June i8, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



2 95 



Oaks, Elms, Chestnuts and Hornbeams. Lacking the pic- 

 turesque wild charm of the Forest of Fontaineblcau, it has a 

 sober and massive beauty of its own, with its dense growth of 

 trees divided at regular intervals by straight avenues and 

 alleys. It contains several small buildings, among them one 

 called Les Logcs, which is a government school for young 

 c;irls. From this building the view we present (see page 299) 

 is taken, showing another adaptation of that system of planting 

 called "French parterres," to which we have several times 

 referred during the past few months. Seen in connection with 

 the building itself, the effect of such formal planting is, of course, 

 better appreciated; but the picture shows how well it has been 

 joined to the forest beyond. If this had the varied natural 

 aspect wc find at Fontainebleau, its association with a formal 

 garden would have been less justifiable ; but here, where it is 

 formal itself in character, an appropriate garden foreground 

 for a dignified structure has been secured with no violation of 

 the laws of harmony. 



Pinus glabra. 



V 



OCAL in its distribution, and sparsely scattered amongst 

 ' the rich and varied tree growth of the heavy forests 

 in the southern states east of the Mississippi River, the Spruce 

 Pine has until recently been but little noticed. It was de- 

 scribed by Walter more than 100 years ago, but for the next 

 seventy years it escaped the attention of botanists, when 

 it was rediscovered by Mr. H. W. Ravenel, most proba- 

 bly in the same district where it was found in the coast region 

 of South Carolina by the first investigator of the flora of that 

 state. Subsequently Dr. Mellichamp observed the tree in 

 several other localities of the coast near the southern limits of 

 the state. About ten years later it was found by Professor 

 Hilgard in the south-western part of Mississippi on the banks 

 of the Pearl River, then by M. A. Curtissin Florida on theChat- 

 tachochee River ; and the same year I traced its distribution 

 through the eastern-gulf states to its western limit. 



This Pine, generally known to the people of the country as 

 the Spruce Pine, extends from the coast region of South Caro- 

 lina just below the line of thirty-three degrees north latitude 

 to the valley of the Pearl River, in Mississippi, to the latitude 

 of thirty degrees thirty seconds, and is in that state as well as 

 in Alabama confined to a belt of from 115 to 125 miles wide. 

 It is found in dense woods with a soil of deep light loam rich 

 in vegetable mould, retentive of moisture, but not wet, and 

 particularly in situations where a more or less sandy subsoil 

 favors a moderate under-drainage. Under the conditions of a 

 mild climate, with an abundant rainfall, and a soil with a fair 

 store of the elements of plant food, the forest-vegetation ex- 

 hibits in greatest variety and luxuriance. 



Here this Pine is found associated with magnificent 

 Magnolias (M. acuminata and M. macrophylla), the Short- 

 leaved Pine (Pinus echinata), the Red Bay (Persea Caroli- 

 nensis), and almost unfailingly the Beech, with its dense 

 foliage of freshest green during the earlier part of the season, 

 standing forth in pleasing contrast with the dark, glistening 

 leaves of the Magnolia and the sombre shades of the Pines. 

 The variety of smaller trees and flowering shrubs adds to the 

 charm and interest of the surroundings of this Pine, amongst 

 them the Holly (Ilex opaca), Palmettos, the Farkelberry (Vac- 

 cinium arboreum), large, bush Huckleberries (V. virgatum), 

 the Angelica-tree (Aralia spinosa), Red-flowering Buckeyes 

 (ALs cuius Pavia), Styraxes and Cornels, Sty rax grahdiflora and 

 Cornus sericea being most conspicuous. These lands of a 

 rich soil, and supporting such varied vegetation, called hum- 

 mock lands, are most frequent in the coast region, where 

 the streams emerge from the Pine-uplands to the plain or flat- 

 woods fronting the sea-shore. The Spruce Pine is entirely 

 wanting in the Pine-uplands or Pine-barrens proper, where the 

 Long-leaved Pine forms exclusively the forest-growth. This last 

 reappears again in the region of a mixed growth of coniferous 

 and broad-leaved trees, forming in many parts the upper sec- 

 tion of the coast Pine-belt, and extends not further to the 

 northward than the Magnolia, the two trees following almost 

 the same line in the northern limit of their distribution. 



