July 9, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



33i 



buildings, especially with those where the basements at least 

 are made of stone. A shallow archway of rough brick or of 1111- 

 hammered stone is needed, the conduit pipe being brought to 

 the mouth of a griffin's or of a lion's head placed at the upper 

 part of the arch with the water pouring into a basin below. 

 Where the water supply is still more limited, an effect which is 

 quite pleasing may be produced by allowing the water to drip 

 from a shell in which the supply pipe is introduced down to a 

 larger one and again into a larger one still. In any case Eng- 

 lish Ivy or Ampelopsis may be trained about the arch. 



There is no limit to the designs and decorations which in- 

 genuity and taste may devise for artificial fountains. One 

 cardinal rule, however, should in no case be violated. That 

 is, the water should not be made subordinate to the architec- 

 tural display — and this rule should be observed especially when 

 the water supply is limited. The rule is constantly violated, 

 however, in public grounds and on private estates. 

 Chestnut Hill, Mass. Daniel D. Slade. 



The Cedars in Europe. 



THERE is no difference in the hardiness of the Cedar of 

 Mount Lebanon and of that of the Atlas, when these trees 

 are planted in Europe. The two grow well all over southern 

 Europe, although an exception must be made to the hot and 

 exceedingly dry region on the shores of the Mediterranean, 

 where they cannot exist; for it must not be forgotten that the 

 Cedar is a plant of high mountains, which demands a certain 

 amount of humidity, and which cannot bear an exceedingly 

 dry soil. The northern limit of the region where Cedars can be 

 grown in Europe ascends from the east to the west, a well 

 known phenomenon noticed also in the case of many other 

 plants like the Beech and the Holly which do not support an 

 excessively cold climate ; and shown in the fact that the 

 mild, rainy winters which distinguish the climate of the At- 

 lantic coast of Europe are singularly favorable for southern 

 trees. The Cedars follow this line and succeed admirably in 

 the parks of Great Britain. Probably nowhere, not even in 

 Syria nor on the Atlas, can such splendid groups of Cedars, 

 relatively young, although already of imposing size, be found 

 as are seen in the gardens surrounding English villas and 

 castles. There is a famous old plant in the garden of the 

 Museum at Paris, now beginning to fail, which is popularly but 

 incorrectly supposed to have been brought home by Tourne- 

 fort from the Orient. The sandy shores of the lakes which fol- 

 low the southern slopes of the Alps afford conditions where 

 the Cedars grow perhaps as well as they do in England, al- 

 though in the north of Switzerland and in the Vosges the 

 Cedar is occasionally subjected to too severe cold, and so per- 

 ishes perhaps once every ten or twenty years. In Germany this 

 danger is increased and there are in that country only a few 

 sheltered localities where the Cedar can live. 



The Cedar of the Atlas is less commonly cultivated than 

 that of the Lebanon. It must be acknowledged, too, that the 

 former, with its shorter leaves and more compact ramifications, 

 is less agreeable in aspect and more severe in outline than the 

 classic tree of Syria. The largest specimen of the Atlas Cedar 

 which I know is in the celebrated garden of M. Thuret, be- 

 longing now to the French Government, and directed by the 

 Nestor of French botanists, the venerable and distinguished 

 Naudin. This tree is seventy-five or eighty feet high or more, 

 and very vigorous. The leaves are short and it is easily dis- 

 tinguished at a glance from the Asiatic variety. 



The Deodar has in Europe a more restricted range than the 

 other Cedars. It grows well only where such evergreens as 

 the Laurel, the Arbutus and the Laurel Cherry thrive — that is 

 to say, along the Atlantic coast as far north as southern Eng- 

 land and in the region of the lakes south of the Alps. Here 

 it is a tree of great beauty, far more graceful than its con- 

 geners of Syria and of the Atlas; it is distinguished by its 

 longer and richer leaves, and by its slender, graceful branches, 

 pendent like those of the Weeping Willow, and by its enor- 

 mous size. It is, however, on the shores of the Lake of 

 Geneva at the extreme limit of the region where it can be 

 grown successfully as a tree, although north of the Alps it is 

 possible to have graceful young plants during several years. 

 Sooner or later, however, generally once every five to six 

 years, these plants either suffer badly or are killed outright by a 

 severe winter, just as the Araucaria of Chili and the Fir of the 

 Himalayas are killed occasionally. 



