434 



Garden and Forest. 



[September 3, 1890. 



the road, and the air seems entirely changed. The sylvan 

 fragrance and freshness are gone. 



Everybody who visits the region ought to go up into the 

 woods the full length of the Zealand Valley Railroad, about 

 ten or twelve miles, taking the cars at Zealand Junction, two 

 miles below Fabyan's. That country belongs to Messrs. J. E. 

 Henry & Sons, lumbermen, and they have built a good stand- 

 ard gauge railroad, on which they bring out their timber. It 

 would be an excellent thing if they could be induced to run 

 excursion trains over it. They cut only down to ten inches, 

 but the Spruces stand so thickly that in many places it is diffi- 

 cult to remove the large timber without destroying nearly all. 

 I think these proprietors do the best they can to prevent the 

 complete destruction of forest-conditions, but they are pretty 

 nearly helpless against tire. A fire in these woods in a dry 

 time can be controlled only by attacking it very soon after it 

 starts, and there is no tire-police or forest-guardianship of any 

 kind, except that of individual land-owners. The fire comes 

 some time, and there is a considerable region along this Zea- 

 land Valley Railroad which has been burned until it is com- 

 pletely ruined. The soil has been washed away from the steep 

 slopes, leaving the rocks bare and glittering. All tourists who 

 wait for the cars at Zealand Junction should look across the 

 narrow valley in front of the station, and note the two de- 

 nuded hills or ledges of rock. Their white desolation shows 

 what is the destiny of most of the White Mountain region if 

 nothing is done to interfere with existing conditions and agen- 

 cies. The ruin is not coming rapidly, but it is coming surely. 

 More and more of the whole region will be cut off, and after- 

 ward burned over, till in time there will be no timber, or shade, 

 or verdure, or springs of water in all the mountain country of 

 northern New Hampshire. 



What can be done to avert these threatened calamities ? It 

 is not easy to say. But the best way of approaching the mat- 

 ter that seems to be open to us in this state, is the establish- 

 ment of a Board of Trustees empowered to acquire by gift 

 from individuals or bodies of subscribers, parcels of real estate 

 possessing special natural beauty, and to hold the same, to- 

 gether with funds for the maintenance thereof, free of all 

 taxes, they to be required to open to the public all such lands, 

 on condition that the state shall provide some adequate means 

 for the protection of the forests on them from fire. This is 

 about the plan of the association formed in Massachusetts a 

 few months ago for the preservation of scenery and the care 

 of places of historic interest. Under such an arrangement 

 tracts of special beauty and interest near our great mountain 

 resorts could be gradually acquired and forever preserved 

 from spoliation. 



Perhaps in time the state might be brought to help. But 

 the first need is that of some kind of association, composed of 

 the leading hotel men and other public spirited citizens of the 

 state, to provide for some degree and method of co-operation. 

 It is not likely that the state will do anything in the matter un- 

 less some of the men most directly interested in the pecuniary 

 value of the scenery of the White Mountain region come to- 

 gether and arrange some method of awakening public interest 

 and enlisting public support for a moderate and reasonable 

 plan for the protection of the mountain forests against fire. 

 The state might fairly be asked to provide and maintain 

 some kind of forest-fire police service in the mountain re- 

 gion where the sparse and scattered population is inadequate 

 for such a task. But all this is my personal suggestion only. 

 It is not official and does not commit the other members of 

 the State Forestry Comission to its support. 



Some writers on the subject say the state should condemn 

 and appropriate to public uses the entire "Presidential Range " 

 and other extensive tracts in the mountain region. But noth- 

 ing of the kind has ever been done in this country, and in this 

 state we have not had even the beginning of the educational 

 work which would be required to prepare the minds of the 

 people for a proceeding of such magnitude. If we could have 

 a few years of such preparatory work we might be able to 

 begin in a small way (and that would be the best way) a course 

 of action which would result in the permanent preservation of 

 the best of our New Hampshire scenery. But I suppose that 

 very few, even of our leading citizens, have as yet begun to 

 consider or inquire by what methods anything in this direction 

 might really be attempted or accomplished. Somebody's 

 time and labor would be necessary, and much talking and 

 conferring, writing and publishing— in short, general agitation 

 and discussion. 



If New York establishes a great State Park in the Adirondack 

 region it will greatly stimulate attention to scenery interests 

 in New Hampshire. _ „ r , 



Franklin Falls, N. H. 7- B. Harrison. 



