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Garden and Forest. 



[December 17, 1890. 



number of students approaching the subject from different 

 points of view,. The accumulated knowledge thus gained 

 will give the best idea that can be obtained of this group 

 of trees and of the limitation of the species. Botanists, 

 however, will always differ in their conception of species, 

 and in the case of the California Oaks the varieties of one 

 will be species for another, or what one author considers 

 a species another will regard as only a variety or as a 

 natural hybrid. Information of this character, unsatisfac- 

 tory, doubtless, as it may appear to those persons who 

 believe that it is the duty of the naturalist to find unalter- 

 able characters for every species, will only be reached 

 through field observations, and the more people who study 

 our trees in the field, as Professor Greene is studying them 

 in California, the more accurate and satisfactory will be our 

 knowledge of them. 



These two papers upon our western Oaks must be ranked 

 among the important contributions which have been made 

 toward an understanding of North American trees.* 



Douglas Fir and Giant Thuya would make a forest-park 

 so characteristic and so noble that, fifty years hence, it 

 would command the admiration of the world. 



Rather more than a year ago we gave some account of 

 the forest of the city of Lynn, an area of wooded land once 

 held in common by the proprietors of the city for the fuel 

 and timber they needed, and now restored to the use of the 

 public. It is altogether the largest area which has been 

 dedicated to park purposes in New England. The territory 

 remains in nearly its original state, being a region of rocky 

 hills with bold ledges and deep glens, through which rapid 

 brooks find their way. From an article in the Boston 

 Herald it appears that the commissioners who have been 

 charged with the administration of this work have acted 

 with wisdom, making several miles of substantial roads 

 and laying convenient footpaths to the places of the greatest 

 interest. The most important change has been in the 

 completion of a new water-basin known as Glen Lewis 

 and Walden Ponds. A substantial stone dam divides the 

 basin into two sections, the upper level of which goes by the 

 former name and the lower by the latter. The two form a 

 long body of water of varying width, with branches ex- 

 tending between the hills, whose slopes are covered with 

 healthy young Oaks and masses of White Pine and Hem- 

 lock. Looking up and down the valley from certain points 

 this basin has the effect of a large river, and glimpses of it 

 obtained from the neighboring hills are remarkably 

 beautiful, while from some of the more elevated points 

 prospects of great extent and varied interest stretch away 

 on every hand. Of course it will be the aim of the man- 

 agement to preserve as far as possible the original features 

 and natural charm of the whole region. It can be main- 

 tained more cheaply on these lines, and it will be much 

 more satisfactory than if an attempt were made to subdue its 

 wildness into pastoral or park-like scenery or to transform 

 it into something artificial and formal. Some portions of 

 it are to be held as a productive forest, and the success of 

 this experiment will be watched with attention. 



The important fact, however, is that the city of Lynn 

 has led the way in establishing a public forest, and has 

 thus set an example for other cities which have similar 

 opportunities. It is true that there are few such regions of 

 wild forest-land adjacent to bustling cities; but in several 

 towns of the middle and New England states there are 

 wooded gorges through which happy brooks are flowing, 

 and tracts of broken land, and wherever these natural 

 features exist it would seem the part of wisdom to take 

 possession of them before they are obliterated by " im- 

 provements " of some sort. Some of the new cities which 

 are growing so rapidly in the south will soon be lamenting 

 over lost opportunities after the neighboring forests have 

 quite disappeared. In the north-west, too, young cities are 

 growing into an exact resemblance of older towns in the 

 east without a thought of preserving the primeval forest 

 which they are displacing, and yet a thousand acres of 



* " Illustrations of West American Oaks," from Drawings by the late Albert 

 Kellogg, M.D., the text by Edward L. Greene. Published from funds provided 

 by James M. McDonald, Esq. Parti. San Francisco, 1889. — Part II. 1890. 



The California White Oak. 



T'HE largest of the California Oaks, one of the largest of the 

 *■ genus and the most graceful of all the species which in- 

 habit North America, is the White Oak of the California valleys 

 (Quercus lobatd), of which a portrait appears on page 611. 



