272 



Garden and Forest. 



[June 4, 1890. 



for agriculture. They are now cut and pastured so closely as 

 to destroy many springs and streams. All the lands above 

 live thousand feet of altitude should be kept for timber and 

 mining, withdrawn from sale and protected. 



Mr. Lillis says that for six years he has traveled over the 

 mountains of three counties, a territory as large as Massachu- 

 setts, and has seldom been able to find trees of less than 

 twenty years' growth. This shows that the sheep have 

 destroyed all the young timber, and that it has not been per- 

 mitted to grow. He found that in the high Kern districts, from 

 8,000 to 12,000 feet above the sea, one-third of the stand- 

 ing timber was dead. Last July and August he was never out 

 of sight of eight or ten forest-tires, and sometimes counted 

 more than twenty. He continues: 



" I have asked sheep men for the reasons for so many fires, 

 and they have answered that they did not want their sheep ob- 

 structed in their movements by timber and brush, and that 

 they proposed to burn it off. The needles or leaves of the 

 Pine-trees on the Kern and Kings Rivers are removed from 

 the roots of the trees by the sheep, and they are exposed to 

 the frosts of winter and the heat of summer. The frequency 

 cf the fires destroys the outer bark, and finally the tree dies. 

 Then the fires catch in the resin of other trees and burn them, 

 leaving the mountains as bare as a desert." 



The old settlers in the Sierra region say that an enormous 

 amount of water can be easily and cheaply impounded there. 

 The present system is to construct expensive dams in the canons 

 near the valley. The proper places for reservoirs are on the high 

 levels in chains of small lakes, and " flats " where the outlet 

 can be raised at a slight expense. There are said to be hun- 

 dreds of places at the heads of the Sierra rivers that are 

 adapted for water storage. About these natural and artificial 

 lakes the native timber should be allowed to grow, and the 

 sheep pasturage and annual burning of the forest should be 

 prevented. This is the most simple, effective and least costly 

 system that has been proposed, and all the old mountaineers 



favor iL r-j 7 u c/ ■ 



Niies, Cal. Charles H. Shinn. 



New or Little Known Plants. 

 Phoenix Roebelenii.* 



THIS new and distinctly marked species of Phoenix 

 was introduced into England about a year ago by 

 M. Rcebelen, of Singapore, who forwarded plants of it to 

 a London auctioneer, from whom they were all purchased 

 by Messrs. F. Sander & Co., of St. Albans, except the plant 

 here figured, which is in the Kew collection. It is by far the 

 smallest of all the many kinds of Phoenix known, and is 

 also exceptional in the form of its stem and in the elegance 

 and soft texture of its bright green leaves. According to 

 M. Rcebelen it is a native of the Laos States, Siam. "It 

 grows in great abundance along the rocky banks of the 

 majestic river Mekong, as far north as twenty-two degrees 

 latitude, and where the temperature descends to forty-one 

 degrees Fahrenheit in the months of December and 

 January. Although I looked very eagerly for seeds and 

 flowers, I could discover none, but was told by the natives 

 that monkeys and wildcats are very fond of the small ber- 

 ries, and carry them to their hiding places, where I really 

 could discover thousands of seedlings. The stems of this 

 exceedingly graceful pigmy Palm never attain to more 

 than about two feet in height, and the plant generally 

 grows in large clumps. In the Singapore Botanic Garden 

 there exists a small example of a Palm without a stem, and 

 resembling my Palm very much in color and shape of the 

 leaves, labeled Phoenix farinosa, and of unknown origin. 

 Whether it is the same, or a nearly allied species, I cannot 

 say, but doubt it very much, as P. Rmbelenii was unknown 

 to the natives, but was much admired by those Laos living 

 further south of the town of Luang Phrabang." 



In the Kew herbarium there is a specimen of a Phcenix 

 collected in 1848 by Sir Joseph Hooker in Sikkim at an alti- 

 tude of 4,000 feet, and which is very similar to P. Rcebe- 

 lenii in every character except in its being stemless 

 although in flower. 



The plant here figured (see page 273) has two stems, the 

 longer of which is sixteen inches in length by one and a half 



♦O'Brien in Gardeners' Chronicle, iS 

 in M.ilesia, iii., 382. 



j, vi., 475.— Rcebelen, idem, 758. — Eeccari 



inches in diameter. The leaves are a foot long, and the 

 pinnae, which are not quite regular in their arrangement 

 along the rachis, are from five to seven inches long, shining 

 dark green, soft in texture and curved, and not at all 

 spinous at the tips. 



