154 



Garden and Forest. 



[March 27, iJ 



Correspondence. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



I have about two acres which I want to put into a grove of 

 Nut-trees, such as Cheshiut, Hickory, etc., and would hke to 

 know the best size to get the trees and the right distance apart 

 to plant them. Of course, I shall thin them out to some extent 

 as they grow up, but do not want to do this until those taken 

 out will be of some service. 

 New York. C. D. Miller. 



[It is more economical to plant the nuts of Hickories, 

 Walnuts and Chestnuts where the trees are to grow than to 

 transplant seedlings. The nuts should be procured in the 

 autumn and kept over winter in moist sand, as if they are 

 allowed to become dry they lose their power of germina- 

 tion. They should be planted as soon as the frost is out 

 of the ground in the spring. If the ground is hilly or filled 

 with rocks the nuts must be planted, two to six feet apart, 

 wherever sutficient soil can be found, for them, by making 

 a hole with a stick from a half to one inch deep, dropping 

 in the seed, and then closing the hole by pressing the 

 foot upon it. This, too, is the best method for planting 

 where the ground is so impoverished that it will not pro- 

 duce a heavy crop of grass or weeds. But when the ground 

 is rich and level it should be ploughed and marked out as 

 though it were intended for a crop of corn ; the nuts should 

 be planted four feet apart, and the soil should be cultivated 

 to destroy the weeds until the seedlings are large enough to 

 shade the surface, after which no further cultivation will 

 be needed. 



Seedling Chestnut plants, one to two feet high, can easily 

 be transplanted and can be procured from nurseries. So 

 can seedling Black Walnuts, although little is gained by 

 planting seedlings rather than seeds of trees which, like 

 the Black Walnut, the Hickories and the Oaks, make 

 strong tap-roots. Seedling Hickories are not kept in any 

 large quantity in American nurseries. — Ed.] 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — In the notice of the Double-tlowered Horse-chestnut, 

 by George Nicholson, of Kew, published in No. 51 of Garden 

 and Forest, I find it stated that the flowers became double 

 by the changing of the stamens into petals. 



In a double-flowered Horse-chestnut which I examined last 

 summer, the discoid base of the flower was converted into a 

 pillar, from which arose four distinct flowers in succession, 

 each furnished with its complement of stamens and petals. 

 There was, at the same time, a spiral movement which had 

 disposed the petals of the different flowers in such a manner 

 as to produce a many-petaled rosette, but each flower of the 

 series retained its own stamens unchanged. 



I intend, hereafter, to endeavor to observe whether plants 

 belonging to the Disciflorce differ in their method of doubling 

 from plants belonging to the Calyciflorce. 



Media, Penn. 



G. A. Lewis. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — Your remarks upon the vandalism of cutting down 

 and peddling out the remains of the old historic Oak at Wood- 

 bridge, Connecticut, remind me of an incident of my own ex- 

 perience which has never been recorded, but is worthy of 

 mention as an illustration of a degree of barbarism which it 

 seems incredible can still exist. 



During the late civil war there was, at one time, a great de- 

 mand for " Pasture Oaks "• — as the White Oaks growing singly 

 in open fields were called — the timber of which commanded a 

 high price at the Navy Yards. 



Near where I then lived in Massachusetts was a farm which 

 had been in the family of the man who then occupied it, for 

 more than 200 years, the house in which he lived being more 

 than 150 years old. It stood, perhaps, ten rods back from 

 the high-way, and on each side of the entrance to the lane 

 which led up to the house was a magnificent White Oak, 

 which must have witnessed the course of life from infancy to 

 the grave of many generations of the ancestry of the rnan who 

 then owned and tilled the farm. I passed them almost daily, 

 and they were to me a constant source of admiration, both on 

 account of their intrinsic grandeur, and the reflections excited 

 by the thought of the stories they could tell. 