In Alabama and Mississippi the Spruce Pine is found singly 

 or in groups of only a few individuals scattered in the locali- 

 ses favorable to its growth. In western Florida, between the 

 Chocta-ha-chee and Chatta-ho-chee Rivers, it forms com- 

 pact bodies of timber, extending over several acres, and 

 in this region of its best development and greatest frequency 

 its seedlings are found to occupy a prominent place amongst 

 the second growth. & 



The Spruce Pine attains, on the average, a height between 

 eighty and ninety feet, the tall, finely shaped, but gradually 



tapering trunk, from sixteen to twenty-four inches in diameter 

 rising clear of limb for a height of fifty to sixty feet above the 

 ground. In a rich hummock on the Tensas River, in Alabama, 

 rising above the Cypress swamp, a magnificent specimen 

 was observed, rivaling in height the mighty denizens of the 

 lagoon below, considerably over 100 feet in height and fullv 

 ten feet in circumference breast high. The bark of the trees 

 of larger size is thick, furrowed lengthwise, somewhat flaky, 

 of reddish brown color, getting closer toward the top, and is 

 perfectly smooth in the crown and limbs, like the bark of the 

 younger trees. The limbs, rising slightly, divide into numer- 

 ous horizontally spreading branches and branchlets, multiplied 

 by numerous sprouts from adventitious buds, thus imparting 

 to the oval-shaped crown a greater compactness than is found 

 in any other of the Atlantic Pines. The tender shoots of the 

 season are flaccid, as in the Scrub Pine (P. inops), and by this 

 peculiarity during the earlier part of the season the tree is 

 readily distinguished from the Short-leaved Pine (P. echinata), 

 its frequent associate, which it resembles in foliage, inflores- 

 cence and fruit. The leaves of the Spruce Pine are from one 

 and a half to three inches long, and three of them are always 

 found in the short, close sheath ; they are more slender than 

 those of the Short-leaved Pine, scarcely half as thick as they 

 are wide, dark green, contorted, and, later in the season, 

 spreading, and are shed during the third year. Densely covering 

 the numerous divisions of the branches, the foliage of this tree 

 is closer than in any of its allied species. 



The flowers appear during the later part of March. The 

 lateral short-peduncled cones mature during the second 

 season. They are ovate-oblong in shape, about two inches 

 long and one inch in greatest diameter, and their flexible 

 scales have a flat apophysis and small deciduous prickle, 

 which, in the mature cones, is altogether wanting. This Pine 

 is less urgent in its demands for light and air than most of its 

 congeners. It eschews exposed situations, and it is only under 

 the most favorable conditions, insuring the greatest rapidity 

 of growth during the first stage of its existence, that it is found 

 to prevail in the openings of the forest. It is through all 

 stages of its development of quick and steady growth. Trees 

 felled in Baldwin County, Alabama, showing forty-five and 

 fifty rings of annual growth, measured eighty and eighty-five 

 feet in height and seventeen to nineteen inches in diameter. 

 The rate of increase is greatest during the first ten years, after 

 which it appears to differ but slightly during periods of the 

 same length of time. In one of the trees the space occupied 

 by the first ten rings was found to be two and three-eighths 

 inches wide, by the second ten rings one and seven-eighths, 

 the third one and three-fourths wide, and the fourth one and 

 a half inches wide. The annual rings showed but slight dif- 

 ferences in their width. The heart-wood can hardly be distin- 

 guished from the sap-wood. Mr. Fillibert Roth, of the Uni- 

 versity of Michigan, who has given much attention to the 

 investigation of the structure of the wood of our southern 

 Pines, finds the proportion of spring wood to that formed of 

 summer cells in one ring, on the average, as three to two, and 

 in almost every detail the anatomy of the wood of this tree 

 is remarkably similar to that of the Loblolly Pine (P. Tenia). 

 The wood is light, only slightly resinous, straight-grained, split- 

 ting smoothly and satiny when finished, resembling the'wood 

 of the Spruce. It is not durable, is wanting in strength and 

 elasticity, and is apt to shrink under exposure to the sun. 

 Hence this rare and ornamental Pine is to be considered of 

 little economic importance as a timber-tree. 

 Mobile. Carl Mohr. 



Anthracnose or Blight of the Oak. 



'T'HE members of the genus Gliosporium are upon the in- 

 A crease in this country, so that at the present time there is 

 an anthracnose of many of our plants, some of which are 

 quite injurious to crops. Thus G. fructigenum is so destruc- 

 tive upon the fruit of the Apple that it has taken the common 

 name of "bitter rot." G.vcnetum is the anthracnose of the 

 Blackberry and Raspberry, often defoliating the plants in- 

 fested. G. ribis in like manner preys upon the foliage of the 

 Gooseberry and Currant, and G. Potentilla is the anthracnose 

 of the Strawberry-vines. Others still, as G. lagenarium, cause 

 the anthracnose or " spot rot " of cucumbers and melons. 



With these citations to indicate that the genus is a wide- 

 spread and destructive one, attention is called to a species of 

 Gliosporium that is becoming very conspicuous from its 

 destructive work upon the leaves of the Oak. As early in the 

 season as the last of May, the " burning" and coiling of the 

 leaves upon some White Oak-trees near New BrunswTck were 

 so complete that one of two friends during a recent drive 

 called my attention to the " scorched " trees and asked for the 



