52| 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 304. 



cealed from it now by trees and undergrowth. Possibly they 

 can be better \''iewed on foot. 



At the time Mr. Olmsted's little book was published the trees 

 had not made a great growth, but their present luxuriance is 

 very striking, and they form the chief variety in the approach 

 to the great scene visible from the summit. From that sum- 

 mit one descends on the opposite side of the mountain, pass- 

 ing the reservoir and the Allan and Redpath properties, and 

 issuing into the streets of the city. At a distance the mountain 

 is distigured by the perpendicular cut of a steep railway which 

 leads to the top, and is an ugly feature in the landscape. 



A city so grandly endowed by Nature with such a pleasure- 

 ground as this is truly to be envied, and it is to be hoped that 

 nothing will be neglected in its future management to enhance 

 its pictur-esque advantages. 



Hinghani, Mass. 



M. C. Robbins. 



Notes on some Texas Trees. 



Fraxinus Americana, var. Texensis, a small tree with hard, 

 fine-grained wood of great value for flooring, but generally 

 is too small for use, except as fuel, which is rated as first- 

 class. Some trees reach the height of fifty feet, with body 

 two or three feet through, but generally they are much 

 smaller. They grow on limestone bluffs and are never 

 found growing naturally along the water-courses. The pop- 

 ular name of the tree here is the Mountain Ash. 



Ulmus crassifolia grows in all situations and soils, ex- 

 cept pure sand. In the low and swampy lands of the 

 Trinity bottom, this Elm and the Celtis occidentalis 

 form the four-fifths of the timber. It grows there in dense 

 clumps to a height of twenty to forty feet, and along the foot- 

 hills and other favored places some specimens are found 

 eighty feet high, with a diameter of three or four feet. Under 

 such favorable conditions the tree is generally straight and 

 symmetrical, with branches spreading at right angles. On 

 dry uplands and in rocky localities it is a small tree, with 

 a thick trunk and broad head. The leaves are very small, 

 but densely set on the boughs and of a dark green color, 

 turning to a bright yellow late in the fall. The flowers are 

 very small and appear in August and September, followed 

 by abundant seeds that are ripe three or four weeks later. 

 Though comparatively rare in cultivation here, this species 

 must be recommended as one of the best shade-trees of this 

 country. Among its commendable qualities are its adapt- 

 abilty to all kinds of soils and situations, its freedom from 

 diseases and attacks of insects. I do not remember ever 

 to have seen on it any of the lice which infest the White Elm. 

 The wood is of a reddish color, and splits easily. Before 

 the advent of railroads it was used for fencing, either as 

 rails or boards, and was quoted only as second quality. 

 This species is known here as Red Elm and Cedar Elm. 



Maclura aurantiaca attains at its best development the 

 height of forty or fifty feet, with a trunk three feet thick. 

 The leaves are broad, dark green, turning bright yellow in 

 the fall. It is dioecious, and the fruits, as large as the largest 

 oranges, and of a pale green color, give to it a very striking 

 and picturesque appearance. This is one of the most valua- 

 ble trees of Texas. The wood that is yellow is practically 

 incorruptible, and for that reason is extensively used for 

 posts, wheels and spokes, and it makes an excellent paving 

 material. The town of Dallas has its principal streets paved 

 with blocks of this wood, and it has proved a great success. 

 The bark has been used for tanning purposes. The Ma- 

 clura makes a good shade-tree, though the big fruits are 

 sometimes in the way, but its main use is as a hedge-plant. 

 It requires severe pruning in order to keep it in bounds. 

 The fruit is eaten by horses and cattle. This tree, known 

 as Osage-orange and Bois d'Arc, grows in the rich bottom- 

 lands along the water-courses of the eastern part of the 

 state ; but it is only moderately abundant, and it is to be 

 feared that large specimens will soon become quite scarce. 



Quercus Durandi, an Oak that acquires in Alabama quite 

 large dimensions, is a rather dwarf species in Texas. The 

 biggest tree I ever saw was about twenty-five feet high and 

 one foot in diameter, but such are of a very rare occurrence. 

