33§ 



Garden and Forest. 



[July 9, 1890. 



deep canons. Slowly and laboriously the engine pants in 

 dragging- the train up the hard grades. On every hand, as 

 the train winds through the canons and crosses their rivu- 

 lets from side to side, arise steep mountains, their brows 

 1,000 to 2,000 feet above the road. In their configuration, 

 in their formation, and in the vegetation which they bear, 

 these mountains afford a good illustration of the arid 

 mountains which dot or rather line off at intervals the 

 broad northern table-land covered by the states of Chihua- 

 hua, Coahuila and Durango, and parts of Zacatecas and 

 San Luis Potosi — limestone of various qualities showing 

 more or less quartz, its strata contorted in the wildest man- 

 ner, scarcely half concealed beneath a thin covering of 

 soil which is barely sufficient to support a low dingy green 

 growth of Agaves, Cactuses and desert shrubs. Only in 

 rare places where there has been an accumulation of soil, 

 as in canon pockets and in hollows about the summits, 

 are seen a few clumps of small trees. 



Some thirty miles from Garcia and 3,000 feet above that 

 place the train emerges upon the open table-land, and 

 turning southward skirts for a long distance the western 

 base of the Sierra Madre. 



Thus we gain some idea of the character of this moun- 

 tain chain, which stands with its western base resting upon 

 the inland plains 6,000 feet above the sea, and its eastern 

 base upon the lowlands only 1,500 feet in elevation. From 

 central summits 10,000 feet high its western slope de- 

 scends gradually by comparatively broad ridges and open 

 valleys, while. its eastern is steep and everywhere cut by 

 the most terrific canons. On its eastern slope and along 

 that base fall the rains which come up from the Gulf of 

 Mexico; and living springs and streams abound there, 

 which condition ensures perennial verdure and consider- 

 able forest-growths. Its western slope, on the contrary, be- 

 ing left rainless during most of the year, partakes, as we 

 have seen, of the character of the desert mountains of the 

 interior; rarely are springs or brooks to be found there; 

 and forests are mainly confined to the higher and cooler 

 summits, or to those situations which are least exposed to 

 the sun. Furthermore, the floras of the two sides of this 

 Sierra Madre are quite different, not only as respects woody 

 plants, as will be seen, but herbaceous as well. 



To mention (though quite incidentally, because the dis- 

 trict lies within the state of Coahuila, yet for purpose of 

 comparison) the ligneous species observed on the moun- 

 tains about Carneros Pass, on the western side, I may be- 

 gin with Pinus cembroides, because this species appeared 

 to be the one most abundant and widely dispersed. As a 

 small tree, seldom more than twelve or fifteen inches in 

 diameter, low-headed by reason of its sparse growth in the 

 shallow dry soil of the region, it occupies the cooler slopes 

 and summits of the foot-hills, coming down within a few 

 hundred feet of the level of the plains. 



Pinus lalisquama, growing with it, and choosing espe- 

 cially the dry calcareous bluffs of gulches, is a much 

 smaller tree, is less than a foot in diameter and less than 

 twenty feet high. Its long horizontal branches, with long 

 and slender branchlets bearing tufts of bluish green leaves 

 from which hang on long peduncles the solid and heavy 

 cones, give this tree a peculiar appearance among Pines. 



Widely distributed, also, and at various elevations, ap- 

 pears Quercus grisea, here more than ever a slow-growing, 

 gnarled, contorted tree, its trunk, even its branches, show- 

 ing hollows and seams. 



About the margins of the higher plains and valleys, 

 where these rise by gentle slopes to meet the foot-hills and 

 fill the recesses amongst them, thin forests of Yucca Trecu- 

 liana lend a striking character to the landscape. The 

 stems of this plant, rather less than a foot thick, rise to a 

 height of fifteen to twenty feet, and bear single heads (or at 

 most but few heads on short branches) of numerous sword- 

 shaped leaves about two feet long. The panicle of flowers 

 is three feet in length and erect; but it appears to be rarely 

 produced here. 



On the higher summits a third Pine was met with, pre- 



sumed to be the tree doubtfully referred by Mr. Watson 

 (Parry & Palmer, 844) to P. Teocote. It forms a large tree, 

 similar in appearance to P. Monlezumce, and yields much 

 good lumber. 



