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Garden and Forest. 



[June 19, iS 



like an exact idea of their specific characters. Sucli oppor- 

 tunities Mr. Greene has enjoyed, to a fuller extent than any 

 one who has studied these trees ; and the results of his investi- 

 gations cannot fail to be of the greatest value to dendrologists. 

 Without undertaking, at this time, to criticise his conclusions, 

 for which sufficient material does not exist in any of the 

 eastern herbaria we will, in referring such of our readers as 

 are interested in the trees of California to the work itself, 

 simply note the following changes which Mr. Greene pro- 

 poses. 



Querents Alorehus, a species so named by Dr. Kellogg, but 

 referred by Engelmann to Q. IVislezetti, Mr. Greene maintains 

 as a species related to this last, but dilf'ering from it in habit and 

 in the size and outlines of the leaves. It has been suggested 

 that this may be a natural hybrid between Q. Wislezcni and 

 Q. Kelloggii (a deciduous-leaved species) but Mr. Greene finds 

 it abundant at Berkeley, many miles from any known station 

 of Q. Kelloggii. Qiiercus Breweri, of Engelmann, as Mr. 

 Watson has already pointed out {Proc. Am~. Acad, xxii., 477) 

 must give way to the older name of Q. CErstediana, of R. 

 Brown Canipst. Qiicrciis Ga?nbeliii, of Nuttall, the south-east- 

 ern representative of our eastern White Oak, and considered 

 by Engelmann as a variety of the Rocky Mountain g- undulata 

 is reinstated as a species, while Q. grisea, and Q. oblongifolia 

 are considered, so far as concerns the New Mexican and 

 Arizona plants, forms of Q. undulata ; and a new species, 

 Q. Ejigelmanni is proposed for the common evergreen White 

 Oak, of southern California, heretofore considered identical 

 with the New Mexican Q. oblongifolia. Another new species, 

 Quercus McDonaldi is proposed for a small deciduous White 

 Oak, found upon the Island of Santa Cruz with a var. elegantula 

 from the borders of streams in the southern part of the state. 



A new Scrub Oak, from the Peninsula of Lower California, 

 discovered as late as last year, is described as O. turbineila. 



So little is known yet accurately about the trees of Western 

 North America, their characters and life histories that we hail 

 with delight all contributions toward a better knowledge of 

 them. The most important of recent contributions of this 

 nature, is certainly the work that is now before us. 



Periodical Literature. • 



The chief value of an article called "The Migrations of 

 Plants," published in the last number of the Edinburgh Review 

 is that it directs attention to four books which have a wide 

 fame with professed students in natural history. These are 

 De Candohe's "Origin of Cultivated Plants" (1884), Mehn's 

 " Wanderings of Plants and Animals from the First Home" 

 (1885), Wallace's " Island Life " (1880), and Sir Joseph Hooker's 

 " Address on Geographical Distribution," printed in the re- 

 ports of the fifty-third meeting of the British Association for 

 the Advancement of Science, held at York in 1881. Of course, 

 however, since the article is based upon such works as these and 

 mtelligently summarizes many of their theories and reproduces 

 some of the more curious facts they give, it has an intrinsic 

 interest of its own and will be found pleasant and instructive 

 reading by those who have not the time to study the authori- 

 ties which it follows at first hand. Perhajis only one passage 

 needs to be quoted with a word of warning. When the author 

 says that " Darwin thought that the varying forms of florists' 

 flowers and garden vegetables must convince us that selection 

 is everything, and the choice of the particular species to be 

 operated upon is by comparison nothing," he surely exagger- 

 ates a little; and when he adds, " you can convert such common 

 subjects as Pelargoniums and Potatoes, Turnips, Radishes and 

 Carnations to every size, shape and color by a few years' breed- 

 ing and selection," he makes a palpable misstatement. If he 

 can show the gardener how to take such flowers as Carnations, 

 Pelargoniums, Tulips and Narcissi out of those ranges of color, 

 which the careful cultivation of centuries has been unable to 

 break through ; if he can teach us how to grow blue Tulips, 

 Carnations or Pelargoniums, for example, or scarlet Narcissi, 

 or yellow Phlox Drunimondii, he will earn the respect of the 

 horticultural world and make a name for himself which it will 

 be impossible for him to hide even under the discreet anony- 

 mity so carefully preserved for its writers by the Edinburgh 

 Review. 



most careful botanist, Edward L. Greene, of the State Univer- 

 sity, deserves, I think, some especial mention. The funds for 

 the publication were furnished by Captain James M. McDon- 

 ald a wealthy pioneer, one of the directors of the Overland 

 Monthly Company, a director of the Art School and an ex-Super- 

 visor of San Francisco. He is said to be furnishing funds for 

 the publication of another monograph similar in character, to 

 be devoted to the Californian Pines. 



