i6 



Garden and Forest. 



[January 9, 1889. 



might stumble upon it here. My explorations have never 

 rewarded me with its rediscovery, but it may doubtless 

 yet be found in the Fort Harrington region, where Bartram 

 lirst saw it in 1773. We take our last draught of water from 

 the cool spring, mount the sandy hill, and for some distance 

 see only trees of Pimcs palustris, and of Oaks — Q. citierea 

 and Q. Catesbcei — fit soil for them all ! Passing tnrough a 

 wet "gall," I look for Elliott's Solidago ellipticaf which I 

 met with at this spot a few years ago, but I failed to see it ; 

 yet I have since found it not far from the Okeetee, where, 

 also (but in clay land near the bridge), I was fortunate enough 

 to collect, for Dr. Gray, fine specimens of the equally rare 

 Actbiomeris alba. We toil on laboriously through Scrub Oaks 

 and Pines, and, before we leave the sand, look for Asunina 

 parviflora (which grows abundantly in an old field near by), 

 but no plants were to be seen on the roadside. 



At last we reach the cane-brakes of the " Great Swamp," 

 and, by the new growth of Pine met with, know that clay soil 

 has been reached. It is the rough " Spruce Pine," to dis- 

 tinguish it from Walter's smooth Spruce {P. g'labr a). I refer 

 to F. niitis. 1 have but rarely met with the three leaves in a 

 sheath. P. Tceda is here, also — for it is everywhere. Collin- 

 sonia punctata was once most abundant in the woodlands 

 about, but it seems to be disappearing, and a little further on 

 I see but a single specimen of C. scabriusciila. The last 

 seems very rare. We pass the old Garvey gate, with its few 

 Cypresses, and are cheered by the autumn colors of Golden- 

 rod — seemingly Solidago tortifolia — covering whole fields. 

 The faint glow of coming winter is already in the trees about 

 the river, chiefly Nyssa and Maple, and now the distant rice- 

 fields are seen. We cross the bridge at New River, and 

 see the signs of the late disastrous freshet which had 

 burst over the railroad, overleaping dams and submerging 

 the harvest-fields of rice, and had carried destruction with it, 

 thus mingling the red waters of the Savannah with the 

 purer tide of New River! The marks were on every 

 side in the bending and prostrate plants and sheaves of 

 golden grain, still lodged high and dry on the shrubs and 

 tall grasses. 



It was the highest, and, I believe, the most destructive 

 freshet ever known in the rice-field country hereabouts, and 

 . will never be forgotten either by planters or negroes. On the 

 middle bridge of the Causeway I looked for the remains of 

 Eryngium praaltum, where I collected specimens in the sum- 

 mer, but I saw none, and but one tall specimen some six or 

 seven feet high (of what I took to be Eupatoriiim serotinum), 

 was left green and flowering, of the many formerly seen. 



Turning, now, sharply to the right, I look down the 

 Screven's Ferry road to the left, and recall, with the same 

 glow of pleasure, my great "find" last summer of the 

 (to me) most rare Anantherix connivens. This was but the 

 third plant I had ever seen — the second having been col- 

 lected many years ago, some fifteen miles away in a damp 

 Pine-land, and sent to Dr. Gray. That plant was about 

 eighteen inches high, if I remember aright — this four feet 

 three inches. We wade through long slashes of water on the 

 edges of swamps with Quercus Phe I los ahonnAmg. Emerging 

 from these glooms, we come to red clay, which soon runs off 

 into a drier and more gravelly soil, and here I was glad to 

 see several acres of the young saplings of Pinus palustris, to 

 the exclusion of all other Pines. As we go on through damper 

 soil we see the long, slender plumes of Liatris graminifolia, 

 with here and there the L. gracilis of Elliott. Liatris odora- 

 tissima is also here, but its bloom is long since over. L. pani- 

 culata we left behind long ago, with also L. scariosa in the dry 

 woodlands, but the show of the fall is poor in comparison with 

 former years. Visiting the house of a negro patient, and see- 

 ing a splendid Hibiscus in fuU bloom, I hoped that by a mere 

 chance it was the long-lost H. Carolinianus of Elliott, but a 

 closer examination proved it to be only the H. gratidiflorus of 

 Michaux. It was brought from Georgia, but it grows also in 

 South Carolina, for I once saw several acres of it in black and 

 brackish soil just back of the sand hills on Hilton Head. Few 

 sights more beautiful could be imagined. Again we meet 

 with Pinus Cubensis abundantly, and at last reach the rail- 

 road, where my journey ends and my work begins. 



Bluffton, s. c. J. H. Mellichamp. 



