io6 



Garden and Forest. 



[February 27, 1889. 



midst of a Pine forest. It has the power of germinating 

 and of existing ahiiost indefinitely in deep shade. A feeble 

 shoot only, perhaps, appears above the surface, hardly in- 

 creasing perceptibly from year to year, while below the 

 root goes on extending deeper and deeper. ' At the end of 

 a century, perhaps, the Pines which shaded the Oak and 

 checked its upward growth are destroyed, either by fire or 

 by the axe. The Oak is broken off close to the ground, or 

 fire consumes what appears above the surface. The Oak, 

 however, has what the Pine does not have — the power to 

 send up shoots from the stump — and the great root, which 

 has been growing for years, at last has the opportunity to 

 assert itself, and send up a strong, stout stem, or a cluster 

 of stems, which occupy the ground, and so change the 

 character of the next forest-crop. It is not probable, 

 however, that there could have been enough Oaks grow- 

 ing in this way in any forest of Pines to change at once 

 its character, and seedling Pines would appear among 

 the Oaks, especially if the ground had not been burned 

 over. But fires, if they do not do the damage the first 

 year, are almost sure to come, sooner or later, and as they 

 destroy the Pines and do not destroy the Oaks (for an Oak 

 can be burned several times without destroying the vitality 

 of the stump), every time a piece of ground is burned over 

 the hold of the Oaks is strengthened as that of the Pines 

 is weakened. This is why land which once grew large 

 and valuable Pines now only produces small, stunted and 

 worthless Oaks. This is what has been going on for a 

 century or more all over New England and everywhere in 

 the White Pine belt of the north. Mismanagement in the 

 south is converting the valuable forests of the Long- 

 leaved Pine into comparatively worthless forests of Old 

 Field Pine. In Kentucky and in Tennessee mismanagement 

 is gradually changing the forests of valuable White Oaks 

 into forests of worthless Black Oaks, and all through the 

 mountain forests of the West, Spruces and Firs and Pines 

 are being replaced by miserable Aspens. Mismanagement 

 growing out of disregard of the simplest laws of nature 

 and of economy is slowly destroying the fertility and 

 changing the character of the plant-covering of the whole 

 North American continent. Such forces of nature work 

 slowly, and the results, perhaps, are hardly noticed from 

 generation to generation of men. But at length people, 

 like our correspondent, begin to ask themselves, "Why is 

 it that this land which, when it was first known, was cov- 

 ered with great forests of Pine, now only bears a feeble 

 growth of stunted Oaks, and what has become of the fer- 

 tility for which this region was once so famous .'' " It is 

 easier to find the answer to such questions than it is to 

 suggest the remedy for the conditions which give rise to 

 them. But with such examples before our eyes as all the 

 earliest-settled parts of this continent afford, there seems 

 little excuse for the condition of things which already 

 begins to prevail even in those regions where the balances 

 of nature have not yet been seriously, or at least not irre- 

 parably, disturbed. — Ed.] 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — It would not be safe, in my opinion, to trust to the in- 

 nocuous character of that variety of Rhus toxicodendron with 

 entire leaves upon such negative evidence as that presented 

 in the communication published in your journal of February 

 6th. It is, of course, generally impossible for the physician to 

 determine which variety has produced the cutaneous inflam- 

 mation in individual cases, as the patient is almost always 

 ignorant of such distinctions in tlie forms of leaves, even if 

 able to recognize the plant at all. 



I have in my office mounted, dried specimens of all dre va- 

 rieties of foliage of Rhus toxicodendrofi and R. venenata, and 

 have frequently asked intelligent patients to point out which 

 of the forms was the culpable agent in their case, and have 

 seen no grounds for regarding the lobed leaflets of R. toxico- 

 detidron as more virulent than those with entire edges. I was 

 certainly acquainted with one vine of the latter variety, which 

 had been cultivated upon a l)uikling in ignorance of its nature, 

 which severely poisoned at least two or three persons in one 

 season. The great majority of persons are not affected by 

 either variety. 



It is interesting to know that persons "especially subject to 

 Ivy poisoning " escaped last season, as described by your cor- 

 respondent. James C. White. 



