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Garden and Forest. 



[August 6, 1890. 



ever shifting conditions so that the forest will be preserved 

 and maintained, and at the same time prepared for use 

 without showing- the touch of man. Work must be done, 

 but it must be work which conserves without blemishing, 

 and work which will make all these forest-treasures avail- 

 able without defacing one of them. Such a task requires 

 as much ability as the highest creative or constructive 

 work of the landscape-gardener. No one is equal to it who 

 does not possess the faculty of the true artist and who has 

 not learned to have a reverence as well as a love for Nature. 



Botany at the University of Montpellier. 



THE readers of Garden and Forest have already read 

 accounts of the celebration in May of the six hun- 

 dredth anniversary of the foundation of the University of 

 Montpellier. To botanists this celebration had a special 

 significance, for, since the foundation of the Botanic Gar- 

 den by Henry IV. in 1593, and the installation of Richer de 

 Belleval as Professor of Botany, the picturesque university 

 town has been the home of a large number of illustrious 

 botanists. In 1889 there was established at the university 

 an Inslitut de Botanique, and, in a very interesting pamphlet, 

 Professor Charles Flahault gives an account of the buildings 

 erected and of the courses of instruction, together with short 

 biographical notices of the prominent persons who have 

 either occupied the chair of botany or pursued their botanical 

 studies at Montpellier. The list is long and includes an aston- 

 ishing number of illustrious botanists. Amongst them are 

 the names of Rondelet, Clusius, Lobelius, Bauhin, Magnol, 

 Tournefort, A. de Jussieu, Draparnaud, A. P. De Candolle, 

 Delile, Duval, Bentham, Moquin-Tandon, Charles Martins 

 and others well known in the history of botany. Besides 

 those mentioned are other names known rather in the lit- 

 erary than the scientific world. Rabelais, the pupil and 

 friend of Rondelet, who introduced his master under the 

 name of Rondibilis in " Pantagruel," we are told was not a 

 very zealous pupil, and Rousseau we are informed was 

 more occupied with his health than his studies while at 

 Montpellier in 1737. 



The Institut occupies three principal buildings in the 

 Botanic Garden: the Pavilion Richer de Belleval, including 

 the rooms devoted to instruction; the Pavilion Magnol to 

 research in anatomy and physiology; and the Pavilion 

 de Candolle containing the herbarium, library and the 

 office of the Director of the garden. The equipment for 

 general instruction is liberal, but we notice with special 

 pleasure the ample provision made for research and the 

 facilities offered to those who wish to consult the very val- 

 uable collections belonging to the University. One room 

 in the Pavilion Magnol is reserved for visiting botanists 

 who wish to pursue botanical investigation. It is to be 

 hoped that the day is not far distant when, in America, it 

 will be generally recognized that the botanical resources of 

 our universities should be so administered that those who 

 wish to pursue research will find abundant opportunity and 

 encouragement. The plan adopted at Montpellier deserves 

 careful study and should commend itself to all American 

 universities as a model to be followed by them as far as 

 their means permit. 



Much of the wastefulness in the methods of cutting tim- 

 ber now in use in this country is a matter of habit, a sur- 

 vival from the times when the chief need was to destroy 

 timber as fast as possible in order to clear the ground for 

 cultivation. It is easier to go on in the same way than to 

 change, and much timber is now wasted that would yield 

 a profit to the owner if it were rightly handled. Many 

 lumbermen recognize the need of change in the direction 

 of greater care in cutting and in the handling of timber 

 lands, but they leave the work of beginning the use of 

 new methods to those who are to come after them. It is 

 often asserted that regard for their own interests will lead 

 lumbermen and owners of timber lands to guard against 

 waste whenever such care becomes necessary. But it is 



necessary now. It would be good economy, would be 

 profitable in all cases in which reasonable care is lacking. 

 The fact is, as all competent observers of human action 

 are aware, that men in general are very far from being 

 controlled by an intelligent regard for their own interests. 

 Enlightened self-interest is an entirely adequate principle 

 for the guidance of human conduct, but to bring men to 

 accept it, and to act upon it, has always been a matter of 

 great difficulty. It requires much discussion, reiterated 

 precept, and often the sharp lessons of painful experience, to 

 persuade men to do what is most profitable to themselves, 

 to adopt such courses of action as will yield them the 

 greatest benefits. 



The need for improvement does not usually become 

 plain to everybody at the same time. It is more apt to be 

 perceived by a few at first, and earnest and long-continued 

 effort on their part is often required to awaken others to a 

 sense of its importance or necessity. Not only are men 

 long indifferent to what they afterward recognize as neces- 

 sary and fortunate for themselves, but they strenuously re- 

 sist the effort to bring about changes from which they are 

 to receive the principal advantages. This experience 

 is always being repeated. It is a constant feature of 

 human life and action. It is all exemplified in the matter 

 of methods of forest-management in this country. Greater 

 care in avoiding and preventing waste would be profitable 

 now. The time has already come to practice it. Lumber- 

 men can make more money by it this year and the next than 

 they do by the methods now too commonly used. Such 

 reasonable care would increase the value of their timber- 

 lands so that they would sell for more or be more valuable 

 property as an inheritance for their children. No matter 

 how abundant our timber supply may be, or how long it 

 is likely to last, it would be wise and profitable to avoid 

 wasteful methods of cutting timber and of handling timber- 

 lands. It is only sensible and practical economy to em- 

 ploy all available means and conditions to increase the 

 productiveness of wooded lands, and to make the local 

 timber supply everywhere last as long as possible. 



Native Shrubs of California. — IV. 



Lavatera assurgentiflora, Kellogg (Proc. Calif. Acad., i., 14). 

 The number of things I shall have to say about this Lavatera 

 will be out of proportion to its merits as an ornamental shrub; 

 for these are not great. A stout and heavy-looking bush or 

 small tree, with a not unsightly, angular, Maple-like foliage, 

 and a profusion of rich red flowers hung, on long and slender 

 stalklets from the axils of the leaves, it is sufficiently showy to 

 have been cultivated everywhere throughout the maritime 

 parts of California, apparently from the early days of the Span- 

 ish settlements. 



Unquestionably indigenous to Californian territory, it is 

 never seen growing wild except around old dwellings or near 

 gardens ; and, since along with the Acacias, Eucalyptus and 

 other Australian trees and shrubs, it comes into flower soon 

 after the winter solstice, a stranger would take it for an exotic 

 from the southern hemisphere. Such was the impression it 

 gave me when I first saw it, blooming beautifully in midwin- 

 ter, many years ago. It is one of a considerable number of 

 trees and shrubs which are found wild nowhere else in the 

 world except upon two or three rocky islets which, although 

 politically a part of California, are barely visible above the 

 horizon as one looks out to the seaward, on a clear day, from 

 Santa Barbara or San Pedro. 



When Dr. Kellogg named and published the species as new 

 to science, he put upon record a tradition that the seeds of it 

 had been brought in the first place from the island of Anacapa. 

 It does not appear that any botanist or amateur had authen- 

 ticated this supposed habitat; nor has such authentication ever 

 yet been made. On the contrary, several intelligent men who, 

 although not botanists, know the Lavatera very well, and who 

 have been on Anacapa repeatedly, declare that it does not 

 grow there. I nevertheless suspect that if ever a zealous and 

 careful botanist shall visit Anacapa he may find it lurking 

 among the half-cavernous niches of the basaltic columns not 

 far above the water's edge. It should be sought in some such 

 place, and not on the dry and exposed summit or sides of the 

 island, where other shrubs grow, 



