362 



Garden and Forest. 



[July 23, 1890. 



But after the first bloom the plants rapidly make new growth, 

 and one can usually find a few good buds at any time during 

 the summer. October frosts only put a stop to their (lowering. 

 I have four plants with a southern exposure, which have been 

 established some three or four years, and though somewhat 

 neglected, they prove perfectly satisfactory low climbers. In 

 winter a Russia mat is tacked over each plant, and so far they 

 have proved as hardy as the ordinary Hybrid Perpetuals. 



Elizabeth, N.J. G. 



[The buds are of good size and substance, and from their 

 position at the extremity of the strong shoots they can be 

 cut with long stems, which are furnished with the best of 

 foliage. — Ed. ] 



The Forest. 



Notes on the Ligneous Vegetation of the Sierra 

 Madre of Nuevo Leon. — II. 



AS I begin now to give an account of the forests of the 

 Sierra Madre south of Monterey and of the trees which 

 compose them, I am embarrassed by the conviction that 

 the months spent in exploring that region were quite in- 

 adequate to the acquiring of all the facts concerning the 

 species growing on the almost inaccessible steeps of those 

 fearful mountains, or locked up in their interior fastnesses. 

 I can do no more than to communicate what I learned 

 there. 



The usually abundant precipitation of rain upon the 

 eastern slopes of this mountain chain ensures their being 

 covered with a forest-growth whose size and density are 

 in direct ratio to the amount of soil covering them. True, 

 the depth of soil is slight, when compared with that cover- 

 ing our northern mountains, where glaciers have wrought 

 in the ice age, and where frost still works to the same end; 

 yet here, somehow, there is maintained a constant verdure, 

 the sight of which is refreshing to eyes which have long 

 rested on the eternal grays and browns of the bare moun- 

 tains of the northern table-land. 



On these fresh slopes and on the broader of the moun- 

 tain tops Pimis Montezumce finds its northern limit of distri- 

 bution. It is a A'aluable tree, eighteen to twenty-four 

 inches in diameter and forty to fifty feet high, and fills in 

 this region the place held by Pinus ponderosa in the forests 

 of New Mexico and Arizona. Its cones were seen to be ex- 

 tremely variable, the smaller being ovoid in shape and 

 barely two and a half inches long, the larger oblong and 

 fully six inches. 



Beginning at a somewhat lower elevation, about 2,500 

 feet, but mingling with this species in about equal propor- 

 tion and of no less size, was found another Pine ("PI. 

 Mex.," No. 1964), which has not yet been referred to any 

 known species. These two Pines were seen to form some 

 really fine belts of timber. 



Of especial interest were belts of Carya my r is tic cef or mis, 

 covering, largely to the exclusion of other species, certain 

 rocky slopes. In the scantier soil this species makes but 

 a scrubby growth, often no more than a shrub; but in 

 moist and rich canons it becomes a good-sized tree twelve 

 to eighteen inches in diameter. 



Carya olivceformis seemed to be restricted to wet canons 

 and springy places, and to attain to larger dimensions than 

 the preceding. 



The lower slopes of these mountains abound in wet 

 canons, and these are occupied by a dense growth of the 

 following species : Juglans rupeslris (doubtless this species, 

 though the green nuts were three inches in diameter); Quer- 

 cus polymorpha, attaining a size of two feet by sixty; Quer- 

 cus virens, its maximum diameter three to five feet; Plata- 

 nus Mexicana, a large tree and widely branching; Fraxinus 

 viridis, var. Berlandieri, perhaps the largest of American 

 Ashes ; Morus urliccp.folia, a small tree; Tilia Mexicana, 

 eighteen to twenty-four inches in diameter and forty or fifty 

 feet in height; Chiiopsis saligna, amid tall trees itself tall 

 but slender; Ulmus crassifolia, not large, as on river bottoms; 

 Planera aquatica ; Biunelia lanuginosa, var. rigida, six 



to eight inches by fifteen to twenty feet ; a variety of 

 Primus Americana, Primus Capu/i, the largest specimen 

 seen being eighteen inches in diameter and forty to fifty 

 feet high; Cercis reniformis, sometimes attaining to a diame- 

 ter of one foot and a. height of forty; Lcucana pulvei ulenta, 

 Comus Jlorida, one foot by twenty-five, and Staphylea 

 Mexicana, n. sp., six or eight inches by fifteen or twenty 

 feet. 