Wheat and Rye Hybrids. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — In connection with Mr. E. S. Carman's experiments in 

 hybridizing and his success in producing a hybrid between 

 Wheat and Rye.as told in the last number of Garden andForest, 

 it may be of interest to note that other experiments in the same 

 direction have been attempted. At a meeting of the Botanical 

 Society of Edinburgh, held April 8th, 1875, specimens were 

 shown, and a paper was presented by Mr. Alexander Stephen 

 Wilson on " Wheat and Rye Hybrids," which is printed in vol. 

 xii., p. 186, of the Transactions of the Society. 



Out of a large number of experiments, begun in July, 1873, 

 on Wheat, Spelt, Rye, Barley and Oats, all of several varieties, 

 only plants from two of the resulting seeds were selected as 

 true hybrids. In the author's words, these were from "Wheat 

 ovules and Rye pollen, and the whole aspect of the culm and 

 ear is intermediate between Rye and Wheat. The elongation 

 of the outer pales into awns midway in length between the 

 blunt termination in Wheat and the longer needle of Rye is 

 the most noticeable feature. The thinness of the culm is 

 characteristic of Rye, and so is the slight villosity below the 

 ear, not so observable now as when green. The glumes, also, 

 are intermediate in size between those of Wheat and Rye. 



" All the florets on these spikes fully opened, as if intending 

 fertilization, and on some of the ears they did not close again. 

 But what seem to be the most important facts regarding these 

 hybrids are that the anthers did not open nor discharge any 

 pollen ; that the pollen was imperfectly developed and con- 

 tained very little fovilla ; and that the imperfect grains remain 

 in the dried anthers. These facts are a sufficient reason why 

 these hybrids are absolutely barren; not a single kernel having 

 been produced. The anthers did not get blanched as empty 

 anthers do, and instead of falling away as is usual they still re- 

 main attached, so that the imperfect pollen may be examined 

 by breaking up an anther in a drop of water. The anthers are 

 of Wheat size. In the ordinary fertilization of a Grass, the pol- 

 len grains continue to grow until they rupture the anther ; in 

 these hybrids this full growth of the pollen grains has been 

 arrested." 



Mr. Carman states that his hybrids are growing more fertile 

 each year they are propagated. The above earlier hybrids 

 would be called failures from a utilitarian point of view, and 

 although Mr. Wilson has several other papers "On the Fer- 

 tilization of the Cereals " in the Transactions of the Edinburgh 

 Society, I am not aware that further attempts in hybridizing 

 Wheat and Rye were ever made by him. 



Arnold Arboretum. J . G. Jack. 



A Mysterious Conifer. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — I have just visited and examined afresh in the Palace 

 Garden at Potsdam the original specimen of Abies Eichleri, 

 planted and named by my late friend Lauche. As this tree, 

 for a long time almost forgotten, has recently been much 

 talked of, and as its right to represent a distinct species has 

 been contested, it may be interesting to glance at its history. 



A certain mystery always hung around its origin, the exact 

 locality which furnished the seed from which it sprung being 

 somewhat obscure. All that was known was that it was of 

 Caucasian origin, but this seemed indubitably established. 

 Very recently, however, Herr Beissner and Herr Kenning 

 made a special study of A. Eichleri, and according to them it 

 is merely a false species, produced by an accidental change of 

 seeds occurring in the consignment sent from Tiflis to Pots- 

 dam. After seriously examining all the facts which they could 

 obtain they conclude that this tree is nothing but A. Veitchii, 

 of Japan, under a new name and a Caucasian alibi. No one, 

 it was said, had ever seen A. Eichleri in a state of nature. But 

 two or three individuals were known, of which the largest, 

 the true mother-tree and the original of Lauche, is at Potsdam, 

 in the gardens of the State Nursery, which forms part of the 

 royal park of Sans-Souci. 



On the other hand, Herr Wilhelm Hans von Herrenhut 

 tells us (in 1889) that the very restricted habitat of the species 

 has just been discovered in the wild and romantic valley of 

 Daba, near Borjon, in the Caucasus Mountains. Now, which 

 of these contradictory statements are we to believe? On the 

 one hand we have the testimony of much respected savants, 

 on the other the judgment of a dendrologist as accomplished 

 as the late Herr Lauche, reinforced by the recent discovery of 

 Herr Hans von Herrenhut. 



Dr. Dieck, who is on the point of starting for Asiatic Russia, 

 expects to collect and to observe everywhere he goes, 



