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Garden and Forest. 



[February 13, 1889. 



seen so much of the fatal effects of the destruction of forests 

 in other countries, that I only hope they may be successful; and 

 I could not help thinking on many occasions during my recent 

 journey in America, that every bushel of corn and wheat 

 which is now being exported from the United States, at 

 prices which leave little or no profit either to the grower or 

 the carrier, represents an amount of timber, of virgin soil 

 and of virgin forest, which would be worth, probably in the life- 

 time of its present owners, far more than all the corn and 

 wheat which may be, in the meantime, produced by its de- 

 struction and waste. Forest-fires are even more ruinous, for 

 they seem to rage annually over a large part of the Rocky 

 Mountains and Pacific States, and I cannot help thinking that 

 very strong measures will, sooner or later, have to be taken 

 to stop them. The prevention of burning has been one of 

 the most difficult tasks of the forest-department of India; but 

 it can be done, even when the feeling of the local population 

 opposes it; and though freedom is a very good thing, yet it 

 seems to me to be going too far, when you allow the inhabi- 

 tants of the head-waters of a great river to make the country 

 uninhabitable for hundreds of miles below them, by burning 

 or allowing to be burnt the forests on which those rivers 

 depend, in a great measure, for their regular flow of water. 

 The fearful devastation lately caused in China by the over- 

 flow of the Hoangho River is a good instance of this, and we 

 might expect the same thing in Bengal, if the forests of the 

 Himalaya had been treated as the forests of China have, 

 and as I am afraid some of the forests of the United States 

 are in a fair way to be dealt with, if the eyes of the people 

 are not opened in time. H. J. Elwes. 



Cirencester, England. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — In my letter published in Garden and Forest of 

 January i6th, I referred to localities in Rhode Island where 

 the Tulip-tree is found indigenous. I omitted, however, to 

 refer to a locality where it grows naturally in Massachusetts, 

 but so near Rhode Island that it might properly have been 

 spoken of in the article alluded to. 



I discovered a number of these trees in June, 1887, in a 

 rather scattering wood on the north-eastern shore of " Wal- 

 lum Pond," a sheet of water in the north-western corner of 

 Rhode Island, and running over the line into Massachusetts. 

 The trees were in the latter state, but close to the line of di- 

 vision. I saw a considerable number of them, varying in 

 size from the seedling a foot high to trees forty feet high or 

 more, but none very large, and being with other trees, they 

 had little room for development of top. I was not looking for 

 them, nor should I have been much more surprised to see a 

 band of native "Nipmuck" Indians spring from the woods 

 than I was to see these trees. The pond is almost wholly 

 surrounded by forest, and is, indeed, in the midst of a wild 

 forest-region. 



A note from Mr. Jennings, of our recent topographical sur- 

 vey, gives the altitude of this pond as 575 feet, which height 

 makes the occurrence of this tree there of still greater interest. 

 Some of the trees growing with the Tulip-trees, or near them, 

 are Birches, Oaks, Beech, Maples, Ash, Hemlock and Pines, 

 with an undergrowth of Laurels, Viburnums, Cornus, etc. 

 Near by is Viburnum lantanoides, a very rare plant in Rhode 

 Island. 



I think this region has been but little explored, or the exist- 

 ence of the Tulip-trees would have been noticed before. 



Providence, R. I. L. W. Russell. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — A recent note from one of your correspondents states 

 that the wood of Burr Oak in North Dakota is britde and 

 shaky, and of litUe value, and throws doubt on the use of culti- 

 vating it here. 



While it is true that most of the oak grown in this region 

 is short, brittle and shaky, some of it has been found as dur- 

 able for axe handles, rollers, etc., as much of the hickory 

 found in the market. 



I think there is reason for studying carefully the circum- 

 stances under which the toughest wood here is naturally pro- 

 duced. The growth of some trees here is vigorous. 



In northern Minnesota, near Aitken, on the well sheltered 

 and alluvial bottoms of the Mississippi, I have seen the Burr 

 Oak four feet in diameter at four feet above the ground, and 

 seventy feet to the first limb. In Manitoba, along the Pem- 

 bina Mountains, near Nelsonville, I have seen valuable groves 

 of this timber. 



My iinpression is that the exposure to fire and wind is the 

 principal reason for the poor quality of most of the oak dm- 

 ber grown here. 



I shall be glad to furnish next season samples of leaves, 

 fruit, wood and soil of the Burr Oak from different localities, 

 with full notes, to any one who will study them and publish 

 the results. H. B. Ayres. 



