October 22, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



519 



moss, but parasites which are trees self-grafted upon trees — 

 dominate the primitive trunks, overwhelm them, usurp the 

 place of their foliage, and fall back to the ground, forming 

 factitious Weeping-Willows. You do not rind here, as in the 

 great forests of the north, the eternal monotony of Birch and 

 Fir : this is the kingdom of infinite variety — species the most 

 diverse elbow each other, interlace, strangle and devour each 

 other : all ranks and orders are confounded, as in a human 

 mob. The soft and tender Balisier opens its parasol of leaves 

 beside the Gommier, which is the Cedar of the colonies — you 

 see the Aco/uat, the Courbaril, the Mahogany, the Tendrc-d- 

 caillou, the Ironwood . . . but as well enumerate by name 

 all the soldiers of an army ! Our Oak, the Balata, forces the 

 Palm to lengthen itself prodigiously in order to get a few thin 

 beams of sunlight ; for it is as difficult here for the poor trees 

 to obtain one glance from this king of the world as for us, 

 subjects of a monarchy, to obtain one look from our monarch. 

 As for the soil, it is needless to think of looking at it : it lies as 

 far below us probably as the bottom of the sea — it disappeared 

 ever so long ago, under the heaping of debris — under a sort of 

 manure that has been accumulating there since the creation : 

 you sink into it as into slime; you walk upon putrified trunks, 

 in a dust that has no name ! Here, indeed, it is that one can 

 get some comprehension of what vegetable antiquity signifies 

 — a lurid light (lurida lux), greenish, as wan at noon as the 

 light of the moon at midnight, confuses forms and lends them 

 a vague and fantastic aspect ; a mephitic humidity exhales 

 from all parts ; an odor of death prevails, and a calm, which is 

 notsilence (for the earfanciesitcan hearthegreat movementof 

 composition and of decomposition perpetually going on), tends 

 to inspire you with that old mysterious horror which the 

 ancients felt in the primitive forests of Germany and of Gaul : 

 " ' Arboribus suus horror inest.' " 



The following description of the Botanic Garden at St. Pierre 

 will be read with interest. It is the oldest garden in the West 

 Indies, and certainly one of the most picturesque in situation ; 

 and although sadly neglected and overgrown, it contains many 

 tropical trees which cannot be seen in any other garden in 

 America to such advantage : 



" The garden is less than a mile from the city, on the slopes 

 of the Morne Parnasse; and the primitive forest itself has been 

 utilized in the formation of it, so that the greater part of the 

 garden is a primitive growth. Nature has accomplished here 

 infinitely more than art of man (though such art has done 

 much to lend the place its charm), and until within a very re- 

 cent time the result might have been deemed, without exag- 

 geration, one of the wonders of the world. 



" A moment after passing the gate you are in twilight, 

 though the sun may be blinding on the white road without. 

 All about you is a green gloaming, up through which you see 

 immense trunks rising. Follow the first path that slopes up 

 on your left as you proceed, if you wish to obtain the best 

 general view of the place in the shortest possible time. As 

 you proceed, the garden on your right deepens more and 

 more into a sort of ravine, on your left rises a sort of foliage- 

 shrouded cliff; and all this in a beautiful crepuscular dimness, 

 made by the foliage of great trees meeting overhead. Palms 

 rooted a hundred feet below you hold their heads a hundred 

 feet above you, yet they can barely reach the light. . . . Far- 

 ther on the ravine widens to frame in two tiny lakes, dotted 

 with artificial islands, which are miniatures of Martinique, 

 Guadeloupe and Dominica ; these are covered with tropical 

 plants, many of which are total strangers even here ; they are 

 natives of India, Senegambia, Algeria and the most eastern 

 east. Arborescent Ferns of unfamiliar elegance curve up 

 from path-verge or lake-brink, and the great arbre-du-voya- 

 geur outspreads its colossal fan. Giant lianas droop over the 

 way in loops and festoons ; tapering green cords, which are 

 creepers descending to take root, hang everywhere, and para- 

 sites with stems thick as cables coil about the trees like 

 boas. Trunks shooting up out of sight, into the green wilder- 

 ness above, display no bark ; you cannot guess what sort of 

 trees they are ; they are so thickly wrapped in creepers as to 

 seem pillars of leaves. Between you and the sky, where every- 

 thing is fighting for sun, there is an almost unbroken vault of 

 leaves, a cloudy green confusion, in which nothing particular 

 is distinguishable ! " 



"It is of another century, this garden ; special ordinances 

 were passed concerning it during the French Revolution (An. 

 II.); it is very quaint ; it suggests an art spirit as old as Ver- 

 sailles or older ; but it is indescribably beautiful even now. 



