January 2, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



GARDEN AND FOREST, 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1889. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



EuiTOKiAL Articles : — The Influence of Mountain Forests. — Tlie Yosemitc 



Valley. — Professor Goodale's Botanical Articles i 



The Gardens of the Petit-Trianon (with illustrations) H. S. Codman. 2 



Notes from a South Carolina Naturalist. — I J. H. Mellechavip. 2 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter W. Watson. 3 



New or Little Known Plants : — Neillia Torreyi (with illustration), 



Sereno Watson. 4 



Cultural Department: — Forcing Fruits and Vegetables Under Glass, 



Wm. Falconer. 5 



The Francoas . . . ' 6 



Plants for a Trying Climate Professor % L. Budd. 6 



Diseases of the Grape A.W.Pearson. 7 



European Chrysanthemums E. G. Hill. 7 



Principles of Physiological Botany — I Professor George Lincoln Goodale. 8 



The Forest : — Foi-est Tree Planting in Massachusetts 9 



Correspondence 10 



Recent Publications 10 



Periodical Literature 11 



Notes 12 



Illustrations: — Neillia Torreyi, Fig. 84 5 



Views in the ParU of the Petit-Trianon 7 



The Influence of Mountain Forests. 



THE following paragraph appears in a paper recently 

 read by Mr. Henry Gannett, Geographer of the United 

 States Geological Survey, before the Philosophical Society 

 of Washington : 



"Although forests have no influence upon precipitation, 

 yet they do exert a certain economic influence. Without 

 increasing rainfall, they, in coiTimon with other forms of 

 vegetation, economize that which falls, retaining it some- 

 what as a reservoir, and preventing its rapid descent into 

 streams. In this way, too, forests tend to reduce the mag- 

 nitude of floods and to regulate the flow of rivers, thus 

 preventing disaster and improving navigation. This re- 

 tention of the rainfall is, however, accompanied by a rapid 

 evaporation from the leaf surface of the forest, whereby a 

 considerable proportion of the rainfall returns to the 

 atmosphere without reaching the earth. On this account it 

 is urged, and I think with reason, that in our arid region, 

 which is dependent for irrigation upon its streams, it is 

 advisable to cut away as rapidly as possible all the forests, 

 especially upon the mountains, where most of the rain 

 falls, in order that as much of the precipitation as possible 

 may be collected in the streams. This will cause, not a 

 decrease in the annual flow of the streams, as commonly 

 supposed, but an increase, coupled with a greater concen- 

 tration of the flow in the spring months, and result in ren- 

 dering fertile a greater area of the arid region. It may be 

 added that the forests in the arid region are thus disap- 

 pearing with commendable rapidity." 



There are two reasons why Mr. Gannett's sweeping de- 

 nial of the value of mountain forests cannot be accepted. 

 In the first place, the fact is still to be demonstrated that 

 the expiration from the leaves of trees exceeds in volume 

 the evaporation from the unprotected surface of the ground 

 stripped of the same trees, the evaporation, of course, in- 

 creasing in proportion to the dryness of the atmosphere. 

 The truth of Mr. Gannett's statement can only be proved 

 by measuring the total annual flow of two streams with 

 water-sheds of similar extent and contour, and influenced 

 by precisely similar climatic conditions, one cleared and 



the other forest-covered. Such a record, we beheve, has 

 never been kept But until such a method is adopted to 

 demonstrate the soundness of his views, it is prudent to 

 hold to the well-established fact that the evaporation from 

 the surface of cleared land largely exceeds that from 

 ground covered with forests. 



The increased flow of streams, during the early spring 

 months, must be stored in artificial reservoirs, constructed 

 at no great distance from their sources, if the clearing of 

 the mountain sides is to result "in rendering more fertile a 

 greater area of the arid region," or the flow of water, 

 whether it is increased or diminished by the destruction of 

 the forests, will have passed away before it is needed for 

 purposes of irrigation. . Artificial reservoirs for the storage, 

 for subsequent use, of the spring flow of rivers in moun- 

 tain regions, can be made, under some circumstances, val- 

 uable adjuncts to the natural reservoirs existing in forest- 

 covered water-sheds. But there are two serious objections 

 to them. Water stored in this way is sub}ect to enormous 

 evaporation, which increases in proportion as it is most 

 needed— a fact which may be expected to seriously affect 

 the value of any system of irrigation in our arid western 

 territories, based solely upon the use of artificial reservoirs. 

 The danger, too, that such reservoirs, however solidly they 

 are constructed, may be carried away during periods of 

 exceptional floods, is very great ; and the danger increases 

 with the spring flow of the river, which, as Mr. Gannett 

 points out, is concentrated at that season in proportion as 

 the water-shed is deprived of its natural covering. An 

 artificial reservoir at the head of a stream is always a dan- 

 ger and a menace to the people living below it ; and while 

 such reservoirs will no doubt have to be built in several 

 places if the arid west is ever to be redeemed by irrigation 

 in any comprehensive way, it will be simply folly to 

 throw away, by allowing the forests to be destroyed, the 

 opportunity of reducing this danger to a minimum. 



The Yosemite Valley. 



THE press of Cahfornia is at last thoroughly aroused 

 to the importance of reorganizing the Board of Yose- 

 mite Commissioners, who, if all the stories told about them 

 ■are true, are about as undesirable a body of officials as 

 can be found in California or any other state. 



The territory in which the valley is situated was con- 

 veyed several years ago by the National Government to 

 the State of California to be held as a public parlc^ that its 

 natural features might be preserved for the use and en- 

 joyment of the people of the United States. The charac- 

 ter of the Yosemite scenery is bold and striking; and its 

 value for those purposes for which the park was created 

 may be increased or diminished in proportion as the 

 minor natural features of this scenery are maintained or 

 destroyed. It was clearly the duty of the Commis- 

 sioners to preserve the natural scenery of the valley 

 intrusted in their care ; but instead of doing this, they 

 have leased out all its level parts to a firm of contractors 

 for a nominal price, and have allowed them to convert it 

 into a hay farm, and to acquire a monopoly of aU the forage 

 sold in the valley. No visitor can now enter the valley 

 on horseback or in a carriage without being compelled 

 to pay an exorbitant tax to these contractors in the shape 

 of the price demanded for the feed for his animals, while 

 all visitors are subjected to unauthorized extortions imposed 

 by the Commissioners or by their agents. The noble 

 Black Oaks and Pines which once dotted the park-like 

 valley or lined the banks of the Merced, where it flowed 

 through charming natural meadows, have been cut down 

 or trimmed up in order to increase the area of arable 

 land; and the wild flowers, the natural grasses, the 

 clumps of wild Roses and other native shrubs have all 

 been grubbed up. 



The valley is everywhere intersected by barbed-wire 

 fences, closing the paths which lead across its undulated 

 surface and shutting up many of the best points of view of 



