57° 



Garden and Forest. 



[November 26, 1890. 



Form should be a prime consideration always. It 

 should not be, confounded with s) r mmetry ; and yet the 

 truth should be remembered, that certain sorts of irregu- 

 larity, charming on a small scale, are ugly when increased 

 size makes them more conspicuous. A weak habit is often 

 a defect to be remedied, yet at times it constitutes the 

 whole character, grace and beauty of the plant. The 

 multiplication of petals may often produce an effect so 

 different from that of the natural flower as to constitute a 

 new type, and one of much beauty. The type of the 

 Dahlia has not been ruined by doubling — it has been re- 

 placed by another type with a certain formal beauty of its 

 own. But such doubling often does no more than spoil 

 the first type by turning it into a shapeless mass like that 

 of many double Narcissi. Even double Roses should not 

 be so big and so solid that neither grace of habit, nor 

 beauty of general outline, nor freedom in the disposition 

 of the petals remains. 



The Jesup Collection of the Woods of the 

 United States. 



ON Saturday, November 15th, the "Jesup Collection of the 

 Woods of the United States " was formally opened to the 

 puplic in the Museum of Natural History in this city. For 

 several years past the specimens have been shown in the great 

 hall on the ground floor of the old part of the building, but 

 much of its space was occupied by other collections, so their 

 arrangement was not advantageous, nor could the drawings 

 which accompany them be displayed. Now, however, the 

 Jesup Collection alone occupies this hall, space for the other 

 things having been found in the new wing of the Museum ; 

 and the public can appreciate the full interest and value of the 

 wood specimens themselves and of the accessory collections 

 which explain the trees that produced them and thus vastly 

 enhance their significance. The old hand-book (which is 

 shortly to be revised for a new edition) named 412 species of 

 trees native to our country. All these, with one or two excep- 

 tions, are represented among the woods, and a few additional 

 specimens have been secured since the hand-book was printed 

 in 1885. Almost all the specimens are as fine, as regards both 

 size and condition, as could be desired, and those which are 

 less perfect will eventually be replaced by better examples. 

 While each specimen shows the natural aspect of the tree 

 with its bark, the character of the wood is shown in the upper 

 portions by longitudinal, horizontal and oblique cuts, one half 

 of each exposed section being plain and the other polished. 

 The value to architects and artisans of the products thus dis- 

 played can only be realized by one who has passed the long 

 rows of logs in review, and seen how many, as yet unfamiliar 

 to commerce, show great beauty or singularity in color and 

 marking. Information with regard to the strength of each 

 wood is given, moreover, by the results of mechanical 

 tests and chemical analyses recorded on the label-card, where 

 also the scientific and popular names of the tree are given, 

 while its habitat is shown on a little map. These labels, con- 

 trived for this collection by Professor Sargent, to whom Mr. 

 Jesup entrusted the formation and arrangement of the collec- 

 tion, received a prize at the Paris Exposition last year and have 

 since been imitated in at least one European collection. 



Next to the woods themselves the most important feature 

 of the collection is the series of large water-color drawings, 

 representing the leaf, the flower and the fruit of each species 

 in their natural sizes, which have been painted — in every case 

 directly from nature — by Mrs. Sargent. About two hundred 

 and fifty of these drawings are now shown, and the completion 

 of the series is promised for the near future. As attractions 

 for the popular eye they may outrank the wood specimens 

 themselves, for they illustrate the beauty and immense variety 

 of our forest-foliage and blossoms in a very charming and 

 artistic way. Yet their value to the botanical student will be 

 equally great, for although much freer and more graceful in 

 treatment than tne usual botanical illustration, they are abso- 

 lutely truthful and exact. One point of excellence deserves 

 especial notice. This is the way in which, although only 

 isolated leaves and flowers or flower-clusters could be shown, 

 the habit of the tree is suggested. The specimens are posed, 

 to use the only available word, as nearly as possible as they 

 would show in nature, so that we see at a glance not only the 

 aspect of leaf and flower, but the manner in which the tree 

 bore them. 