 For the most part it is a straggling shrub, a few feet high. 



forming large clumps or extensive thickets on rocky bluffs 

 of western Texas. Its principal merit is its heavy crop of 

 small acorns that it hardly fails to produce every year. 

 The tree, when isolated, is not devoid of beauty, and its 

 dense foliage, persisting late in the season, may recom- 

 mend it as a shade-tree. It is called the Pin Oak. 

 Dallas, Tex. J, RevercJion. 



Notes on the Forest Flora of Japan. — XXVI. 



OF the Firs of Japan we saw only four species, and one 

 of these, Abies firma, only as a cultivated plant. This 

 is the largest and the most beautiful of the Japanese Firs, 

 often growing in cultivation to the height of one hundred 

 and twenty feet, and producing clean tall stems four or 

 six feet in diameter. Writers on Japanese forests speak 

 of Abies firma as common south of latitude forty, north, in 

 the upper belt of deciduous trees, but we never saw it ex- 

 cept in parks and temple-gardens, or in the immediate 

 neighborhood of houses. It is this species which is chiefly 

 called Momi by the Japanese, although the name is applied 

 generally to all Firs, and it is this tree which in Hondo 

 supplies the fir-wood of commerce. This is soft, straight- 

 grained and easily worked, and hardly distinguishable from 

 the wood of the European Fir ; it is used for building pur- 

 poses and cheap packing-cases, but is not greatly valued. 

 Although this species has usually proved a disappointment 

 as an ornamental tree in this country and in Europe, it is 

 certainly, as it grows in Japan, one of the most beautiful of 

 all Firs, distinguished by the nobility of its port and by its 

 bright green and very lustrous long rigid leaves, which 

 are sometimes sharply pointed, and sometimes divided at 

 the apex. It probably needs a warmer and moister climate 

 than that of the northern United States in which to develop 

 all its beauties ; further south it should, however, make a 

 fine tree. 



The Fir of which we saw the most in Japan is the Abies 

 homolepis of Siebold and Zuccarini. This is the plant 

 which is now often cultivated in our gardens under the 

 name of Abies brachyphylla, a more recent name. It is 

 the common Fir of central Japan, and abounds in the Nikko 

 Mountains between 4,000 and 5,000 feet elevation above 

 the sea, although it does not form continuous forests, but 

 is scattered singly, or in small groups, through the Birch 

 and Oak woods which cover the ground just below the 

 Hemlock belt. It is a massive, although not a very tall, 

 tree, apparently never growing to a greater height than 

 eighty or ninety feet ; and in old age it is easily distin- 

 guished from all other Firs by its broad round head, the 

 branches near the tops of the trees growing longer than 

 those lower down on the stems. This peculiarity is seen 

 even on young plants in our gardens, on which the lower 

 branches, which soon stop growing, are shaded by the 

 longer ones produced above them. The pale bark, the long 

 crowded leaves, dark green above and silvery white below, 

 and the large purple cones make this a handsome tree. 

 In cultivation here it is very hardy, and grows with re- 

 markable rapidity. The inaccessibility of the places where 

 Abies homolepis grows in Japan precludes the general use 

 of the wood, although we found it employed in the little 

 alpine village of Umoto for building material. 



The chief object of our visit to Mount Hakkoda, in north- 

 ern Hondo, was to find Abies Mariesii, which the botanical 

 collector, whose name this tree bears, discovered there sev- 

 eral years before. It is common on this mountain at about 

 5,000 feet above the sea- level, scattered among deciduous 

 trees, and, so far as we observed, it is the only Fir of north- 

 ern Hondo. As we saw it, Abies Mariesii forms a compact 

 pyramid about forty or fifty feet high, with crowded 

 branches covered with short dark foliage, pale below, and 

 producing in great abundance large dark purple cones. It 

 is a handsome, but in no wise a striking or remarkable, 

 tree, which in all probability will flourish in severe cli- 

 mates. It is only known on the high mountains of north- 

 ern Hondo and in one place on the shores of southern 