The more shaded and cooler slopes of the higher moun- 

 tains, especially the ravines with northern aspect, which 

 furrow them, bear dark groves and belts of Pseudotsuga 

 taxifolia. With this tree, but following the ravines down 

 toward the base of the mountains, is Cupressus Guadalu- 

 pensis ; while Juniperus flaccida and_/ tetragona, var. oligo- 

 sperma, small trees less than a foot in diameter, were found 

 in canons near their base. 



The sunnier and therefore drier slopes of these moun- 

 tains are covered with a dense growth of shrubs, chiefly 

 Oaks, Quercus reticulata, and another, perhaps a new species 

 near Q. pungens. In rich canons the former becomes a 

 tree as elsewhere, and with it are Q. Emoryi and Q. virens. 



The foot-hills are mainly ledges of limestone scantily 

 strewn with soil, and these bear, besides the usual growth 

 of Cactuses, Agaves, etc., a scanty shrubby vegetation 

 composed chiefly of the following species : Lindleya mes- 

 piloides, in gulches growing to a height of ten to fifteen 

 feet; Cercocarpus parvifolius, inferior growths; Coivania pli- 

 caia, a lovely plant when covered with its Rose-like flow- 

 ers; Fraxinus Greggii, with slender stems fifteen feet high 

 and forming thickets; Arbutus Xalapensis, in a dwarf state; 

 Arciostaphy/os pungens, Microrhamnus ericoides, Rhus mi- 

 crophylla, Ceanothus Greggii and Ephedra aspera, some- 

 times six feet high. 



Charlotte, Vt. 



C. G. Pringle. 



Periodical Literature. 



Under the title "Lungs for our Great Cities," the Earl of 

 Meath, who has had experience in such matters, as Chairman 

 of the Metropolitan Gardens Association of London, gives, in 

 the New Review for May, an account of the impressions he 

 received during a visit to the chief cities of this country. " A 

 veritable rage for park-making," he says, "seems to have 

 seized the American public. The large towns of the United 

 States and Canada are vieing with each other in the establish- 

 ment of parks and boulevards. Taxation for these purposes 

 is readily submitted to, and enormous sums of money are 

 now being annually voted on this account." 



At Chicago, he was told not only that the Park Tax was the 

 one to which no objection was ever made, but also that 

 officials were constantly being asked why more money was 

 not spent on the parks, "as it was the one expenditure of public 

 money which the people thoroughly appreciated, enjoyed 

 and took pride in." But the author says it is only within 

 recent years that the necessity for having breathing spaces in 

 cities has thus been recognized ; so, in our older towns, the 

 more densely populated districts are devoid of those frequent 

 small parks, which alone can give the poorest of the poor a 

 daily breath of fresh air and sight of green leaves. It is with 

 great approval, therefore, that he notes the recent passage by 

 the Legislature of an act for the incorporation and improve- 

 ment of additional parks in the City of New York, and the ap- 

 propriation for the purpose of $10,000,000, to be expended in 

 ten years. We wish we could feel as confident as he seems 

 to feel that within this time the whole sum will indeed be 

 spent in pulling down tenement houses, and purchasing sites 

 for numerous small playgrounds. The park areas of many 

 towns, from Boston to San Francisco, are passed in review by 

 Lord Meath, with few words of criticism and many of high 

 approval. Druid Park, in Baltimore, he calls " in some par- 

 ticulars the finest park among those I visited — a lovely speci- 

 men of the forest park." Fairmount Park, with the ravine 

 along the Wissahickon River, he says is second in size among 

 the public pleasure grounds of the world, to Epping Forest, 

 near London, only, and, " perhaps, in its particular type of 

 beauty, is second to none." He speaks of the Central Park as 

 extremely artificial, but adds, " notwithstanding this excessive 

 artificiality, Central Park remains one of the most beautiful of 

 gardenesque places. I know nothing prettier of its kind than 

 the view I saw on an October day, standing on the 'terrace,' 

 at the end of the 'mall,' in the Central Park, looking across 

 the artificial lake to the opposite shore, blazing in the glorious 

 colors of American autumn foliage. The finest natural parks, 

 as opposed to artificially-made grounds, in the United States, 

 are, perhaps, those of Druid Hill, Baltimore ; Fairmount Park, 

 Philadelphia ; Prospect Park, Brooklyn ; and Forest Hill, St. 



