March 19, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



H7 



now a fine, vigorous plant, each succeeding leaf being larger 

 than that which preceded it." 



I would infer from those remarks that Mr. Moore succeeded 

 simply by following the bent of his genius, and quite inde- 

 pendent of any knowledge he may have possessed of the Bor- 

 nean climate. The experience of Mr. F. L. Ames' gardener, 

 as reported on page 108, would also point to the minor impor- 

 tance of minute knowledge regarding habitat in this particular 



Cambridge, Mass. M. Barker. 



Native Shrubs in a Mild Winter. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — Thoreau, who was a very keen observer, says, in his 

 journal, that he does not remember to have seen the buds 

 upon indigenous shrubs prematurely started by mild weather 

 in winter. 



This statement has been verified during the past season, so 

 far as I have had opportunity to examine. While plants 

 of exotic origin, such as the Japan Quince, the Syringa, 

 European Cornels, Lilacs, Clematis, etc., have awakened to a 

 dangerous degree under the warm sun of January and Feb- 

 ruary, the native Cornels, Alders, Clematis, Virginia Creeper 

 and others remain safely inactive — though growing sometimes 

 side by side with the former. 



This is a singular and somewhat significant fact, suggesting, 

 perhaps, that the indigenous growths have inherited, from an 

 ancient line of ancestry, a sense of the fickle and dangerous 

 character of the wintry airs of New England ; and that their 

 spring openings, accordingly, are regulated by dates more 

 than by temperatures. Does the rule hold good also among 

 herbaceous perennials ? I found Phlox decussata, Sedum, 

 etc., an inch or more above ground in February, while such 

 natives as Trillium grandifloriim and Aster Nova Anglicekeep 

 quietly in bed for a season yet. 



It would be interesting to hear from those whose oppor- 

 tunities for wide observation in this particular are of more 

 value than mine. Among the larger plants I do not find the 

 rule applying as fully. The White Maples were allured into 

 thrusting out their tiny and beautiful blossoms in February, 

 and the buds of the Red Maple, American Elm, Beech and 

 some others have been considerably swollen for some time. 

 The Maples are always a sensitive race, however, as the 

 sugar makers are well aware — the others mentioned are not 

 yet, I think, sufficiently advanced to receive injury, even 

 from zero weather. 



Dorchester, Mass. E. ^. Farwell. 



The Tulip-Tree from Seed. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — I wish to raise a quantity of young Tulip-trees (Lirio- 

 dendron tulipiferd), and should like to know how to pro- 

 ceed in order to get them from the seed. I sowed some 

 seeds last year and not one came up. 



Bucks County, Pa. "• -"■• 



[As a rule, about one seed in ten of this tree will germi- 

 nate, and. even this limited fraction of the whole never 

 sprouts till the second year. Mr. Jackson Dawson's plan 

 is to take a box of good size and fill it with seed and fine 

 sand in alternate layers, and then bury the box in a well- 

 sheltered place, and leave it there one season. The next 

 spring the box is lifted, the seed is taken carefully out, 

 sown thickly in rows and covered lightly. Mr. Dawson 

 read a paper on propagating trees and shrubs from seed at 

 a meeting of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society on 

 March 7th, 1885. The paper was published in pamphlet 

 form, and it contains information of practical value to every 

 one who wishes to raise seedling-trees or shrubs. — Ed.] 



Periodical Literature. 



Only a few years ago references to our vanishing forests 

 were rare in print, and were principally confined to scien- 

 tific journals. But to-day one can hardly take up a newspaper 

 or magazine without finding some insistent plea for forest- 

 preservation, based on definite knowledge of the damage 

 which has already been done and a lively sense of the immi- 

 nent greater damage to come. An example in point is an ex- 

 cellent article called " The Forestry Problem," by Mr. Charles 

 Morris, published in the February issue of Lippincott's Maga- 

 zine. The facts it cites are chiefly drawn from the Census 

 reports of 1880 ; and bad as they are, the reader would be 



shocked indeed had it been possible to gather data as full 

 to-day, and to contrast the ruin of 1880 with the wider ruin of 

 1890. Of course the subject is too familiar to our own readers 

 to justify an abstract of Mr. Morris' article. We need only 

 quote one paragraph as touching upon a cause of injury which 

 is, perhaps, less justly estimated by the public than the lum- 

 berman's axe and the camper's fire. This is the forest-brows- 

 ing of animals. "It is common in the southern Atlantic 

 States," says the writer, " and in California to turn cattle, sheep, 

 horses and hogs into the woods to pick up there a scanty sub- 

 sistence. The result is the destruction of seedling plants in 

 immense numbers, while young trees, and often old ones, are 

 killed by the loss of their bark. Hogs add to the ruin by root- 

 ing up the young Pines and feeding on their succulent roots. 