The monograph on the " West American Oaks " will attract 

 the interest of all botanists, and I only wish to note here a few 

 things about some of the men concerned in the work, chiefly 

 about Dr. Kellogg. I first knew Dr. Albert Kellogg in 1878. 

 when I became editor of the Californian Horticulturist. He 

 was so child-like and so sincere a person that I came to have a 

 great liking for him. In his own field he was a hard worker. 

 He lived as one of the " Poor Scholars" of the Middle Ages, 

 apart from the bread-and-butter struggle that went on about him. 

 He gave up his profession many years l)efore his death, and 

 lived in poverty, devoting his entire time to Ijotanical investi- 

 gations. In 1853 he and six others founded the California Acad- 

 emy of Sciences, now so munificently endowed for original 

 research by the gifts of Charles Crocker and James Lick. He 

 left his drawings and papers on botany to his co-workers, Mr. 

 W. G. W. Harford and Dr. W. P. Gibbons. I do not know how 

 extensive his researches were, but I know something about 

 his contributions to the early periodical literature of the Pacific 

 Coast: All of the early publications, such as Hutching' s Mag- 

 azine, the Hesperian and the Pioneer contained short but con- 

 stant notes on our native plants, usually accompanied by 

 drawings. The old California Fanner, the California Cultur- 

 ist, the early issues of the Rural Press and the special editions 

 of other San Francisco weeklies contained many articles of 

 value from Dr. Kellogg's pen. For years he was the only 

 botanical writer on the Pacific Coast. He could have prepared 

 and illustrated a better California botany for children than any 

 we are now likely to have, so simple and fresh was his style. 

 Day after day, month after month, year after year, he was at 

 work in the old Church building, where the struggling Acad- 

 emy of Sciences had its home. Mr. Harford, Dr. Behr, Dr. 

 Gibbons, Dr. Kellogg and a few others were always there, ex- 

 cept when in the woods and mountains. It was a wonderful 

 and loving little group of friends and workers in the midst of 

 a great city, as yet too much devoted to material things. The 

 daily newspapers hardly mention the lives of such men, but 

 they shape the future, nevertheless. Men of broader scientific 

 training came to work with them and carry on their plans to a 

 higher fulfillment. Men of wealth put money in their hands 

 to use in researches "for the good of humanity." To my mind 

 the "West American Oaks" is a monument of a single- 

 hearted, brave old botanical pioneer, and of the friendship of 

 a group of men, rich and poor, who loved and honored him. 



San Francisco. Charles Howard Shinn. 



Correspondence. 

 West American Oaks. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — The publication of the late Dr. Albert Kellogg's draw- 

 ings of Pacific Coast Oaks in quarto form, with text by that 



Magnolias Near Baltimore. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — Professor Sargent's paper on Chinese Magnolias re- 

 minds me that perhaps one of the oldest and finest speci- 

 mens of Magnolia Soulangeana in America stands on the 

 grounds of " Hampton," the seat of the Ridgely family, near 

 Baltimore. This tree branches within two or three feet 

 from the ground, and spreads over a large area. Five years 

 ago the stem below the branches measured nearly eight feet 

 in circumference. The tree was planted by the late Samuel 

 Feast, since well known as a florist, nearly sixty years ago, 

 when he was the head gardener at Hampton, and his 

 brother, the late John Feast, was his foreman. Of the same 

 importation die Feasts planted at Hampton a Purple Beech, a 

 Cedar of Lebanon and other rare trees. The Beech is worth a 

 long journey to see. It stands on a smooth lawn unencumbered 

 by other trees, and its branches sweep the ground in a circle 

 fully fifty feet in diameter, while its symmetrical head rises like 

 a copper dome over fifty feet in the air. In the grounds of 

 this old place, which has now been in the hands of professional 

 gardeners for over a century, are many other magnificent 

 specimen trees, particularly a row of native Cedars {Juniperus 

 Virginiana) along the top of the old-fashioned terraced gar- 

 den, of gigantic size, and covered with Ivy from bottom to top. 

 Here is also, perhaps, the oldest green-house now standing in 

 America. It is an orangery, built in the old style, with perpen- 

 dicular glass on the south side and east end, and heavy stone 

 walls on the other sides. The roof is shingled, and the ceiling 

 overhead is lathed and plastered. This house was built about 

 the same time as the old mansion (1784), and still shelters as 

 fine a collection of the Citrus family as exists in this country, 



