July io, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



335 



If, then, we really want a national llower, and if there is 

 really a way to decide upon it, could not the one deficiency of 

 the IVIountain Laurel — the fact that it is not universally distrib- 

 uted throughout our country — be overlooked because of its 

 manifest superiority in other points ? The Great West has 

 taken much that pertains to national life from the East. Could 

 it not be persuaded to take a national flower as well ? 



New York. M. G. Van Rensselaer. 



Squirrels and Conifers. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir. — Several correspondents of Garden and Forest, whose 

 opinions are certainly entitled to consideration, hold the red 

 squirrel responsible for cutting off and scattering the twigs of 

 the Norway Spruce. The red squirrel does a good many 

 curious things, apart from the heinous offenses he perpetrates 

 upon his larger black and gray cousins. 



In the cases cited it may be that owing to the mildness of 

 the past winter the red squirrels were more active than usual, 

 and having exhausted their supply of nuts, turned more par- 

 ticularly to the Spruce cones for food. The squirrel does not 

 dislike a cone when he cannot get his nut. Indeed, the nur- 

 series would be without the Sequoia gigantea to-day were it 

 not for the squirrels, who cut the cones off from the Califor- 

 nian l)ig trees, the seeds of which were otherwise unobtain- 

 able. Thoreau refers in several instances to the squirrel's 

 manner of plucking and stripping a Pine cone. " He does 

 not prick his fingers, nor pitch his whiskers, nor gnaw the 

 solid cone any more than he needs to. Having sheared off 

 the twigs and needles that may be in his way (for, like a skilful 

 wood-chopper, he first secures room and verge enough), he 

 neatly cuts off the stout stem of the cone with a few strokes of 

 his chisels, and it is his. To be sure, he may let it fall to the 

 ground, and look down at it for a moment curiously, as if it 

 were not his. But he is taking note where it lies, that he may 

 add it to his heap of a hundred more like it, and it is only so 

 much the more his for his seeming carelessness." 



This would bear out the theory of several of your corre- 

 spondents, were it not for three reasons — the torn or mangled, 

 not cut, appearance of the tangled twigs ; the many fallen 

 twigs beneath trees where no cones, or hardly any cones, 

 exist, and the scattered twigs in masses where there are no 

 squirrels in the near vicinity. These scattered twigs are re- 

 peatedly noticed beneath the Norway Spruce during early 

 spring, and late in April they might have been seen in 

 quantities on my neighbor's lawn l)eneath his patriarchal 

 Norways. The same state of things is observable in the case 

 of the White Pine. As the red squirrel works by day, he would 

 be seen, and if not seen he would be heard were he the spolia- 

 tor in these instances. • It is to be noticed, moreover, that the 

 trees underneath which the scattered twigs exist most numer- 

 ously stand most exposed to the wind, and that the side of the 

 tree facing the west is noticeable for the quantity of dried and 

 bruised twigs upon the tree. 



If we consider for a moment the fury of the wintry gale, 

 especially when the limbs of the tree are coated with ice and 

 lashed one against the other for hours, the cause of the scat- 

 tering of the twigs and needles will, in most instances, I think, 

 be apparent as due to high winds, and not to a rodent's tooth. 



Rochester, N. Y. George H. Ellw anger. 



[We have received several other letters on this interest- 

 ing subject ; but it may be well to refer the writers to the 

 original article on page iii. It was there stated that squir- 

 rels, both gray and red, had been seen to cut off the small 

 twigs of the Norway Spruce in order to get at the terminal 

 and lateral buds (not the cones), the heart of which they 

 dextrously extracted. Examination of the twigs on the 

 ground last winter showed that in cases where the buds 

 appeared sound the heart had been neatly taken out. — Ed.] 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — Will you kindly inform the readers of your journal 

 what is the proper treatment for the beautiful Rosa multiflora, 

 described in the notes from the Arnold Arboretimi, on page 

 309, and especially whether this plant should be cut back to 

 induce free flowering. 



Boston, July jst. /T. IV. C. 



[Rosa multiflora should be planted in rich soil, where it 

 can have plenty of room to spread its graceful, arching 

 branches without being interfered with by other plants. 

 Young, stout shoots produce the best flowers, and their 

 development should be encouraged by cutting off the 



flower-clusters as soon as the flowers have faded, and by 

 shortening in the branches at the same time to induce the 

 growth of lateral shoots. Old branches should be re- 

 moved entirely after they have flowered during two or 

 three years, to make room for more vigorous ones which 

 will spring up from the roots of well-established plants. 

