January 9, 



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Garden and Forest. 



15 



completely covers the surface with thickets impenetrable 

 to man or beast. 



The berry-bearing Bamboos, of which there are eight 

 genera, are all found in the East; three of the species are 

 found in Madagascar, one {Schizostachyum parvlfolium) is 

 described by Ellis in his account of that island, as "an 

 elegant, slender creeper, with a stem scarcely as thick as 

 a quill, growing nine to ten feet long, and hanging in 

 most elegant festoons from tree to tree alongside of the 

 roads. " 



No native Bamboo occurs in Europe, while from the 

 whole of the vast continent of Africa only one native 

 species is known. Bamboos are found widely distributed 

 through southern China, in Japan, the Philippine and 

 Fiji Islands, and one species occurs in the Sandwich 

 Island group. The largest of the whole tribe, Bambusa 

 Brandisi, a native of the hill districts of India, attains a 

 height of 120 feet, with stems nine inches in diameter. 



No group of plants, not even the Palms, is more useful 

 to man than the Bamboos. They supply food and raiment 

 and shelter to millions of people. The young shoots and 

 the seeds furnish food to man, and the leaves fodder for 

 domestic animals. The stems are used for building pur- 

 poses and the leaves for mats and cordage ; paper is made 

 from the leaves, and furniture and almost everything else, 

 where wood can be used, from the stems. The whole 

 industrial fabric of the East is dependent upon these great 

 Grasses, and it is impossible to think of a Chinaman or a 

 Malay, without associating with him, in some form or 

 another, the Bamboo. 



The arborescent species have long been familiar orna- 

 ments in all tropical gardens ; and, as our illustrations 

 show, no plants of the north possess their stately grace 

 and beauty. A good deal of attention has been paid in 

 late years to the cultivation of some of the smaller species, 

 of which several have proved hardy in the more temper- 

 ate parts of Europe. Some of these are highly valued as 

 ornamental plants, and their general introduction and cul- 

 tivation in the gardens of southern Europe is one of the 

 interesting events of modern horticultural progress. These 

 dwarf Bamboos are not yet very well known in this coun- 

 try, although the climate of the Southern States is ad- 

 mirably suited to them, and there are several species which 

 can be grown in California, with the aid of irrigation. 

 There is at least one species, although unfortunately 

 of dwarf and not very attractive habit, which is hardy in 

 New England, Arundinaria Japonica (the Bambusa Metake 

 of most gardens), and there are probably six or eight more, 

 natives of Japan, China and the Himalayas, which can be 

 grown in the more temperate parts of this country. None 

 of them have stems which exceed, under the most favorable 

 conditions, a height of twenty feet, so that while they 

 may serve to add grace and charm to any garden, and to 

 recall the vegetation of the tropics, they can give but a 

 very faint idea of the veritable giants of the race, which 

 can be seen in all the splendor of their beauty in the 

 tropics themselves only. 



Notes from a South Carolina Naturalist. — II. 



