3i8 



Garden and Forest. 



[July 2, 1890. 



easier to inspire interest in the acquisition of historic sites 

 than in the other objects of the undertaking. This part of 

 the enterprise will come nearest taking care of itself. 



The popular interest in the preservation of scenery, and 

 the popular appreciation of the value of opportunities for 

 change of scene and for contact with unspoiled natural 

 beauty and calm, are but slight, but they admit of cultiva- 

 tion and development. An increasing and enormous 

 density of population is certain, within a few decades, to 

 develop conditions of life in all our older states which only 

 thoughtful men and women now foresee. Our country is 

 rapidly becoming a land of cities and towns. As people 

 are, more and more, obliged to live and work in thronged 

 and crowded communities, the need of occasional escape 

 from the pressure of toil, and of recreation, by experience 

 of the silent unconcern of nature, becomes more impera- 

 tive. The most important among the objects of this move- 

 ment is the acquisition of open spaces, places where the 

 people of the towns can breathe, and the establishment of 

 conditions under which they will be permanently available 

 for public use. Their management and embellishment can 

 be considered afterward. They will reflect the taste and 

 civilization of the people of the state. But it is always 

 appropriate to say that in such places we do not want 

 statues or fine buildings or decorative artificial gardening. 

 All these are impertinences, but trees and grass, rocks and 

 streams, 



" The wide, aerial landscape spread," 



the open air, the sky and sea — these have the power to 

 heal and soothe and charm. 



The movement should be made broad enough from the 

 beginning to include and enlist all who appreciate out-of- 

 door interests and objects of any kind, the preservation of 

 natural scenery, the care of trees, forests and wooded 

 lands, and of fish and game preserves, the purity of the 

 water-supply for cities and towns, the treatment of road- 

 sides, and of mountain and sea-shore commons and public 

 parks and open spaces. The development and direction 

 of popular interest in the objects of the undertaking will 

 require and reward persistent effort. The work has been 

 very happily begun, and all public-spirited citizens of the 

 commonwealth should help to make it successful. 



The North-western Lumberman, a trade journal published 

 in Chicago, has for years been endeavoring to turn into 

 ridicule every statement which has been made with regard 

 to a probable failure of the pine supply of the north-west. 

 To our enterprising contemporary the forests of the lake 

 region were boundless and inexhaustible, and the men 

 who ventured to suggest that even an American forest, if 

 a hundred times as much lumber was cut from it every 

 year as the annual increase of the trees produced, must in 

 time come to the end of its productive powers, were set 

 down as cranks or alarmists, or something worse. It is 

 interesting, therefore, and exceedingly suggestive, to find 

 in a recent issue the following statements: 



The most conspicuous feature of the present season's lum- 

 ber trade in the north-west is the comparative scarcity of what, 

 in this market, is called good lumber — that is, lumber that will 

 grade C and better. Not two years ago selects and uppers 

 were the druggiest lumber going, stocks in this market having 

 been large, so that dealers made sacrifices of price to get rid of 

 such stock. 



A decided change has come in respect to good lumber. 

 Men who two years ago scouted it as a drug cannot now ob- 

 tain it without special effort. Time was when dealers expected 

 to get a fair proportion of good lumber with the inferior 

 grades, and that without difficulty in the open market. Now 

 they have to go on a still hunt for good stock. The fact is that 

 good lumber is getting scarce, and dealers who want to handle 

 it are put to their wits' end to procure it in sufficient quantity 

 unless they choose to bull the market in competition with 

 other buyers. 



The result of this more recent development in the trade is 

 to reduce the average quality of stocks that are thrown on 

 the open market. There is plenty of coarse lumber, and the 

 tendency is to a constantly overloaded market for such product. 



The Carob Tree. 



THE illustration on page 323 represents a specimen of the 

 *■ Carob-tree or Carubier of the French — the Ceratonia 

 Siliqua of botanists — taken in Algeria. The Carob is a widely 

 distributed plant of the Mediterranean Basin from. Spain to the 

 Orient, but more especially of northern Africa, where it grows 

 in all sorts of soils and situations from the slopes of the driest 

 limestone mountains to the most fertile oases. It is not com- 

 mon, however, even in Algeria or in Tunis, and grows as an 

 isolated specimen, or in groups composed of a few individuals. 

