374 



Garden and Forest. 



[July 30, 1890. 



that the inner half of eacli division of the flower is hlue and 

 the other half white, giving them a distinct beauty of their 

 own. Erpetion reniforme is the name usually given the plant 

 in seed lists, though there are several synonyms, the most 

 common of which is Viola hederacea. This plant would be 

 desirable for carpeting the flower border in summer, but 

 owing to its delicate habit it should not be set among coarse- 

 growing plants or in dry places, and for growing in pans it 

 cannot be over-praised. 



Californian Lilies.— So far as I have tried these lovely Lilies, 

 in all sorts of soil, in sun and shade, in open ground and in 

 frame, L. Washingtonianum, L. Humboldtii, L. Columbianum, 

 L. rubescens, L. parvum and L. maritimum have all been most 

 unsatisfactory garden plants. There must be some conditions 

 necessary to their successful culture that are yet insufficiently 

 known, and I am tempted to ask if any readers of Garden 

 and Forest have been able to succeed with these beautiful 

 western Lilies for any length of time. L. ■pardalinum, when 

 not affected with disease, grows here in Massachusetts often 

 five feet high, with a beautiful display of its spotted flowers. 

 That this Lily should do so well, and the other kinds so indif- 

 ferently, requires a little explanation from those who are 

 familiar with the plants and their natural surroundings. 



South Lancaster, Mass. E. 0. Orpet. 



Nymphaa rosacea is another of Monsieur Marliac's introduc- 

 tions well worth growing. It is apparently a variety of N. 

 odorata, which it resembles in habit and foliage. The flowers 

 are a light, clear rose or pink, in form and size like the type. 

 Compared with N. odorata rosea (the Cape Cod Lily) the color 

 is much more delicate and less decided. N. rosacea will 

 prove a charming addition to any collection. 



Nymphsea pygmsea alba {telragond), the smallest of the Water 

 Lilies, is a native of western China and Siberia. Owing to its 

 diminutive size it may be grown in' very limited space, the 

 leaves being only three to four inches in diameter. The 

 flowers are plentiful, white, about two inches in diameter, 

 and of rather thin texture. Grown with other Nympheeas, 

 in shallow water, they add variety, and their appearance is 

 all the more dainty among the more robust growers. 



Elizabeth, N.J. G. 



The Forest. 

 The Sihlwald.— I. 



IT was my good fortune recently to pass a month in the 

 Sihlwald, as that portion of the forest-property of the City 

 of Zurich is called, which stretches for some five miles along 

 the narrow valley of the Silrl. It is not often that a forest is 

 so favorably situated both geographically, and as to the condi- 

 tions which determine the value and fertility of timber-lands ; 

 and while there are many peculiarities in its management 

 which mark it as distinct from the great body of European 

 forests, it exhibits so full a knowledge of forestry applied 

 to such excellent conditions and so admirable an adaptation of 

 means to ends, that if it fails of being typical of that which is, 

 it may assuredly challenge attention as the illustration of that 

 which ought to be. Further, since during the last fiscal year 

 it yielded to the city a net revenue of more than eight dollars 

 per acre, a short account of it may serve to emphasize the fact, 

 so often lost sight of, that the protection of forests is not an 

 end, but a means, and that the whole question of forestry has 

 a very definite and important financial bearing. It has, there- 

 fore, seemed that a few words upon the Sihlwald might not 

 be without interest to the readers of Garden and Forest, and 

 I purpose, after describing it briefly in the present paper, and 

 sketching the management of the forest in a second, to touch 

 upon it in a final one as a piece of municipal property. 



Situated about two miles inland from the western shore of 

 the Lake of Zurich, and within an hour's drive from the city, 

 the Sihlwald lies along, and for some distance fills, the valley of 

 the Sihl. The stream from which the forest takes its name 

 was once a dangerous torrent, but in the progress of the work 

 on the more rapid water-courses, which has already cost the 

 Federal Government eight million dollars and the canton of 

 Zurich rather more than eight dollars per head of its inhab- 

 itants, it has been "corrected" into harmlessness. Walled in 

 along a large proportion of its course, and with its drainage 

 area protected by forests and the heavy turf of the Swiss pas- 

 tures, it has abandoned its aggressive character to become the 

 centre of the industry and prosperity of the valley which it 

 waters. The soil of the valley has for its geological base a 

 marly sandstone, overlaid, on the broad plateaus which break 

 the moderate slope of the left bank, by a sandy clay of glacial 

 origin, deep, rich, and with great capacity for holding water. 