 ... At the opening of the dry season in California immense 

 herds of cattle, horses and sheep are driven into the mountains 

 to graze, and from the foot-hills to the highest alpine meadows 

 not only every blade of grass, but also every seedling tree, is 

 destroyed. The present forests await the axe, but the hopes of 

 future forests are ruined. Nor is this all. The sharp hoofs of 

 the sheep, winding up the steep acclivities, tread out the roots 

 of the grasses and other perennial plants; the soil, deprived of 

 its vegetable covering, is washed away by the rains ; and not 

 only is the possibility of future forests destroyed, but the fertile 

 plains below are threatened with burial under the gravel and 

 sand swept from the bare mountain-sides." 



In Harper's Magazine lor March Mr. Charles Dudley War- 

 ner humorously deplores the recent rise of the Chrysanthe- 

 mum in fashionable favor, and thinks it imperative upon him 

 to declare that it is less beautiful than the Rose, and to predict 

 that after a while the Rose " will become again the fashion 

 and be more passionately admired for its temporary banish- 

 ment." If he had consulted facts instead of his own imagina- 

 tion, he would have known that, despite this vogue, there was 

 never a time when Roses were so largely in demand as now. 

 Chrysanthemums have not pushed them out of favor; they 

 have merely won themselves a place which, before they 

 came, was empty; for, as Mr. Warner might have remem- 

 bered, the Chrysanthemum season is the very season when 

 Roses are at their worst and it is most difficult to obtain them. 

 In early summer they bloom for us out-of-doors; in winter 

 and spring the hot-house supplies them; but in autumn what 

 did we have before the Chrysanthemum was a favorite ? 

 Moreover, there are Chrysanthemums and Chrysanthemums, 

 and while we often see flowers with little but size or eccen- 

 tricity to recommend them, multitudes of varieties are truly 

 beautiful in form as well as color. It is quite unjust to say in 

 a general way that the Chrysanthemum "goes along with all 

 the conceits and fantastic unrest of the decorative art " of the 

 moment, and " helps out our age of plush with a flame of 

 color." Is it not the favorite flower of the Japanese, who, 

 above all other peoples, are remarkable for sobriety in house- 

 hold adornment ? Of course it can be misused, but so can 

 the Rose itself ; and if any flower may be taken as an emblem 

 of the extravagance and display which too often characterize 

 American homes and entertainments, one could more justly 

 cite the costly hot-house Rose, despite its sentiment and its 

 "capacity of shyly and reluctantly unfolding its beauty," than 

 the cheap Chrysanthemum, although it may be true that 

 " there is nothing shame-faced or retiring about it." 



Recent Plant Portraits. 



Botanical Magazine for February : 



Podophyllum pleianthum, t. 7098 ; a native of Formosa, 

 and a near ally of our Mandrake or May Apple, from which it 

 differs by its axillary flowers and isomerous stamens and 

 petals; and is also interesting in departing from its congeners 

 in having numerous deep purple colored flowers. P. pleian- 

 thum was discovered in 1881 by Mr. T. Watters, and was in- 

 troduced into England from the Hong-Kong Botanic Garden 

 in 1885 and flowered at Kew in August last year. 



Cottonia macrostachya, t. 7099 ; a small-flowered Indian 

 Orchid of considerable botanical interest, although the flowers 

 are not showy or of much value from a decorative point of 

 view. 



Drosera cistiflora, t. 7100; the most beautiful of all the 

 cultivated Sundews, with bright scarlet flowers. It is a native 

 of the south-west corner of south Africa, whence living plants 

 were introduced to Kew by Miss North, the distinguished 

 botanical artist, whose gallery of flower paintings, made in all 

 parts of the world, is one of the chief popular attractions of the 

 Royal Gardens. 



Chironia palustris, t. 7101; a south African representative 

 of the Gentias, with rosy pink flowers, and distinguished from 