 The Carob is one of the most beautiful and useful trees of the 

 countries which it inhabits. It grows to the height of forty or 

 fifty feet, with a stout trunk, and a compact head of dark 

 green, lustrous evergreen foliage. The flowers are not at all 

 conspicuous or showy, resembling somewhat in size and 

 arrangement those of our Three-thorned Acacias, to which 

 the Carob is rather closely related botanically. The fruit is a 

 thickly curved pod, and when it is ripe the seeds are encased 

 in a sweet pulp, which is eaten by the people of the countries 

 where the tree is found. The great value of the fruit of this 

 tree, however, is to feed to horses and hogs, which fatten on 

 them rapidly ; and great quantities of Carob-podsare exported 

 from Crete and other eastern countries to central and northern 

 Europe, especially to Great Britain, for this purpose. The 

 pulp has been found to contain sixty-six per cent, of pure 

 sugar and gum, and it has been used in the manufacture of 

 syrups, liquors, and an imitation of chocolate, and by the 

 Egyptians in preparing a sort of sugar used by the Arabs ; the 

 pods, too, are preserved in the same manner that the pods of 

 the Tamarind are preserved in India and other tropical 

 countries. 



There is considerable historical interest attached to the 

 Carob ; the fruit was once supposed to be the food which sup- 

 ported Saint John in the wilderness, the seeds being held to 

 mean "locusts," and the pulp "wild honey," so the tree or its 

 fruit came to be called "St. John's Bread ; " and the dry valves 

 of the pods have been considered the husks the Prodigal Son 

 longed for in the last stages of his misery and starvation. 



The wood of the Carob is hard, heavy, very durable, and of a 

 handsome rose color. It is admirable furniture-wood, and is 

 used locally for carts and agricultural implements. Its rarity is 

 the only cause which prevents it from being used very gen- 

 erally in construction and the arts. 



The Carob, as it nourishes in all sorts of soil, and is able to 

 withstand drought and other hardships, is often planted, 

 especially in the Orient and in Africa, for the grateful shade its 

 heavy foliage affords, as well as for its valuable fruit. This 

 tree was early introduced by the Spaniards into Mexico and 

 South America, and the experiments which have been made 

 of late years with this tree in California seem to indicate that 

 it may be depended on in that state, where its more general 

 cultivation on ground too stony or too sterile to produce other 

 crops can be recommended. 



Our illustration is made from an Algerian photograph, for 

 which we are indebted to Mr. Francis Skinner, of Boston. 



Signs of Intelligence in a Madeira Vine. 



TWO or three years ago I began, without any great serious- 

 •*■ ness, experiments on some Madeira vines, which pres- 

 ently began to prove more interesting than was anticipated. 

 Before this my attention had been attracted to peculiar move- 

 ments made by this plant in the course of its spiral ascent of a 

 stick. If allowed to grow a few inches above this support the 

 extremity of the plant will sway backward and forward a few 

 hours and then will enter upon a regular revolving movement, 

 always from right to left to or contrary to the direction in which 

 the hands of a watch move. One revolution consumes about 

 three hours. 



One of my plants began to grow on April 1st, and at the end 

 of fourteen days was twelve inches tall and showing signs of 

 uneasiness — now bending away from a vertical position and 

 again standing nearly upright. On the 16th it was eighteen 

 inches high, and being too top-heavy to stand erect, it began to 

 fall away from the pot, which stood upon a table, toward the 

 floor. This was done gradually and apparently with conscious 

 care. It seemed to feel at times that it was letting itself down 

 too fast, when it would stop with a jerk, like a nodding child, 

 half asleep. When near the floor it began describing elipses, 

 about three inches in diameter, with its upturned extremity. 

 On the 19th it was twenty-six inches in length, and would 

 describe a crescent-shaped loop, seventeen inches in length 

 by six inches in breadth in about two hours. On the 23d it 

 was three feet and four inches long, revolved with less regu- 