St. Paul, Minn. 



Periodical Literature. 



The following extracts from an exhaustive article in the Jan- 

 uary Bulletin of Miscellaneous hiformation, issued by the au- 

 thorities of Kew Garden, upon the plant {Erythroxylon Coca) 

 which produces Cocaine, is of general interest now that this 

 valuable anaesthetic has come into such general use : 



" In recent years the well known Coca plant has received 

 considerable attention, owing in a great measure to the valuable 

 properties which have been ascribed to one of its alkaloids 

 called Cocaine, as a local anaesthetic. Coca wine and various 

 other preparations of coca leaves are now largely in use. The 

 plant itself has been noticed and described by botanists and 

 travelers for more than three himdred years. 



" The earliest detailed account appears to be that given by 

 Nicholas Monardes in the third part of his ' Historia Medicinal 

 de las Cosas que se Traen de Nuestras Indias Occidentales 

 que Serven en Medicina' which was published at Seville in 

 1580, after the author's death. This was translated into Latin 

 by Clusius while delayed by adverse winds at Gravesend on 

 his way to Belgium, where the translation was published at 

 Antwerp in 1582. In 1580 an English translation of the third 

 part, in addition to that of the two earlier parts previously 

 printed, was also published by John Frampton, a London 

 merchant. The Kew library possesses a copy of this book, 

 which is printed in black letter ; its title is " JoyfuU Newesout 

 of the Newe FoundeWorlde, Wherein is Declared the Virtues 

 of Hearbes, Trees, Oyles, Plantes and Stones." A condensed 

 translation from the Spanish of the three parts is given by 

 Clusius in h.\s ' Exoticorum Libri Decejn,' 160'^, which is usu- 

 ally quoted as the earliest authority on Coca. 



" The account given by Monardes of the Coca plant and its 

 uses are tolerably minute. He describes the methods of using 

 Coca when traveling, either in the form of balls, or of a paste 

 made by chewing the leaves with lime made from shells, or 

 the leaves alone. ' For the use of these little Balls taketh the 

 hunger and thirst from them ; and they say that they receuive 

 substance there by, as though they did eate meate. At other 

 times they use them for their pleasure, although they labour 

 not by the way, and they use the same Coca alone, chewing it 

 and tossing it in their mouths, from one side to another, until 

 there be no vertue remaining in it, and then they take 

 another.' 



"The Coca plant, although known for some time previously 

 to European botanists, was first defined as a species, according 

 to modern principles of nomenclature, by Lamarck, in the 

 Encyclopedia Methodique (1786), from specimens brought 

 from Peru by Joseph de Jussieu. Cavanilles figured and de- 

 scribed it from the same specimens, and we have also a repre- 

 sentation of it in the inedited plates of Ruiz and Pavon. The 

 first figure of the Coca plant published in this country ap- 

 peared in the Companion to the Botanical Magazine (1836), Vol. 

 ii., t. 21, with a description by Sir William Hooker, from speci- 

 mens gathered by Mathews in the environs of Chinchao, Peru. 

 A full account of the uses and property, mode of cultivation 

 and commercial value of Coca in its native country had been 

 given previously in the saine work (p. 161), in a translation 

 from the second volume of Dr. Poeppig's 'Reisein Chili, Peru, 

 und auf dem Amazonenstrome.' 



"At that time and for many years afterwards Coca leaves were 

 looked upon merely as the source of a stimulant to the nerv- 

 ous system, employed by the inhabitants of Peru and Bolivia 

 in very much the same manner and for the same purpose as 

 the Chinese use opium and the East Indians chew the betle. 

 The published statements from Monardes onwards respecting 

 Coca appear to establish the fact that its use by the Indians of 

 the Andean region enable them to accomplish such severe 

 labor as no European could perform. Von Tschudi refers to 

 the effect the use of Coca had on himself, in greatly assisting 

 respiration and in enabling him to ascend high mountains 

 without fatigue. Dr. Weddell, Spruce and Markham, and 

 numerous other travelers and scientific observers, agree in 

 -ascribing to Coca marvelous sustaining power, although many 

 of them are careful to point out that Coca used in excess pro- 

 duces highly injurious effects, like the immoderate consump- 

 tion of other stimulants or narcotics. 



"According to De Candolle the original home of the Coca 

 plant in South America has not been clearly defined. He 

 states that early authors, such as Joseph de Jussieu, Lamarck 