To supplement these paintings we are promised a series of 

 large photographs illustrating the chief species of our trees as 



they grow in their native home — a feature which again will 

 delight the public, and will be of incomparable value to the 

 landscape-gardener and the horticulturist. Of extreme interest, 

 too, is the series of glass cases filled with examples of the way 

 in which insects devastate our trees, the insects and their 

 nests being carefully prepared natural specimens and the 

 leaves upon which they are feeding being most skillful imita- 

 tions. The same persons have been engaged upon these who 

 prepared the collection of stuffed birds shown in their natural 

 haunts which was presented to the Museum by Mrs. Stuart a 

 few years ago. 



It is impossible, of course, in a brief notice like this to ex- 

 plain the great interest which the Jesup Collection has for 

 every student of Nature ; but enough has been said, we think, 

 to suggest, at least, its practical value in a number of different 

 directions — to the engineer, architect and artisan, to the for- 

 ester, horticulturist, landscape-gardener and botanist, and to 

 the mere lover of Nature's works. There is no collection of 

 the kind in Europe which is so complete and instructive as 

 this one ; and we think it may safely be said that there is none 

 of any kind, scientific or artistic, in our own country which 

 equals it for many-sided completeness. 



About 1,200 persons were present at the opening on No- 

 vember 15th, and as many as the lecture-room could hold after- 

 ward listened to the first of this year's series of lectures by Pro- 

 fessor Bickmore, of the Museum. The subject of this was, 

 appropriately, "The Broad-leaved Trees of the American For- 

 est," and it was illustrated by admirable pictures of forest- 

 scenes and remarkable trees. No better engine than the Jesup 

 Collection, especially if explained from time to time by free 

 lectures of this description, can be imagined for the diffusion 

 among our people of an accurate knowledge of our forests 

 and a true love for them. Nor is there any subject with regard 

 to which an increase of popular interest and information is 

 just now more greatly to be desired. 



A Slaughtered Giant. 



O' 



|UR illustration on page 575 shows a Sequoia gigantea with 

 choppers at work inside the cleft cutting their way through 

 the trunk. This is not a tree of the first size, being less than 

 twenty-five feet in diameter and about twenty at the point 

 where it was cut. In point of beauty and symmetry it was one 

 of the best of the surviving Big Trees. It stood until a year 

 ago in the Tule River forest, Tulare County, California, and 

 was sold by the private owner of the land to certain persons 

 who wished to exhibit it. The plan was to take a section of the 

 trunk, hollow it out to a shell and then divide it into conveni- 

 ent and portable pieces, so that it could be carried about and 

 set up as a show. The project fell through, however, for lack 

 of funds, and the section of the slaughtered tree never got be- 

 yond Visalia, in the county where it stood. It is now stored 

 in that city. Let us hope that the original owner of the tree 

 and its destroyers may some day realize that it will never 

 again make such an exhibition of grandeur and grace as it did 

 while towering above the spot where it began life as a seed- 

 ling a thousand years ago. 



The Sequoia Forests of the Sierra Nevada. 



THE following paper was read by Mr. Frank J. Walker 

 before the California Academy of Sciences on Septem- 

 ber 1st and published afterward in Zoe. Since that time 

 the Tulare Reservation Bill has become a law, but it is 

 not generally known that the Government still holds other 

 forests of Big Trees which are quite as worthy of protection 

 as those already included in reservations. Mr. Walker's paper 

 places on record many facts concerning which every citi- 

 zen of the United States should be informed, for these won- 

 derful groves belong to the people of the East as truly as 

 they do to the people of California. It was a laudable sen- 

 timent which made it possible for Congress to pass without 

 opposition the act to rescue one of these groups of Se- 

 quoias ; but, as Mr. Fernow stated to a Senate committee, 

 there are economic considerations which demand with 

 greater urgency that the protection of the Government 

 should be given to many other forest-covered areas in 

 these high mountain regions, because the water question 

 cannot be solved without first solving the forest-question. 



The accompanying map (page 573) gives the Sequoia 

 forests as located by Mr. Walker. The squares represent 