A T Sandy Run I find Euonymics Americaniis , the bursting 

 -^~^ capsules gladdening the heart, and here, also, I see a few 

 of the prickly follicles of Gonolobus hirsutus. Formerly there 

 were many vines here, all growing together, but bearing flow- 

 ers of different colors, yet they were all G. hirsutus. Some of 

 the flowers were palish yellow or straw color, others brownish 

 purple and some almost black. One vine had paler flowers, 

 somewhat approaching lilac. The petals in all were veined, 

 the straw color showing it best. G. stiberosus, Gray (C 

 viacrophylbis, Chap.), with its smooth and angled fruit, is 

 found some miles off. The road runs through deep sand, 

 still following the river westward, with Corn and Cotton 

 on each side. We pass Linden, see the large Magnolia, 

 so prized by the ancient owner, and think of the days 

 that are no more ! Next, Gascoigne's Bluff on the one 

 side and Middleton swamp on the other, on whose knolls 

 of Beech and Magnolia and Hickory the wood-cutter is 



now cutting down the finest trees of Walter's Pine {Pinus 

 glabra), so long ignored, till rediscovered by Dr. Ravenel — 

 now, alas! lost to us; lost to the science lie loved! In the 

 surrounding Pine-land I have seen only one or two trees of 

 this Pine, but deep in the recesses of the swamp it is abund- 

 ant enough to be cut and floated to the mill, which, like a 

 devouring monster, is taking the choicest treasures of our 

 woods. Certainly a beautiful Pine, with its peculiar bark, its 

 smooth limbs, its soft looking foliage. The wood-cutter told 

 me that he had cut trees there thirty inches in diameter. I 

 have often wondered that this tree had been so long ignored, 

 or that it was not cultivated as an ornamental shade tree. So 

 far as I know, it makes no forests of its own, but is found only 

 sparsely among other trees, yet very lately it is said to have 

 been found in great abundance in Wassamassaw Swamp, not 

 far from Charlestown, the trees there being of great size and 

 beauty, tall, stately, columnar. As to its locality, it is never 

 found, I believe, very far from salt water. I find it on the 

 banks of the Edisto, in the swamps near Jacksonboro' station 

 on the railroad, in the swamps bordering the Savannah River 

 rice fields, in the driest soil not far from' the Colleton River, 

 and on Hilton Head, along the bluffs of Calebogue Sound, 

 between "Spanish Wells" and the ocean. It will grow, 

 therefore, in most soils, both dry and wet, in the low coun- 

 try, save some Pine-lands. It is doubtful whether it would 

 grow at the north, but it is worth the trial. 



In many trees I have observed that the sinall branches grow 

 out horizontally from the larger limbs, making the foliage 

 appear dense and flattened, even though the smaller branch- 

 lets be really erect. The spray, therefore, often looks flattened, 

 and it has always seemed to me a striking peculiarity. On 

 James Island, near Charlestown, there were formerly man)- 

 large trees, but the finest, which, it is said, were ninety or 

 even a hundred feet high, were killed by the great cyclone 

 of 1885. At "Burch's,"on the same island, there are others 

 left (so a friend writes me) which are about eighty feet high, 

 tall and straight, having no branches for sixty feet from the 

 ground. 



As we continue, a few trees of the Swamp Chestnut Oak 

 {Querctts Michauxii) are seen with Beech, and Magnolia and 

 Maple, but the only Pine is Loblolly (P. Tceda), which indeed is 

 everywhere. At a roadside bridge, as we approach " Rose 

 Dhue," vines of Forsteronia difformis are growing, the bloom, 

 of course, long over, but I look in vain — as I had looked for 

 years — for the long follicles. The road is now overarched 

 with a dense growth of Cedar {Juniperiis Virginiana) on one 

 side and Live Oak on the other, making a dark and shady 

 avenue, which carries us at last to the salt-water bridge, 

 where, in the hottest days of summer, a sweet, cool draught 

 comes to us across the marshes from "Rephaim." As we 

 cross the next bridge a sad sight meets us in the utter de- 

 struction of a field of sea-island cotton by the caterpillar. 

 Close to the marsh a few acres of brackish myrtle land had 

 been cleared by the industry of negroes, and when last I 

 saw it there was the promise of a most abundant crop, but 

 what a scene of blackness and desolation met us ! The tall 

 stalks were all stripped bare of leaves, with only the black 

 and shriveled pods remaining. Only a few of these were 

 bursting here and there with the " snow of Southern sum- 

 mers." We were glad to pass on till we reach the deep 

 swamp at the foot of a white and sandy hill, as we of the 

 low country call so slight an elevation. Here is the usual 

 swamp growth of Nyssa, Maple, one or two small Cypresses, 

 and a single high-climbing vine of Decumaria ; but the tree 

 which will most attract our attention will be the (to us) rare 

 Pinckneya piibens. We see the greenish and pale yellow 

 capsules in thick clusters among the mellowing leaves, but 

 they will soon be ruddy-tinged when the later frosts come. 

 This spot is, so far as I know, its farthest northern limit, 

 and I liave seen it in only one other place not far off, and 

 a single small shrub near the Savannah River. It is a shrub- 

 like tree, but it reaches a height of twenty-five feet, and a 

 section of one such I sent, some years ago, to Professor 

 Sargent for the Jesup collection. The flowers in June, with 

 their beautiful peach or rose-bloom floral envelope, are very 

 showy. The young trees sometimes have the floral envel- 

 ope almost white, with but a tinge of pale pink, but those 

 of the old trees are usually most deeply colored, and are 

 very beautiful. 



The edges of this swamp in June, all ablaze with the rose- 

 pink bloom, is a sight worth seeing, and at such a time I 

 wonder the more that it has never been cultivated. As it 

 seems most likely that this was the tree which Bartram 

 found growing with his now long-lost Cordonia pubescetis 

 {Franklinia Altamaha), I thought it barely possible that 1 



