546 



Garden and Forest. 



[November 12, i? 



loving them ; and this is the best time of the year to con- 

 sider trees with the view of improving their condition by 

 the aid of the axe. The best time to examine them is just 

 as the leaves have fallen and while the weather is still 

 pleasant, and to mark for future cutting all that are doing 

 more harm than good, and which are, therefore, better 

 dead than alive. 



But work of this sort must not be done hastily or care- 

 lessly. It is much easier to kill a tree than it is to rear 

 one up ; and the wise man does not cut a tree until he has 

 considered the result of doing so from every point of view. 

 It is best to hesitate in every doubtful case, and to think 

 the matter over again before the axe is actually laid at the 

 roots. There is, however, a great difference between the 

 careful consideration of a matter of this sort and entire 

 want of action ; and as a general rule a man rarely makes 

 a mistake in cutting too much or too often. If an error is 

 made, it is in the other direction ; and too little action 

 rather than too much is the destroying element of our 

 plantations. 



A familiar phrase in the mouths of many people is, "I 

 cannot bear to cut a tree, I love trees too well." The 

 person Avho utters it does not love trees intelligently, and 

 does not take the trouble to devote even a few minutes of 

 serious thought to them and to their requirements. The 

 man or woman who really loves trees soon learns enough 

 about them to realize that there is not room enough for all 

 that are planted or spring up, and that the kindest thing 

 which can be done for a tree is to help it in its hard 

 struggle for existence. The true lover of trees uses the 

 axe freely, and the outcry against its use springs from 

 sentimentality based on ignorance. There is no better 

 week in the year than this to begin to learn about trees 

 and their needs, or to determine if the axe cannot be used 

 with advantage to the trees we encounter in our walks 

 abroad. 



A fortnight ago, among the numerous seedling Chry- 

 santhemums raised by Mr. John Thorpe, Pearl River, New 

 York, there was a long frame filled with plants which 

 had been produced by crossing the varieties Roi des Pre- 

 coces and Gloriosum. With half of these seedlings Glo- 

 riosum was used as the seed-parent while Roi des Precoces 

 furnished the pollen. With the other half the process was 

 reversed, Gloriosum in this case furnishing the pollen and 

 the early variety being used as the seed-parent. The 

 plants were not mixed indiscriminately, but the seedlings 

 of each kind were massed together, and the striking fact 

 which appeared was that the line between these two classes 

 of seedlings was as distinctly marked as if they had been 

 different species of plants. At one end of the frame the 

 plants which had originated with Roi des Precoces as the 

 mother plant had bold foliage and stiff stems with the 

 flowers all standing face upward. In the other, the fol- 

 iage was more delicate and the stems were weak and bent 

 down under the weight of flower-buds. In both cases the 

 influence of the male parent could be noted in the char- 

 acter of the flower, although the Gloriosum type of flower 

 seemed to be the most prevalent. 



The result exhibited here suggests the question which 

 has been often asked whether there is any special class of 

 qualities mainly transmitted by the male parent and 

 another class of qualities mainly transmitted by the female 

 parent — that is, if we desire, for example, to cross a 

 specially hardy plant with one which is more delicate in 

 constitution, although it possesses other qualities which 

 we wish to transmit in the cross-bred plant, which variety 

 shall we use for seed and which for pollen ? If a hundred 

 seedlings should be selected from a Tea Rose which had 

 been fertilized with the pollen of a Hybrid Perpetual Rose 

 and a hundred more with the same Hybrid Perpetual fer- 

 tilized by a Tea Rose, which of the two lots would be likely 

 to have more of the fragrance of the Tea or of its particular 

 coloring? Which lot would be likely to excel in hardiness 



and possess the constitution of the Hybrid Perpetual and its 

 habit of growth ? 