Boston, Feb. 7lh. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — In a recent number of a western horticultural journal I 

 find the following : " Have you ever walked along the street of 

 some city and observed the fragrance arising from the baskets 

 of certain 'Rose seed' or ' Lavender bloom ' venders ? Well, 

 when you do see them, don't invest in these wares unless you 

 enjoy being fooled. The articles are offered for placing among 

 clothes, and are 'warranted' never to lose their fragrance, 

 but a dozen times a day the venders retire for a bit, and in 

 some unobserved place squirt perfume over their stock to 

 keep an odor about it. Anything that rattles in the envelopes 

 does duty for the seeds or dry leaves." 



Here in New York such frauds are common, and it seems 

 as though there should be some way to prevent ignorant pur- 

 chasers from being thus imposed upon. Not long ago I saw 

 several peddlers on Twenty-third Street who were actually 

 offering " Attar-of-Rose seed " for sale — the seed, that is, not 

 of a plant, but of a perfume ! There could hardly be a more 

 transparent deception, yet it seemed to find many victims. 

 From curiosity I ranked myself among them, and bought a 

 ten-cent package of what looked like Pumpkin seeds. In 

 twenty-four hours, of course, the strong scent which the pack- 

 age had emitted was wholly gone. On the other hand, the 

 Lavender which is often sold on our streets in autimin seems 

 to be the genuine article, may be bought either in dried twigs 

 or in a powdered form, and keeps its delicate, fresh odor for a 

 considerable length of time. 



New Yorlt City. W. K. G. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — It may be interesting to note that Nymphaa odorata 

 occasionally grows out of water. At Baury's Lay, on Buzzard's 

 Bay, in 1888, pools which are such in spring, but which in 

 summer are absolutely free from surface moisture, so as not 

 to even dampen the shoes in walking over them, abounded 

 with this plant. The leaves were large, but not unusually 

 large, short petioled and healthy. The blooms had very short 

 peduncles and the flowers were far larger than those that were 

 found in water near by. It is not uncommon to notice the N. 

 odorata blooming luxuriantly on the edges of ponds where the 

 water has retreated, but this is the only instance I have ob- 

 served of their growing when the ground was dry, without 

 moisture in reach of discovery by digging with a jack knife. 



It is not generally understood that some marsh plants will 

 thrive far better in proper soil, different from their natural 

 habitat, than in a state of nature. This instance given above 

 is an analogous illustration with a water plant. It would be 

 well for some of our cultivators to make a trial of growing the 

 Pond Lily in the same manner as the Calla is now treated. 



South Fi-amingham, Mass. E. Lewis Sturtevant. 



Recent Publications. 



Gartenkunst und Gaerten So7ist und Jetzt. Von H.Jaeger, 

 Berlin, Paul Parey. 



This book, the title of which may be somewhat clumsily 

 translated as " Gardening Art and Gardens in Former and in 

 Present Times," is one of the most valuable to the student of 

 the subjects with which it deals that has yet been published. 

 Its author holds the position of Royal Garden Inspector at 

 Eisenach, and had published in 1877 a " Handbook of Gardening 

 Art " for the practical instruction of members of his profession, 

 which, we believe, is regarded in Germany as one of the best 

 works of its class. The present work is primarily a popular 

 history, not a theoretical or practical treatise. Yet the author's 

 long personal experience in the planning and conservation of 

 gardens, and the didactic habit of mind characteristic of the 

 German intellect in general, have combined to bring within its 

 covers many pages and incidental paragraphs of a theoretical, 

 explanatory, and directly instructive sort. The reader, there- 

 fore, may learn from it not only what have been the efforts of 

 gardeners in every age of the world, but how those efforts re- 

 sulted from the point of view of abstract beauty, and also how 

 they may best be utilized as precedents for modern practice. 

 It is primarily a history, but, likewise, as its sub-title indicates, 

 a general guide-book for the gardener, architect and amateur. 

 The architect, especially, may learn much from its pages, for 

 seldom has a treatise been written in which the respective 

 qualities and claims of architectural and of gardening art ai-e 

 so systematically considered in the only right and proper way — 

 that is to say, not separately, as the qualities and claims of two 