"... At last you near the end, to hear the roar of falling 

 water ; there is a break in the vault of green above the bed of 

 a river below you, and at a sudden turn you come in sight of 

 the cascade. Before you is the Morne itself, and against the 



burst of descending light you discern a precipice verge. Over 

 it, down one green furrow in its brow, tumbles the rolling 

 foam of a cataract, like falling smoke, to be caught below in a 

 succession of moss-covcrcd basins. The first clear leap of the 

 water is nearly seventy feet. . . . Did Josephine ever rest 

 upon that shadowed bench near by ? . . . She knew all these 

 paths by heart ; surely they must have haunted her dreams in 

 the after-time ! " 



"The beautiful garden is now little more than a wreck of 

 what it once was ; since the fall of the Empire it has been 

 shamefully abused and neglected. Some agronome sent out 

 to take charge of it by the Republic began its destruction by 

 cutting down acres of enormous and magnificent trees — in- 

 cluding a superb alley of Palms — for the purpose of experi- 

 menting with Roses. But the Rose-trees would not be culti- 

 vated there, and the serpents avenged the demolition by 

 making the experiment garden unsafe to enter — they always 

 swarm into underbrush and shrubbery after forest-trees have 

 been cleared away. . . . Subsequently, the garden was greatly 

 damaged by storms and torrential rains— the mountain river 

 overflowed, carrying bridges away and demolishing stone 

 work. No attempt was made to repair these destructions; but 

 neglect alone would not have ruined the loveliness of the 

 place— barbarism was necessary ! Under the present negro- 

 radical regime orders have been given for the wanton destruc- 

 tion of trees older than the colony itself ; and marvels that 

 could not be replaced in a hundred generations were cut down 

 and converted into charcoal for the use of public institutions." 



Part IX. of Forbes & Hemsley's Enumeration of Chinese 

 Plants, published in the Journal of the Linna>an Society, has 

 just appeared, and carries this valuable and important work 

 through the Plantaginea-, and includes, besides that family, 

 Acanthacea, Verbenacea* and Labiatece. Two new genera, 

 Loxocalyx and Hancea, are proposed by Mr. Hemsley. The 

 first is a herbaceous plant discovered by Henry in the" Hupch 

 district. It is remarkable in the elongated lower lip of the 

 calyx, and in the very long stalk of the ovary, which is as long 

 or longer than the ripe nutlets. Loxocalyx is placed provision- 

 ally near Otostegia and Roylea ; a figure of the only species, 

 L. urticifolius, is given. There is a figure, too, of Hancea 

 Sinensis, the type of a genus detected by Faber on Mt. 

 Omei, and which, Mr. Hemsley points out, resembles in habit, 

 foliage and axillary racemose inflorescence the Japanese genus 

 Keiskea, while in floral characters it approaches very nearly to 

 Gomphostemma. The genus is dedicated to the memory of 

 the late Dr. Hance, whose investigations into Chinese botany 

 during a long residence at Hong-Kong are well known. The 

 present part contains descriptions of a large number of new 

 species, principally the discoveries of Henry and Faber. 



Notes. 



A train of ten cars loaded with Lima beans left Ventura 

 County, California, for the east last week. 



Mr. Charles Howard Shinn has been appointed Director of 

 the Agricultural Experiment Station in California. 



The Bulletin d 1 Arboriculture says that an excellent way to 

 propagate Hydrangea paniculata is by means of flower-buds. 

 These should be taken off with a heel when they root readily, 

 and the method is especially useful if it is desired to force 

 small plants quickly into flower for use in the house. 



The Gardeners' Magazine makes mention of the fact that 

 there is a white Vallota in existence. The stock is in the hands 

 of Mr. Thomas S. Ware, of the Hale Farm Nurseries, Totten- 

 ham, London, England, who is preparing it for distribution. 

 It will be a valuable addition to our garden plants if possessed 

 of the good qualities which render V. purpurea so conspicu- 

 ous. 



A correspondent sends us some unusually fine fruits of the 

 east Asian Orange, Citrus trifoliala, ripened in the open air 

 in the Zoological Garden at Philadelphia. These plants, which 

 are said to have been raised from seed collected in Palestine — 

 of course, in a garden — have produced fruit for a number of 

 years. They are in flower early in August, and the fruit is ripe 

 two months later. 



Le Monitenr D' Horticulture, quoting from Le Journal des 

 Campagnes, describes the process used by French confec- 

 tioners to reproduce artificially the flavor of strawberries in 

 bonbons and ices. Chemistry, it seems, is able to imitate not 

 only the taste but the perfume of the strawberry in all its deli- 

 cacy by a combination of butyrate of ethyl, five parts ; nitric 

 ether, one part ; formiate of ethyl, one part ; acetate of ethyl, 



