well, and full blooms of 

 lasting quality and decided color. I add a list of well-tested 

 varieties for specimen plants. Crimson : Mrs. Shrimpton, 

 William Seward, CuUingfordii, G. W. Childs. Red : Tupelo, 

 John Laing, Robert Mclnnes. White: Parthenia, Joseph H. 

 White, Ivory, W. G. Newitt, White Gem. Pink : Enchantress, 

 Louis Boehmer, Duchess of Connaught, Eda Pras, Needles. 

 Yellow : Wm. H. Lincoln. Gloriana, Miles A. Wheeler, Mrs, 

 Bishop, Golden Ball, A. H. Fewkes, President Hyde. Blush- 

 white : Mrs. Joseph Rossiter, Wm. Falconer, Etoile de Lyon, 

 G. Daniels. Orange: Hicks Arnold, Walter Hunnewell, Col. 

 W. B. Smith, Mrs. W. G. Baker. Straw-yellow: Fascination. 

 Crimson incurved: C. B. Whitnall. 



Wellesley, Mass. 



T. D. H. 



Recent Publications. 



American Big-Game Hunting. Edited by Theodore 

 Roosevelt and George Bird Grinnell. New York : Forest 

 and Stream Publishing Company. 



This book is a series of sketches written by members of 

 the Boone and Crockett Club, the objects of which organ- 

 ization, as set forth in its constitution, are : (i) To promote 

 manly sport with the rifie ; (2) to promote travel and ex- 

 ploration in the wild and unknown, or but partially known, 

 portions of the country ; (3) to work for the preservation 

 of the large game of this country, and, so far as possible, to 

 further legislation for that purpose and assist in enforcing 

 the existing laws ; (4) to promote inquiry into and to re- 

 cord observations on the habits and natural history of the 

 various wild animals ; (5) to bring about among the mem- 

 bers an interchange of opinions and ideas on hunting, 

 travel, exploration, various kinds of rifles, the haunts of 

 game animals, etc. While the club devotes itself primarily 

 to sport and the protection of game, nevertheless, in a trip 

 after wilderness-game, the hunter is often obliged to trav- 

 erse regions which are imperfectly known, so that not a 

 little original exploration has been accomplished. Many 

 sketchy surveys made in this way have appeared in various 

 periodicals and in Government reports, but the present 

 volume is devoted almost exclusively to the hunting of big 

 game and questions of game preservation, as the follow- 

 ing attractive list of subjects will show : A Buffalo Story, 

 by George S. Anderson ; The White Goat and His Country, 

 by Owen Wister ; A Day with the Elk, by Winthrop Chan- 

 ler ; Old Times in the Black Hills, by Roger D. Williams ; 

 Big Game in the Rockies, by Archibald Rogers ; Coursing 

 the Prongbuck, by Theodore Roosevelt ; In Buffalo Days, 

 by George Bird Grinnell ; Nights with the Grizzlies, by W. 

 D. Pickett ; Yellowstone Park, by Arnold Hague ; A Moun- 

 tain Fraud, by Dean Sage ; Blacktails in the Bad Lands, by 

 Bronson Rumsey ; Photographing Wild Game, by W. D. 

 Devereux. These articles are accompanied by many en- 

 gravings and half-tone pictures, which really illustrate the 

 text, although some of them are not examples of the best art. 

 No one who has ever enjoyed wild life, even for a short vaca- 

 tion season, can listen to the bare recital of topics like 

 these without having his pulse quickened. They bring 

 reminiscences of rough riding on the plains, of mountain 

 trails and forest camps, of alpine meadows populous with 

 elk, of inaccessible rocks on which the white goat stands 

 sentinel, of mountain streams which come foaming down 

 from everlasting snow, of broad landscapes whose un- 

 speakable beauty has never been marred by man, of long 

 days full of rapture and nights as full of rest. 