The California White Oak attains sometimes a height of one 

 hundred feet, with an enormous trunk seven or eight feet 

 through, separating often near the ground into several main 

 branches, whose ultimate divisions are long, slender and pen- 

 dulous, the whole forming a broad head of surprising grace 

 and beauty. The aspect of the tree seen from a little distance 

 is rather that of the best type of the New England Elm than of 

 an Oak, and more than any other tree this White Oak gave the 

 peculiar park-like appearance to the valleys of central Cali- 

 fornia, which so delighted travelers before these valleys were 

 turned into Wheat fields. 



The great size and the graceful habit of Quercus lobata are 

 not the only beauties of this tree. The leaves which clothe 

 the slender branches are large, bright colored and deeply 

 lobed. The acorns, which are quite unlike those of any 

 of our eastern Oaks, are slender, usually pointed, and some- 

 times two and a half inches long, with hemispherical tubercu- 

 lated cups. 



The wood of this tree is brittle, like, that of all the California 

 Oaks, and is practically worthless except for fuel. Economists 

 deplore the poor quality of the timber produced by the Cali- 

 fornia Oaks. There is, however, another side to this question, 

 and California is, on the whole, a gainer in several thousand 

 noble trees, which, had they produced timber as valuable 

 as that of eastern White Oaks, would long ago have been con- 

 verted into wine casks, and the California valleys would have 

 lost forever their greatest charm. 



We are not aware whether the attempt has ever been made 

 in California to cultivate Quercus lobata as an ornamental tree. 

 Outside of the state none of the California Oaks have ever 

 succeeded in any marked degree, although various attempts 

 have been made in different parts of Europe to grow them. 

 They need, probably, the long, hot, dry summers which 

 European climates do not afford. They might, however, be 

 expected to succeed in Australia or in northern Africa, and 

 should this prove true there could be no more splendid tree 

 for the ornamental plantations of these countries than this Oak. 



Our illustration is made from a photograph, communicated 

 to us by Mr. William Alvord, of San Francisco, of a very fine 

 specimen growing on General John Bidwell's farm in Butte 

 County, one of the wonders of California's agricultural pros- 

 perity. This particular tree is remarkable for its great spread 

 of branches, which have a diameter of nearly one hundred 

 and fifty feet, rather than for the size of the trunk, which is 

 only six and a half feet in diameter, The tree is growing on 

 sandy, alluvial soil, and is honored with the name of " Sir 

 Joseph Hooker," who visited and admired it in 1877 in company 

 with Asa Gray.* 



The Autumn Flora of the Lake Michigan Pine 

 Barrens. — II. 



THE most attractive flowers at this season, however, are 

 the Blue Gentians, seen by thousands throughout the moist 

 grounds of the barrens. Two species of them are recognized 

 in our descriptive botanies, Gentia?ia crinita and G. serrata, 

 but they run into each other so imperceptibly and completely 

 that it matters little to which of the two many of the plants 

 are assigned. Those whose leaves are broad and short are 

 apt to have a more deeply fringed corolla, with some other 

 distinctive marks, while those with narrow or linear leaves 

 have the fringe of the corolla short or obsolete. Such will 

 confidently be referred to the types of the respective species, 

 but many that come between will be accepted with hesitation. 

 The floral colors vary from pale to bright blue, the darker 

 shades preponderating particularly with the narrow-leaved 

 plants. When they grow in company with Solidago Ohioensis 

 they either share the ground with it or more often form a 

 kind of border to the yellow patches, apparently not succeeding 

 in quite as moist localities as this Golden-rod may select. In 

 similar places, but much less common, G. Saponaria and G. 



*A portrait of this tree, made, perhaps, from the same negative, although greatly 

 reduced, was published by Dr. C. C. Parry in an article descriptive of Rancho 

 Chico, which first appeared in the Overland Monthly for June, 1888, and was after- 

 ward issued separately. 