The opposite slope, much steeper, and, in consequence of its 

 south-western aspect, more directly exposed to the action of 

 the sun, is drier and less fertile. But since the whole valley 

 of the Sihl, or at least that part of it which here concerns us, 

 lying as it does between altitudes of 1,624 anc l 2,986 feet, enjoys 

 an annual rainfall of fifty inches, it would be a mistake to 

 speak of the right bank as dry and infertile, except in com- 

 parison with its richer neighbor. Both slopes are intersected 

 by numerous small ravines, from which no fewer than forty 

 rivulets find their way to the Sihl. But with the climate of 

 northern Europe indicated by a mean temperature of forty- 

 eight degrees Fahrenheit, and with the conditions of soil and 

 moisture which have been mentioned, the exceptional pro- 

 ductiveness of the Sihlwald would still remain partly unex- 

 plained, were it not possible to add that the land which it covers 

 has been uninterruptedly under forest for something over a 

 thousand years. That precious condition of the surface which 

 the French and Germans unite in describing as "forest-soil," 

 so slow in forming and so quick to disappear wherever the 

 full sunlight is allowed to reach the ground, has here been 

 produced in perfection by centuries of forest-growth. It is 

 perhaps to this factor, next to the abundance of humidity, that 

 the high annual yield of wood in the Sihlwald is due. 



The growth which covers the soil thus fortunately suited 

 to its needs is a mixed high or seedling forest, in which the de- 

 ciduous trees largely predominate. Under the law of the rota- 

 tion of forest-crops, not so well known as that which determines 

 an analogous success in agriculture because it acts over vastly 

 longer periods, the character of the mixture has undergone a 

 gradual change, until, in the course of two centuries and a 

 half, the percentage of coniferous trees has declined from 

 sixty-one to fourteen, and the deciduous forest has taken their 

 place. The composition of this last on a typical area of the 

 Sihlwald may be taken to include eighty Beeches, ten Ashes, 

 nine Maples and one Elm in every hundred trees. No exact 

 data are available for the sixteen conifers which should theo- 

 retically find their place among these hundred broad-leaved 

 trees, and it can only be said that they would stand thus: Spruce, 

 Silver Fir, Scotch Pine and Larch, in the order of numerical 

 importance. But it is to be remarked that the distribution of 

 the different species is very far from being as regular as this 

 statement would imply. While the mixture is in general rather 

 one of individuals than of groups, still the various trees 

 form each a larger proportion of the forest in those localities 

 which best meet their requirements. Thus conifers replace 

 the deciduous forest upon the dry slopes and sunny exposures 

 of the right bank of the Sihl, and even considerable bodies of 

 pure Spruce are to be met with. Nor does the Sihlwald, in 

 spite of its large annual yield, convey the impression of a 

 dense forest. The trees, cut soon after the period of maxi- 

 mum mean annual growth, commonly exceed a hundred feet 

 in height at the time of felling, but so slender are they that it 

 is rare to find a specimen of a greater diameter than two feet 

 at twice that distance from the ground. The leaf-canopy, 

 lifted on the straight, clean boles far above the beautifully 

 kept paths, which it has been the policy of the Forstmeister to 

 maintain, has none of the gloomy effect which a lower cover 

 frequently produces ; and the absence of underbrush and 

 fallen branches gives a feeling of space and cultivation which 

 is pleasant in the extreme. 



Scattered along between this forest and the Sihl, are the 

 houses of Forestmaster (Forstmeister) Meister and his assist- 

 ants. Here, too, are placed the saw-mill, handle factory and 

 injection plant, whose presence as integral parts of the equip- 

 ment of the forest, chiefly distinguishes the management of 

 the Sihlwald from that of other similarly situated European 

 woodlands. 



Nancy, France. Gifford PhlcJlOt. 



Correspondence. 



Experiments in Producing Rain. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — "In certain villages in the Indian Central Provinces, 

 besides the village blacksmith, the village accountant, the vil- 

 lage watchman and the like, there is an official termed the 

 Gapogari, whose duty it is to make rain. So long as the sea- 

 sons are good and the rain comes in due time his office is, 

 no doubt, a pleasant and lucrative one. It is not laborious, 

 and it is obviously the interest of all to keep him in good hu- 

 mor. But if, as sometimes happens, the hot dry weather of 

 April and May is prolonged through June and July, and week 

 after week the farmer sees his young sprouting crops wither- 

 ing beneath the pitiless hot winds, public feeling is wont to be 

 roused against the peccant rain-maker, and he is led forth and 