 A plant of this species, generously treated, may be ex- 

 pected to grow six or eight feet high and ten feet through, 

 and to be completely covered with flowers at the bloom- 

 ing period. — Ed.] 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — I am glad to see Garden and Forest calling attention 

 to the importance of preserving our national and state parks. 

 The State of Wisconsin, in 1882, set apart some twenty or more 

 townships in what was then Lincoln County as a state park. 

 The scenery is bold and rugged. It is a land of heavy timber 

 and lakes and running water — its natural features finely adapted 

 to the purpose to which it was devoted. But last winter a 

 bill was introduced near the close of the session to allow the 

 Pine-timber to be cut, and to destroy the native beauty of the 

 tract. I am glad to say that the bill failed. It was, however, 

 a fair warning to the friends of forestry and state parks to be 

 on the alert, for similar attacks will, no doubt, be organized 

 year after year. 



Evansville, Wis. 



B. S. Hoxie. 



Recent Plant Portraits. 



L^LIA DiGBYANA MOSSI^, Gardeners' Chronicle, May 25th ; 

 " decidedly one of the most remarkable, and with equal cer- 

 tainty one of the most beautiful of the hybrids raised in the 

 great Veitchian establishment by Mr. Seden." A hybrid be- 

 tween Cattleya Mossice and Lcelia Digbyana. 



Cattleya Skinneri, Gardeners' Chronicle, June ist ; the 

 portrait of a remarkable specimen with 200 expanded flowers. 



Psoralea pinnata. Gardeners' Chronicle, June ist. 



PucciNiA Schrceteri, Gardeners' Chronicle, ]ur\e ist; this 

 is the Fungus which is doing much damage among the Nar- 

 cissus in some English gardens. 



" It is sufficient to say that Piicciiiia Schrceteri is closely re- 

 lated to P. nialvacearum, the deadly pest of Hollyhocks ; and 

 the life-history of the fungus of Narcissus agrees with that of 

 the Hollyhock. Many species of Puccinia have a Uredo, or 

 young condition, but no Uredo is known for either the Nar- 

 cissus or the Hollyhock fungus. Neither has any aecidium 

 condition been recorded for either ; this being so, the readers 

 of the Garde7iers' Chronicle will understand that the spores 

 of the Narcissus fungus germinate as soon as they are 

 mature upon the host-plant, and produce at once new pus- 

 tules of spores. The fungi to which the Narcissus fungus be- 

 longs produce many generations of spores in one season, and 

 so make great havoc in gardens, as everyone acquainted with 

 the history of the Hollyhock disease knows only too well. 

 Diseased plants should, of course, be utterly destroyed, if pos- 

 sible, but no amount of burning or burying will get rid of all 

 the minute spores which are produced in hundreds of thou- 

 sands upon every affected plant. The new arrival is not con- 

 fined to one species of Narcissus ; it has been recorded on A''. 

 poeticiis. The fungus may be considered a very threatening 

 one, but time only can show whether it will spread in Britain 

 as did its ally, P. malvaceariim." 



^SCULUS Sinensis, Gardeners' Chronicle, June 8th ; a na- 

 tive of northern China, and a still imperfectly known species. 

 The figure is from a specimen of the flowers produced in the 

 establishment of M. Van Volxem, of Brussels, where it is 

 ■probable that this tree has flowered for the first time in 

 Europe. 



Cattleya Walkeriana, Gartejiflora, June ist. 



Cypripedium nitens superbum (C. villosian x C. insigne 

 Maulei), Le Moniteiir d' Horticulture, June 10. 



Chrysanthemum uliginosum, Gardeners' Chronicle, June 

 15; a hardy, decorafive, autumn-blooming plant with large, 

 white flowers. 



Amorphophallus titanum. Gardeners' Chronicle, June 15; 

 this, the largest known of all the Aroids, has recently flowered 

 for the first time in Europe, in the Victoria House at Kew. It 

 is to be gathered from our English contemporary that Dr. 

 Beccari discovered this wonderful plant in western Sumatra. 

 " The tuber dug up by the doctor measured nearly five feet in 

 circumference, and was so heavy that ten men could scarcely 

 carry it. From this tuber only one leaf is produced; but what 

 a leaf, to cover an area of forty-five feet in circumference." 