"Meantime, there is one duty obvious to us all: it is 

 that we should set ourselves each one of us to doing 

 our best to guard the natural beauty of the earth : we 

 ought to look upon it as a crime, an injury to our fel- 

 lows, only excusable because of ignorance, to mar that 

 natural beauty which is the property of all men." 



— Morris' Lectures on Art. 



Cultural Department. 



Selaginellas. 



ACCORDING to the latest monograph of these plants, there 

 are no less than 334 species now known. For horticul- 

 tural purposes many of them are either wanting in beauty and 

 interest, or are too much like other species to be worth 

 growing. The collection of species and varieties of Selagi- 

 nella cultivated at Kew is the largest I have seen, comprising, 

 as it does, ninety-two species and varieties. Most of these are 

 grown in a portion of the large house devoted to tropical 

 Ferns, the Selaginellas occupying a side stage on the north- 

 west side. Each kind is represented by several large panfuls, 

 the pans being from one and a half to two feet square and 

 about six inches deep. The effect of these plants, when 

 grouped as at Kew, is exceptionally handsome, and they are 

 looked upon as one of the most interesting and attractive 

 features of the house collections. They are easily managed — ■ 

 in fact, no plants more easily ; they grow quickly into perfect 

 specimens, and they may be propagated to almost any extent 

 in a short time. Many of them are of dimensions large 

 enough to be grown as big specimen plants, others make 

 pretty basket plants, while the smaller creeping kinds maybe 

 employed for many purposes, such as forming a carpet under 

 large plants either when grown in pots or planted out. But 

 to enjoy these plants to the full they should have a house or 

 portion of a house to themselves. There is variety enough 

 among them to please any one. Next to the filmy Ferns, I 

 consider the Selaginellas the most delicately beautiful of all 

 the Vascular Cryptogams. 



The following list of twelve good kinds, for the stove or 

 warm green-house, comprises representatives of all the most 

 attractive types or groups. They are the pick of the Kew col- 

 lection, and they have the merit of keeping well through the 

 winter. Probably, however, delicate plants such as these do 

 not suffer so much in America in winter as they do here. 



The soil used is a mixture of loam and leaf-mould. Math a 

 good sprinkling of silver sand. It should not be pressed hard 

 into the pans or pots, but about as firm as for Verbenas, etc. 

 The drainage should be carefully prepared, so that the 

 water daily required by these plants all through the summer 

 will not have any difficulty in passing away. The temperature 

 of the house where they are grown at Kew does not fall below 

 60° Fahrenheit in winter, and 70° Fahrenheit in summer. 

 About the end of February cuttings of all the kinds should be 

 put into pans or boxes, so that any specimens which are too 

 shabby to be worth keeping another year may be replaced. 

 Such species as S. Mertensii, S. denticulata, etc., are omitted 

 from the list, as they are already universally grown, the object 

 here being to call attention to the many beautiful kinds of 

 Selaginellas which are in cultivation in a few gardens, such as 

 Kew, but which are almost unknown in general horticulture. 



S. affinis, a recent introduction from British Guiana. It 

 has stems nearly a foot high, with the habit of a dense variety 

 of S. Mertensii, and scale-like leaves, crisp, imbricated, rather 

 firm and bright green. The branches are tasseled and curved 

 back. This is a beautiful plant, as delicate and soft-looking as 

 a Todea pellucida. 



S. atroviridis, a fairly well-known plant, a native of India, 

 China, etc. It is remarkable for the shining dark olive-green 

 of its broad fronds. In tropical countries its leaves are almost 

 black. The stems are about nine inches high, freely bi-anched, 

 the leaves being very broad and flat in their arrangement. 

 This is as easy to grow as S. Mertensii. 



S. caulesceiis, var. argentea. The lower part of the stem of 

 this kind is unbranched, while the upper half is bent horizon- 

 tally and covered with lance-shaped, overlapping branches, 

 so that the whole stem has the appearance of a large deltoid 

 frond with a long stalk. The branched portion is a foot long 

 by about eight inches broad, beautifully clothed with small 

 bright green leaves arranged almost flat; the tips of the upper 

 branches are whitish. This grows freely, and is the hand- 

 somest of all the varieties of .S". caulescens. It is a native of the 

 Malay Peninsula. 



S. Emeliatia, a semi-erect kind, nine inches high, the fronds 

 like those of S. Mertensii, but much more delicately divided 

 and triangular in outline, while the leaves are smaller and in- 

 clined to curl. The color is a soft, deep green. It was intro- 

 duced by B. S. Williams, of Holloway, in 1886. 



S. grandis, the handsomest of all cultivated Selaginellas. 

 It grows to a height of two feet, the stems erect and un- 

 branched, except on the upper six inches, where the branches 

 are numerous, arranged side by side so as to form a flat, shell- 

 like frond, of the brightest and clearest blue-green. Each 