Several of the above list are found scattered in speci- 

 mens of inferior size outside of the canons. There they 

 mingle with Quercus Grahami, a small tree most abundant 

 from the lower to the higher slopes, whose bark supplies 

 the tanneries of the region; Q. oblongifolia, not common 

 here, and another species of Quercus as yet undetermined, 

 and Arbutus Texana, from six to twelve inches in diameter, 

 usually with low heads, with grotesque trunk and branches 

 covered with smooth, white bark. 



On the precipitous ledges of lime rock — even arising from 

 the fissures of the great canon walls or waving their leaves 

 from the sharp mountain crests — are seen numerous speci- 

 mens of the upland Palmetto, Brahea dulcis. In so dry and 

 poor situations the plant seldom exceeds a height of twenty 

 feet; but far to the south in low valleys of the south-eastern 

 part of the state of San Luis Potosi, I have seen it rising to 

 forty or fifty feet and forming close forests. 



About the base of the mountains, especially on limestone 

 ledges, associated with Fraxinus Greggii and Helieila parvi- 

 folia, which sometimes acquire the size and habit of small 

 trees, and Diospyros Texana, here rather shrubby, we find 

 Amyris Madrensis, n. sp., the largest specimens of which 

 met with were seven inches by twenty-five feet, and Sar- 

 genlia Greggii, n. gen., one foot by twenty-five. The foli- 

 age of these two is evergreen; and Sargentia, with its 

 large, shining leaves, and yellow, oval fruits an inch long, 

 is an interesting plant. Except in the richer gulches it 

 usually appears here near its northern limit of distribution 

 as a large shrub; but as far south as the state of Vera Cruz 

 and at but slight elevation above the sea I have seen it 

 common in tropical forests as a tall, slender-stemmed tree. 



Common in rich valleys among the foot-hills we find 

 Acacia Farnesiana and Acacia flexicaulis, the former one foot 

 in diameter and the latter one and a half to three feet, 

 both low-branching, round-headed trees. Ehrelia elliplica, 

 more erect in habit and one to three feet through; Condalia 

 cuneala, tree-like in habit, but a very small tree; Piihecolo- 

 bium brcvifolium, and occasional specimens of Sapindus 

 acuminatus. 



The principal shrubs or woody vines noticed in the 

 Sierra Madre are : Cocculus diver sifolius ; Berberis gracilis, 

 in broad clumps ten feet high ; Berberis trifoliolala, a 

 smaller plant ; Fouquiera splendens, not abundant here in 

 its eastern limit ; Decalropis Coulleri, five to fifteen feet 

 high, slender, and with but few branches, very abundant 

 on limestone ledges and seen in similar situations in south- 

 eastern San Luis Potosi, but appearing less common; Kar- 

 winskia Humboldtiana, here two or three feet high and 

 spreading by its roots in wide chimps, but found in Jalisco 

 twenty feet high and with single stems ; Hircea macroplera, 

 extensively trailing over walls, shrubs, etc., and bright 

 during many weeks of summer with profuse yellow flowers ; 

 Hircea lilacina, rather rare ; Xanthoxylum Fagara, fifteen or 

 twenty feet high, often forming thickets, not noticed here, 

 with single stems ; Rhamnus, sp., seen here as a tall shrub, 

 but in Chihuahua as a small tree ; Coludina Greggii, reaching 

 twenty feet in height ; Ceanothus azureus, slender, ten feet ; 

 Ampelopsis quinquefolia, common and higher on the 

 mountains, its variety pubescens of Gray (A. pubescens) ; 

 Ungnadia speciosa; Dodonea viscosa; Rhus virens, a large 

 stout shrub, sometimes almost a tree, a handsome ever- 

 green with panicles of pink flowers or scarlet fruits ; Rhus 

 Toxicodendron; Rhus Mexicana {P istacia Mexicana), observed 

 six or eight inches in diameter and twenty or more feet 

 high, but always with the habit of a shrub, branching 

 at the ground and spreading ; Eysenhardtia amorphioides, 

 five to fifteen feet high ; Dalea fruiescens, var., a slender 