You can better imagine than I can describe my sensations 

 when, on approaching the place one day, I saw one of them 

 prostrate, and the owner with his assistant busy in cutting 

 down the other, and the only reply he made to the exclama- 

 tion that rose involuntarily to my lips was that he "guessed 

 there would never be much more timber in 'em, and he never 

 again could get so good a price for it." 



Minneapolis, Februar}' 20th. H. W. S. C. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — It having come to my knowledge that a florist of this 

 place, David Cliffe, was sulfering from poison supposed to have 

 been caused by some plant, I was led by what has appeared in 

 Garden and Forest to suspect that perhaps Priimcla obconica 

 riiight be that plant. I wrote him of my suspicion and this is 

 what he replies : 



"I am positive that /V/w^z^/a obconica is poisonous to some 

 persons. As you know, I was under treatment for poison 

 which I received from Poinsettia, through cuts in my hand. 

 Feeling much better, I busied myself potting my Primulas. 

 In the evening I was completely blind from my face being- 

 swollen. It remained in this condition for a day. Since this 

 my foreman, after packing up some of the plants, had his 

 hands and arms poisoned. Last week a customer who had 

 taken some of the plants refused to take any more, saying 

 some who had handled them were poisoned Ijy them." 



It is hard to believe this of any Primula ; and probably the 

 cases in which it poisons are very few, as there is no doubt that 

 hundreds handle it witli no ill effects, just as is the case with 

 many other plants. Personally, I am compelled to avoid any 

 contact with the common Poison Ivy ; and even the seeds of 

 the Oregon Maple {Acer macrophyllum) and of the Ostrya Vir- 

 ginica, both of which are covered with minute hairs, and excite 

 an itching and inflammation of my hands, while many others 

 who have handled them are not at all affected. The Priimila 

 obconica is such a beautiful and useful plant that it will be 

 much regretted if it should be proved to be really poisonous to 

 many persons. 



Germantown, Phila. 



Joseph Meehan. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — Permit me to express my satisfaction with your editorial 

 article on the "Soil and National Development," in your issue 

 of February 13th. It is true, as you say, that all wealth is drawn 

 from the earth itself, and it is equally true that the rocks and 

 minerals, and especially the soil which is produced from them, 

 are useful to man just in proportion to his knowledge of them 

 and their properties. It will be fortunate for our people if you 

 can arrest their attention, and show them in what ways the soil 

 is being ruined in large regions of our country, and by what 

 methods its fertility may be preserved as an inheritance for 

 future generations. 



The richness of the virgin soil is made up of the savings of 

 past generations of plants, veiy much as the riches of a nation 

 are made up of the small savings of past generations of men. 

 If we continue to return to the soil a fair equivalent, in energy 

 and inineral, for that which we remove in the crop, the soil 

 will grow richer ; but if we continue to remove the crop with- 

 out such equivalent, if we steadily plunder and rob the soil, it 

 will finally be reduced to the state of barrenness and savagery 

 from which it has been raised by the vegetation of past ages. ' 



Mahoning, Ohio. J- W. Pike. 



Recent Publications. 



Die Landschaftsgaertnerei; ein Handbuch fuer Gaerter, 

 Architekten und Freunde der Gaertner-kunst. Von E. Petz- 

 old, Leipzig, Haessel. 



The first edition of this work on landscape-gardening was 

 published in 1862, and won high praise in Germany despite 

 the fact that the author was said to have followed the English 

 artist Repton with too confiding a faith. After twenty-five 

 years of study and experience, during many of which Herr 

 Petzold has held the position of Park and Garden Director to 

 Prince Frederick of the Netherlands, he now reissues his 

 book in an augmented and much-improved form. The sub- 

 ject is discussed in the thorough German way, and among the 

 most interesting chapters may be named those which treat of 

 "The Colors of Trees and Shrubs with reference to Foliage, 

 Flowers and Fruit," "The Characteristics of Tree-forms as 

 affecflng the Lines of Landscapes," and "The Arrangement 

 and Care of Cemeteries." Form, color and linear and atmos- 

 pheric perspective, are discussed with reference to the land- 

 scape-gardener's problems ; all the elements which enter into 



