July 17, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



337 



GARDEN AND FOREST, 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED A.S .SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JULY 17, 1889. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : — The Treatment of Road-sides 337 



Notes Upon Some North American Trees — I Professor C. S. Sargent. 338 



The Sumachs (Illustrated) i'. 33^ 



A New Zealand Forest Scene (Illustrated) 339 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter JV. Coldring. 339 



New or Little Known Plants : — Vitis palmata . .C. S. S. 340 



Amorphophallus Titanum , ' 'K Watson. 340 



Cultural Department: — Summer Pruning Jackson Daiuson. 342 



The Vitality of Seeds '. T. H. Hoskins, M.D. 342 



Orchid Notes John lVeathers.— \V. 342 



Notes on Wild Flowers F. H. Horsford. 344 



Narcissus for Borders E. O. Orpet. 344 



Orchard Notes Josejih Meehan. 345 



Recent Publications 345 



Coruespondence : — Forests and Civilization J. B. Harrison. 345 



Roadside Adornment Dorcas E. Collins. 346 



The Newtown Pippin E. J. ]Vickso>i. 346 



The American Beech .C. L. Allen. 346 



Dosoris ■?• 346 



Notes 348 



Illustrations: — Vitis palmata. Fig. 118 341 



Forest Vegetation in New Zealand 343 



A Group of Staghorn Sumachs 343 



The Treatment of Road-sides. 



THE planting of trees along all highways is usually 

 insisted upon as a public duty by persons who take 

 an active interest in matters which pertain to rural improve- 

 ment. The first work undertaken by village improvement 

 societies is most frequently road-side tree-planting. The 

 activity of Arbor Day is apt to expend itself in the same 

 direction, and very often the work is commendable from 

 every point of view. A long, straight, level avenue with a 

 row of Elms, or Sugar Maples, or Tulip-trees on either side 

 set on smooth turf at regular intervals, is always beautiful. 

 No nobler approach to a stately mansion can be conceived 

 of than such an avenue. As an introduction to a suburban 

 park, or the extension of the main street of a country village, 

 especially when it leads to some object of adequate dig- 

 nity, such an avenue is always satisfying. But in an open, 

 hilly country, road-sides are not always improved when 

 bordered by a formal line of trees. To one standing on an 

 eminence, slender lines of foliage following the winding of 

 various roads across the landscape would rarely be pleas- 

 ing, and to one traveling on such roads the constant shade 

 and the unvarying repetition of a tree on either side at 

 equal distances would be still more displeasing. 



It does not follow from this that the planting of trees 

 along country highways should be discouraged, but it 

 should be remembered that trees can be agreeably dis- 

 posed in various ways, and that in many cases an occa- 

 sional group of trees at a cross-road, or a single tree here 

 and there at desirable points by the wayside, will prove 

 iTiore attractive than a monotonous row on either hand in 

 -which each tree is precisely fifty feet from its neighbor. It 

 /should be remembered, too, that shrubs and vines, and even 

 humbler growths, should have a place on a road-border as 

 well as trees, and there are many road-borders where they 

 are of much more importance than trees. These thoughts 

 have been suggested by a letter which is published 

 in another column of this issue. This letter will en- 

 able any one to realize how trifling an outlay of labor 

 and expense is needed to transform the hot, raw gravel- 

 slope of an excavation or embankment into a sweep of 



verdure, which becomes purple and fragrant with bloom in \ 

 its season. An unsightly gully filled in with brush to ' 

 guard against a more serious wash-out becomes in its 

 turn a bower of beauty under the directing hand of one 

 who thinks it worth his while to render such service to the 

 wayfarer. We have heard of a piece of road on Long 

 Island which is bright with flowers in their season, through 

 the thoughtful care of the gardener of a large estate near 

 by. We know a mile of country road which grows more 

 attractive every year because a little care is taken to in- 

 troduce the flowers and shrubs and vines which flourish 

 naturally in that region. Marsh Marigolds and Cardinal 

 flowers have been made at home by the outlet of a way- 

 side spring. Houstonia and Bloodroot bloomed this year 

 where they were unknown before. The thickets are 

 fringed with an increasing variety of Ferns, and Club 

 Mosses are now creeping among them. Even in winter 

 the heps of wild Roses and the berries on the Red Alder 

 show how a road-side can be brightened by a few hours 

 of attention in a year. 



It is hardly to be hoped, however, that everj^ land-owner 

 will be persuaded to take such an active and intelligent 

 interest in the treatment of road-sides. The energetic 

 pathmaster would think it beneath his dignity to plant 

 shrubs or sow flower-seeds to help cover over the seams and 

 scars left by man in the track of all his "improvements." 

 But, fortunately, he need put himself to little trouble in all 

 the hill-country east of the Aheghanies, at least, for Na- 

 ture, if left to her own kind offices, will at once begin to 

 clothe the desert made by man. No artificial planting 

 can be more attractive than the natural thickets which 

 would fringe almost every road in New England and the 

 Middle States, if they were only allowed to grow. In many 

 places, it is true, such growth M^ould be out of place. 

 Smooth turf running from the wheel-way to, or under, the 

 fences inclosing fertile fields is always attractive. In the 

 rougher country, however, the natural border of shrubs and 

 trees and festooning vines is generally worth preserving. 

 The Thorns and Dogwoods and Viburnums, the thickets 

 of Elder and Hazel, the Bitter-sweet and Clematis and Moon- 

 seed climbing over all — the flora of the world has no more 

 beautiful plants than these and a hundred more which 

 spring up of themselves and flourish until some one with 

 a zeal for "trimming up" attacks them with grubbing-hoe 

 and brush-hook. And when the vines are stripped from 

 the fences, and the brush all cut, gathered and burned, the 

 road-sides are thoroughly cleared, it is true, but a desolation 

 of rocks and ashes is all that is left in exchange for the fra- 

 grance of flowers, the beauty and coolness of green leaves, 

 and the melody of the birds among them. 



It is a comfort to note that road-borders of native 

 shrubs are being used more and more in the best'parlT- 

 'workT' Nothing can be more effective than the shrubbery 

 on either side of the drive through the Arnold Arboretum, 

 not only as an appropriate cover for hill-sides where Myr- 

 ica, Sweet Fern and other low-growing shrubs take the 

 place of turf, but for the distinct purpose of fringing the 

 road. These shrubs are proving themselves no less use- 

 ful or appropriate along the smooth, broad and well-kept 

 wheel-way than they are in remote by-ways among the 

 hills. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine how the hard, 

 stony gutter-line beside the road-bed could be more agree- 

 ably broken than it is by the Wild Roses or Red-root that 

 occasionally stray across it, or how any other shrub would 

 take the place of the Sumaclis banked above one portion 

 of the drive. Every one of these shrubs would grace a 

 palace garden, and yet when they modestly appear along 

 a rural highway they are mowed down to "improve the 

 appearance" of the country. If there is no reason to look 

 for any general and organized effort to beautif\' our coun- 

 try road-sides, let us hope at least that overseers of the 

 highway may in time be induced to refrain from expend- 

 ing labor and money to destroy the native shrubs and 

 vines and trees which clothe so many waysides with 

 beauty as with a garment. 