In order to realize how beautiful trees can be, one should 

 see the Deodar in some of the gardens on the shores of Lake 

 Majiore, growing with the most beautiful evergreen in the 

 world, the Magnolia fcetida, which flourishes so well 

 there, and which is covered year after year with its immense 



llowers, which appear to lloat on the shining, dark green 

 mass of foliage like Water Lilies on the dark mirror of some 

 lake hidden in the forest. This union of the most beautiful 

 conifer of the east with the most beautiful evergreen of the 

 New World is, without doubt, the most delightful effect of 

 vegetation which that fortunate region of the Italian lakes can 

 offer. The Riviera of Geneva, although hotter, is too dry for the 

 satisfactory development of such delicate trees; but would it 

 not be possible to bring them together in Carolina, or Florida, 

 or Louisiana, in the country of the Magnolia ? 



Bale, Switzerland. H. Christ. 



Notes on North American Trees. — XVIII. 

 Description of the Wood of Certain Species. 



A CRITICAL examination of the wood produced by 

 the trees of the United States formed part of the in- 

 vestigation of the forest-wealth of the country made in 

 connection with the taking of the tenth census. Mr. S. P. 

 Sharpies, a special agent of the department, had immedi- 

 ate charge of this branch of the investigation, the results 

 of which appeared in volume ix. of the Final Reports of 

 the Tenth Census, pages 247 to 481. 



One object of this investigation was to determine the 

 fuel value of the woods of our trees. It was found impos- 

 sible, however, to obtain at the time it was made the wood 

 of a few rare trees ; and a number of others have been dis- 

 covered since it was completed. The wood of several of 

 these I have now received from the American Museum of 

 Natural History, in New York, for examination. This ma- 

 terial has enabled me, through the liberality of Mr. Morris 

 K. Jesup, the President of the Board of Trustees of the 

 Museum, whose interest in the forest-products of this 

 country is testified to by the superb collection of American 

 woods he has caused to be placed in the Museum, to con- 

 tinue the experiments necessary to determine the fuel value 

 of the woods which were not included in the census report. 

 The calculations have been made by Mr. Sharpies, who 

 has used the methods adopted in the Census investigation. 



The wood specimens used for speciric-gravity determina- 

 tions were 100 millimeters long and thirty-five millimeters 

 square, and were dried at a temperature of 100 degrees 

 centigrade until they ceased to lose weight. The specific 

 gravity was then obtained by measurement and calculation 

 from the weight of the blocks. The determinations of ash 

 were made by burning small dried blocks in a muffle fur- 

 nace at a low temperature. The relative fuel values were 

 obtained by taking the percentage of ash from the specific 

 gravity and are based on the hypothesis that the value of 

 the combustible material of all woods is the same. 



The woods will be taken up in the botanical sequence 

 of the trees which produce them, the descriptions being 

 •made uniform with those of the Census report. 



The wood of a few North American trees has not yet 

 been examined. The first of these is Gordonia Altamaha, 

 an exceedingly local species of Georgia, and last seen 

 growing in its only known station a hundred years 

 ago. Recent attempts to rediscover it have proved 

 futile and it is now only known in cultivation. Other 

 species whose woods we have not been able to ex- 

 amine yet are Rliamnus crocea, var. insularis, PilJiecohbium 

 brevifolium, Aralia spinosa, Fraxinus cuspidala, Querctis 

 Leana, Quercus Macdonahiii, Quercus Morehus, Juniperits 

 flaccida, Pinus latifolia, Pseudopluenix Sargenlii, and an ap- 

 parently arborescent Palm of the Florida Everglades,of which 

 I have only seen a leaf and a slender stem. These species 

 either are not represented in the collection, or the speci- 

 mens do not afford suitable material for such investigations. 

 The wood of Pseudophcenix decays so rapidly after it is cut 

 that it was impossible to determine its specific gravity. 

 Juniperns flaccida is a Mexican species only seen within 

 the limits of the United States in a single, very inaccessi- 

 ble region of western Texas. Pinus latifolia, the latest ad- 

 dition to the trees of the United States, is only known in a 

 single locality of the Santa Rita mountains of Arizona, and 

 has only been seen by its discoverer, Dr. H. Mayr. The 

 wood is not known. Quercus Leana, at one time believed 