This is only one of the questions which are of interest 

 to the hybridizer. The great majority of crosses are 

 made haphazard, and perhaps the best of them have been 

 the result of mere chance. There are a few experts who, 

 by long trial, have discovered certain principles, which, 

 perhaps, they can hardly formulate, but which must guide 

 them in their selection. There is no doubt but that Dr. 

 Walcott or Mr. Thorpe or Mr. Harris could produce a larger 

 percentage of valuable seedlings in crossing the Chrysan- 

 themum than could any one with less experience ; but 

 after all, there is so little absolute knowledge of the subject 

 that it ma)'' be doubted whether anything more than a very 

 few of the most general laws can now be formulated. Of 

 course, if there are any special principles we can hope at 

 last to know how to make our crosses if we wish to pro- 

 duce a certain effect in foliage, or if we wish to originate a 

 fruit with a certain flavor or form or color, and the same is 

 true, if we wish to improve plants, in regard to hardiness 

 of constitution and adaptability to certain soils and certain 

 regions. Perhaps, after all, there are secrets here and in 

 the breeding of animals which Nature will never reveal. 

 However that may be, here is one field in which careful 

 experiment with recorded results seems to have been sadly 

 neglected. 



Evergreens in the New Jersey Pine Region. 



T'HE evergreens of the Pines are so abundant in certain 

 -*■ localities that the foliage of the deciduous trees is scarcely 

 missed in winter. Extensive swamps of White Cedar (Chamcz- 

 cyparis thyoides) form broad, irregular belts of unbroken green, 

 bordered with many low-growing, broad-leaved evergreens. 

 Here, protected by the Cedars, we find that all the younger 

 trees of Magnolia glauca hold their leaves until spring. In 

 the south it is entirely evergreen, while here it is only 

 partly so. 



The broad-leaved Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) is here quite 

 tree-like, often from fifteen to twenty feet in height, with lower 

 bushes growing among and all around them. These thrifty 

 younger clumps are very beautiful. Some of these shrubs 

 have much broader and more glossy leaves than others, and 

 the color of the young branches is a marked feature. Some 

 have twigs of a bright yellow, others take on various shades 

 of red, which, contrasting with the dark, shining foliage, is 

 very effective. The narrow-leaved Laurel {K. angustifolid) is 

 also here in abundance. 



The Hollies attain their greatest perfection in the moist soil 

 near these great Cedar-belts, especially near the coast, where 

 the trees are from six to seven feet in circumference, and 

 fairly ablaze with their scarlet berries, while beneath them 

 their relative, the Inkberry, with shining black fruit, grows in 

 profusion. 



The little shrub, Cassandra calyculata, is here, with its 

 flower-buds strung all along the terminal branches in tl\e 

 axils of the small evergreen leaves, ready to open on the first 

 warm days in winter. 



One of the most charming of all these smaller shrubs is the 

 Sand Myrtle {Leiophyllum buxifolium), which in these moist 

 places attains the height of three feet, while in the more 

 open dry barrens it scarcely reaches a foot in height. This 

 pretty little evergreen has an abundance of small shining 

 leaves, and in May its top is covered with flat clusters of small 

 white flowers, with ten exserted stamens with purplish pink 

 anthers. 



The Bayberry retains its fragrant leaves here until late 

 spring, the old leaves mingling with the new as if loath to give 

 up their hold. And the evergreen Smilax is climbing over 

 the deciduous shrubs, clothing them with its broad, thick 

 leaves. 



The Arbor Vitae {Thuja occidentalis), the White Cedar of 

 the north, is mingling with the trees and shrubs along this 

 moist belt, but more as a shrub than a tree of any dimen- 

 sions. 



Turning our attention to the ground, we find charming 

 evergreen herbaceous plants in these moist places. One of 

 the most lovely is our Pine-barren Pyxie (Py xidanthera bar- 

 btilata), a little prostrate plant, growing in thick mats with 

 small green and purplish leaves, and in early spring covered 

 with a profusion of pink buds and white flowers. 





