July 23, 1890.J 



Garden and Forest. 



353 



GARDEN AND FOREST, 



rUHIJSIIRI) WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND CLASS MATTER AT THE TOST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 1890. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial Articles :— The Chestnut-Tree. (Illustrated.)— The Increase of 



Population as Related to the Forests 353 



The Preservation of Natural Scenery 354 



Unripe Seed E. Lewis Sturtevant. 355 



Is the Strawberry Improving? Professor E. S. Goff. 355 



Notes on North American Trees. — XX. Description of the Wood of 



Certain Species Professor C. S. Sargent. 355 



New or Tittle Known Plants : — ^sculus Parryi. (With figure.) C. S. S. 356 



The California Paeonias Edward L. Greene. 356 



Foreign Correspondence :— Botanical Gardens at Birmingham Visitor. 356 



Cultural Department : — The Endurance of Orchards T. H. Hoskins. 358 



Our Currants E. P. Powell. 360 



The Water Garden J. N. Gerard. 360 



" The King of Lilies." George //. Ellwanger. 361 



Orchid Notes :— Catasetum atratum John Weathers. 361 



OdontoglossumSchliperianum Henry Clinkaberry. 361 



Rose Gloire de Dijon G. 361 



The Forest : — Notes on the Ligneous Vegetation of the Sierra Madreof Nuevo 



Leon. — II C. G. Pringle. 362 



Periodical Literature 363 



Correspondence: — A Troublesome Grass Mrs. IV. T. S. 363 



Notes , 364 



Illustrations : — ./Esculus Parryi, Fig. 47 357 



Typical New England Chestnut-Trees 359 



The Chestnut-Tree. 



THE Chestnut-tree differs from other trees of the 

 northern hemisphere in the fixedness of its charac- 

 ters. The descendant in direct line of a species which 

 flourished in the Tertiary Period in circumpolar Arctic re- 

 gions, and which later was widely distributed through the 

 northern hemisphere, it has been affected less during the 

 existing geological era by the surroundings of its home in 

 the three continents than other widely distributed trees ; 

 and the Chestnut-tree of North America, the Chestnut-tree 

 of the mountains of the Mediterranean Basin and of the 

 Caucasus, and the Chestnut-tree of Japan, are so nearly 

 identical in all the characters which distinguish one species 

 from another that they may be regarded as the same tree. 

 Other trees of similar ancestry, and especially its nearest 

 botanical relative, the Oak, have varied more or less as 

 their surroundings have favored the development of varied 

 forms, and now the Oaks, the Elms, the Walnuts, the Pop- 

 lars, the Willows, and the other trees peculiar to the north- 

 ern hemisphere, have all adapted themselves, by the slow 

 development of new forms, to support the altered condi- 

 tions which have accompanied the topographical and cli- 

 matic changes to which the earth has been subjected. 



That the Chestnut-tree did not share with other plants to 

 the same degree the power of adapting itself to the altered 

 conditions in which it was placed through the advent and 

 retreat of the coating of ice which covered so much of the 

 northern hemisphere during the Glacial Period, will ac- 

 count, perhaps, for the comparatively restricted area which 

 the genus now occupies and the paucity of its forms. 



In North America the Chestnut-tree is confined to the 

 Appalachian region, reaching the coast of New England and 

 the middle states and the northern shores of Lake Ontario; 

 it does not extend into the Florida-peninsula or extend 

 west beyond the hilly region of middle Kentucky and Ten- 

 nessee. There occurs, however, in North America, where 

 it is endemic, the second species of the genus. This is the 

 Chinquapin (Cas/anea pumild), which has a wider range 

 than the true Chestnut has on this continent, although it 

 does not grow naturally north of Pennsylvania. It extends, 

 however, into Florida and west of the Mississippi River, 



where it attains its greatest development. Remnants of 

 what is believed to have been the ancestor of this second 

 species of Chestnut have been recognized in the Tertiary 

 formation of Alaska. 



The Chestnut has been so generally cultivated in Europe 

 for centuries that it is not easy to determine how much of 

 its actual distribution there is due to the immediate action 

 of man. It was at one time supposed that the home of the 

 Old World Chestnut was confined to the trans-Caspian re- 

 gions, and that the Greeks and then the Romans had car- 

 ried it into Europe. There is reason to suppose, however, 

 that the forests of this tree which cover here and there the 

 mountain ranges from Portugal to the Caspian represent an 

 indigenous growth, a view which would seem to be 

 strengthened by the fact that such forests exist also on 

 some of the mountains of Algeria, where it is hardly proba- 

 ble that the Chestnut-tree was ever cultivated to the extent 

 which the entire naturalization of the species would imply. 

 The Chestnut is common in central Europe as far north as 

 Britain ; but it is reasonably certain that it was carried 

 there by man in comparatively recent times West of the 

 Caucasus there is a long stretch where the Chestnut-tree 

 has not secured a foothold. It is not found in the forests 

 of the Himalaya or in China, although it is more than 

 probable that further investigation of the flora of the 

 mountain regions of the western part of the empire 

 will bring to light the presence of forests of Chestnut- 

 trees similar to those which occur in Japan. 



The Chestnut for centuries has been one of the most val- 

 uable food-producing trees of Europe, and the most careful 

 attention has been paid in Italy and France to developing 

 the size and improving the quality of the fruit. The Ro- 

 mans, in Pliny's time, distinguished eight varieties of 

 chestnuts, and now the number of recognized varieties is 

 very large. The cultivated chestnuts are divided into two 

 classes, known in France as Marrons and Chataigrres, the 

 latter bearing about the same relation to the former as the 

 crab-apple does to the apple. Marrons are larger, more 

 farinaceous, and much sweeter and more aromatic than 

 the ordinary chestnut, and are the result of careful selec- 

 tion and cultivation, whicli has been going on for centuries. 

 Marrons of the best quality are produced in central and 

 southern France, although it is in Italy that the chestnut is 

 more used as an article of food than in other parts of the 

 world. 



The Chestnut must be considered one of the most im- 

 portant North American deciduous trees, although sev- 

 eral others grow over a much larger area and some of them 

 attain to larger dimensions and produce more valuable 

 timber. The Chestnut-tree, however, grows in America to 

 a respectable size, and specimens often occur on the slopes 

 of the southern Alleghany Mountains with trunks four or 

 five feet in diameter. It is never, however, a very tall tree 

 here, rarely attaining the height of a hundred feet. The 

 trunk is generally short, dividing at a distance of twenty 

 or thirty feet from the ground into stout spreading branches, 

 which form a handsome, compact round head. The habit 

 of the tree is well shown in the illustration on page 359, 

 which represents two characteristic Chestnut-trees, as this 

 tree often appears on the hill-sides of New England. 



The fruit of the American Chestnut is small, but very 

 sweet, and it shows a tendency to vary considerably in 

 size and quality, showing that time and care only are 

 needed to produce varieties which will equal in value the 

 best Marrons of France. The production here of the best 

 varieties of chestnuts, however, can be obtained much 

 more quickly by the introduction into the country of Euro- 

 pean varieties than by the slow process of selecting and 

 developing the native fruit. The European Chestnut, to 

 be sure, is not perfectly hardy in the northern parts of the 

 country, but it flourishes, however, and produces its fruit 

 in the middle and southern states. The population of 

 North America is still too scanty and food is too abundant 

 here to make the cultivation of the Chestnut-tree on any 

 large scale a practical undertaking at present; but the time 