Particularly within the scope of this journal, however, 

 come the chapter on Yellowstone Park, and another on our 

 forest-reservations. More than twenty years ago, while 

 the Yellowstone region was still almost entirely unknown, 

 Dr. F. V. Hayden foresaw that it would soon be despoiled 

 unless its curiosiLies could be preserved in their natural 

 condition by Government protection, and he therefore 

 urged the enactment of a law establishing this park; and 

 the report of the Public Lands Committee recommending 

 the passage of the act, after pointing out the worthlessness 

 of the region for agriculture or for settlement, closes with 



these words : " The vi^ithdrawal of this park, therefore, 

 from sale or settlement takes nothing from the value of the 

 public domain and is no pecuniary loss to the Government, 

 but will be regarded by the entire civilized world as a step 

 of progress and an honor to Congress and the nation." 

 This great reservation of something more than 3,300 square 

 miles, and at an elevation of 8,000 feet above the sea, was 

 therefore dedicated and set apart as a pleasure-ground for 

 the benefit and enjoyment of the people. It was an act 

 with far-reaching consequences, not only because it saved 

 this great stretch of mountain, valley and plateau, with its 

 open park-like grass-lands and leagues of unbroken timber ; 

 it not only protected the streams which take their rise in 

 this elevated region, and left a home where the elk, moose, 

 antelope, mountain sheep, buffalo and other big game could 

 find in its great diversity of physical features all that they 

 require for a shelter and food, with seclusion for rearing 

 their young ; but it did much more in that it established a 

 precedent which made it easier at a later day to set apart 

 other forest-reservations in Arizona, California, Colorado, 

 New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming and Alaska — 

 more than 20,000 square miles in all. The members of the 

 Boone and Crockett Club assert positively that in these great 

 reservations can be found every species of large game 

 known in the United States, and the proper protection of- 

 them would mean the perpetuating in full supply all these 

 indigenous mammals. With proper care, therefore, no 

 American species of large game need ever become abso- 

 lutely extinct, provided only legislation is secured for 

 properly policing these preserves. Still more important, in 

 our view, is the climatic and economic value of these vast 

 reservations, which are destined to play an important part 

 in our national forest-policy when we have developed and 

 adopted one. We firmly believe that many more thou- 

 sands of square miles of forest must ultimately pass under 

 Government control. Meanwhile it is well to remember 

 that the forests already reserved lie absolutely unpro- 

 tected. Though devoted to public use, they invite spolia- 

 tion. Timber-thieves may fell their trees, and skin-hunters 

 may kill their game, without any fear of retribution. Some 

 of them are patroled by Federal troops, but there is no 

 statute under which a trespasser can be punished. Every 

 one sees the absurdity of settmg apart a reservation and 

 then leaving it without guard or government, and Congress 

 ought at once to provide machinery for administrating this 

 great property. We heartily concur with the statement of 

 the editors of this book that " the timber and the game in 

 the reservations ought to be made the absolute property of 

 the Government, and it should be constituted a punishable 

 offence to appropriate such property. The game and the 

 timber on a reservation should be regarded as Government 

 property just as the mules and cordwood are at an army 

 post. If it is a crime to take the latter, it should be a crime 

 to plunder a forest-reservation." 



Poems of Nature. B}'- William Cullen Bryant. Illus- 

 trated by Paul de Longpre. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 



This is a collection of some forty of the best-known of 

 Mr. Bryant's poems, each one of which is illustrated with 

 reproductions of one or more wash-drawings by Mr. de 

 Longpre, and many of these last are singularly effective. 

 The landscape sketches are all appropriate and show a 

 trained hand and an affectionate love for nature in various 

 moods, while the details, especially of foliage and birds, are 

 worked out with great skill. The book is admirably printed 

 on thick paper, and it is altogether a beautiful reminder 

 that the holiday season is approaching. 



Notes. 



Professor Tcelease sends out his fifth annual announcement 

 concerning garden pupils for the Missouri Botanical Garden. 

 An examination of the circular shows that tiie course which 

 originally covered six years has been reduced to four years. 