Beccari in his recently published monograph of the 

 genus Phoenix refers P. Roebeleniito P. humihs, var. Lourieri, 

 which he describes as having very glaucescent fronds from 

 two and a half to three and a half feet in length. He also 

 includes under P. humilis such widely different plants as 

 P. peduncnlata, P. Hanceana and P. pusilla. However much 

 the needs of botany may justify this lumping arrangement, 

 it is worse than useless for horticulture. Indeed, I believe 

 that if Professor Beccari could see living plants of P. Rcebe- 

 lenii he would almost certainly feel compelled to alter his 

 views with respect to its botanical position. 



At Kew we have all the cultivated species and most 

 marked varieties of Phcenix represented by living plants, 

 but we have nothing that comes anywhere near to P. 

 Raebelenii. 



From its habit of pushing up suckers freely, this Palm is 

 likely to become soon plentiful in gardens ; its abundance 

 in a wild state, as described by Rcebelen, is also likely to 

 be turned to account by collectors. 



It is one of the prettiest of the many Palms cultivated at 



Kew, deserving to be placed in the same category with 



Cocos Weddelliana and Geonorna gracilis, so useful when 



small as decorative plants. 

 Kew. W. Watson. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



HPHE meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society on May 13th 

 -*• was a most successful one, the exhibits being numerous 

 and exceptionally interesting. The authorities had invited ex- 

 hibitors to send specimens of such flowering trees and shrubs 

 as bloom in the open air in England at this time, and the occa- 

 sion was in fact an " Arbor Day." The vast number of beau- 

 tiful hardy spring flowering shrubs now in cultivation and 

 made available for every one by the energy of nurserymen 

 was abundantly set forth. Many gardeners were surprised to 

 find how much richer the shrubbery and park might be made 

 by. a liberal use of hosts of beautiful flowering plants which 

 till now were unknown to them. 



There are evidences of a revival of interest in this depart- 

 ment of gardening. Evergreens, and especially conifers, have 

 perhaps been over-planted in the making of English gardens, 

 the effect being much heavier and more monotonous than is 

 desirable in a garden — an effect more properly associated with 

 the churchyard and cemetery. The niggardliness with which 

 good flowering hardy trees and shrubs have been and are even 

 now employed in the composition of the out-door garden was 

 commented upon at the meeting by Mr. W. Goldring, who had 

 been invited by the Society to read a paper on the subject of 

 "Spring Flowering Trees and Shrubs." He recommended 

 gardeners and others interested to pay frequent visits to such 

 collections as that at Kew and to the nurseries where these 

 plants are specially grown, and to note for themselves the 

 plants which might be employed for effect, as well as what to 

 avoid. That such a course was desirable was proved by the 

 plants exhibited at the meeting. Kew alone sent flowering 

 branches of over 180 species, whilst from Messrs. Veitch and 

 G. Paul there were collections of beautiful and interesting 

 plants. Amongst those sent from Kew the following were the 

 most attractive : 



Amelanchier Asiatica, A. Botryapium, A. Canadensis, A. vul- 

 garis, Azalea amcena (hardy in the neighborhood of London), 

 Berberis Darwinii, B. empetrifolia, B. stenophylla, Primus 

 avium varieties, P. clirysocarpa, P. oxycarpa, P. Mahaleb 

 varieties, P. pnmila, Cercis Siliquastrum, Choisya ternata, Cot- 

 oneaster horizontalis; Crataegus of many kinds ; Cytisus albus, 

 now magnificent at Kew ; C. scoparins, var. Andreanus, Exo- 

 chorda grandiflora, Genista Hispanica, Kalmia glauca, a de- 

 lightful little plant with rosy red clusters of flowers ; Ledum 

 pahistre and L. latifolium, both ornamental and free flowering; 

 Leiophyllum buxifolium, the Sand Myrtle of New Jersey; Mag- 

 nolias of sorts ; Olearia stellulata, a delightful little shrub 

 with small leaves and clusters of white Aster-like flowers - 

 Piptanthus Nepalensis, the Himalayan Laburnum; Prunus de- 

 pressa, P. pumila, P. triloba, Pyrus Maulei, varieties; P. Bingo, 



