484 



Garden and Forest. 



[October 9, 1889. 



Not very many years ago there was no more beautiful spot 

 on the island than Himter's Brook Valley. Great woods shel- 

 tering the rare, shy wood-plants, and giving deep seclusion, 

 lilled the valley and extended up the mountain sides. To the 

 south, the woods became less worthy of the name, but were 

 still woods until the explorer suddenly emerged on the stony 

 beach where the brook emptied into a cove between two 

 mighty headlands, and tlie ocean lay before him. Northward 

 the brook tiowed down amid the wildness of the deep forest 

 from the ravines of the Triad, Pemetic and Green Mountains, 

 and the watershed of Bubble Pond. The spot was one of the 

 gems of the island to every lover of nature. Its beauty, how- 

 ever, did not save it, but proved its ruin. A " practical " man saw 

 dollars in the timber of the wild valley, hired a gang of French 

 Canadian wood-choppers, builtaroadof a mile or two in length 

 towards the headwaters of the brook, and established a logging 

 camp. Utter ruin followed, the wild woodland became a 

 desolation, and this priceless beauty was lost forever. 



In some parts of the island there is a partial realization of at 

 least the practical value of beauty. At North-east Harbor, 

 especially, is there evidence of this. And yet, it will not 

 answer to leave merely a narrow strip of woods along the roads, 

 while the work of destruction is carried on behind them, to 

 repel the very people who bring prosperity to the island. 



The method of road-making, now practised, is most destruc- 

 tive of natural beauty and attractions. It is of great impor- 

 tance to the inhabitants to prevent this in every possible way. 

 Many visitors to the island are unfortunate enough to see little 

 further into it than along its roadsides, and these are too often 

 masses of stones, and piles of withered brush. If these way- 

 sides cannot be adorned, their natural beauty might be spared. 

 Shrubbery and trees could be left generally, and where cutting 

 is needful, the brush could be removed instead of being left 

 to shut off access to the woods, and to dry into tinder to catch 

 the first ^stray spark and become a forest-fire. That such 

 devastation is allowed to go without reproof, and that telegraph 

 companies, when erecting poles and stretching wires, are per- 

 mitted to mutilate trees as they choose, is proof that the au- 

 thorities do not realize that the beauty of the island is its real 

 value. Some resolute policy must be adopted for protecting 

 the forest-scenery of Mount Desert, or it will be robbed of its 

 peculiar charm and be converted into an inhospitable waste. 



Boston. \ £'• L. Rand. 



Notes Upon Some North American Trees. — XIII*. 



290. Castanea vulgaris, var. Americana, A. DC. — There 

 is a much older name for the Old World Chestnut than that 

 of Lamark (1783) taken up by Alphonse DeCandolle, 

 namely C. sativa of Miller (Gardeners' Dictionary, 8 ed., 

 1768), already adopted by Nyman and by K. Koch, so that 

 our American Chestnut, considered only a variety of the 

 Old World tree, must become Castanea sativa var. Americana. 



292. Ostrya ViRGiNiCA, Willd. — The oldest name for our 

 Hop Hornbeam is that of Miller (Gardeners' Dictionary 8 

 ed., 1768), Carpiniis Virginia7ia so that it may be more 

 properly v\^ritten Ostrya Virginiana, Koch, than Ostrya 

 Virginica, Willd. 



294. Betula ALBA, var. populifolia, Spach. — It seems de- 

 sirable to consider our Gray Birch as distinct from its Old- 

 World congener, and to restore to it Marshall's name, ^e/w/a 

 populifolia. The two plants are distinct in geographical 

 distribution ; in the shape of the leaves ; in bark, size, and 

 habit. The bracts of the fruiting catkins of the American 

 tree are nearly triangular and covered on both surfaces 

 with pubescence ; those of the European plant are con- 

 tracted into a long, narrow base and are quite glabrous. 

 There are differences, too, in the size of the fruit and in the 

 size and shape of its wings, which will aid in distinguish- 

 ing the two sjiecies. 



302. Alnus rhombifolia, Nutt. — Dr. C. C. Parry {Bull. Cal. 

 Acad. Sci., ii., 7,351), shows that this comm\Dn Alder of 

 California extends through Arizona and New Mexico to 

 northern Mexico, and that Alnus ohlongifolia of Torrey, 

 (No. 303 Census Cat.) is the same plant, which he dis- 

 tinguishes by the number of stamens which instead of four 

 in each flower are only two, sometimes increased to three 

 or more rarely reduced to one. A specimen collected by 

 Greene at Silver City, New Mexico, shows that this char- 

 acter in the number of the stamens holds good in the 



eastern plant. Dr. Parry points out, too, in this paper that 

 Alnus rhombifolia may be distinguished always from the 

 northern A. rubra, Bong., by its early flowers which begin 

 to appear in California in January, before the leaves of the 

 previous season have all fallen, fertilization being com- 

 pleted by the ist of February, "at least as far north as the 

 lower Sacramento Valley, the smaller winter streams over 

 which they lean, as well as the adjoining banks, being 

 copiously strewn with the effete male tassels resembling 

 torpid caterpillars." 



304. Alnus serrulata, Alton. — This, the common Alder 

 of the southern States, is rather a shrub than a tree, although 

 I have seen it sometimes growing to the height of twenty 

 feet, but always with a number of stems from a common 

 root. It may well be dropped from the Silva of North 

 America. 



305. Alnus incana, Willd. — The common northern brook- 

 side Alder, although it grows sometimes quite tall, is a 

 shrub and not a tree, and it should be dropped from the 

 Silva. 



306. Salix nigra. Marsh. — Under this species should be 

 added var. lo7igipes, Andersson in Ofr. af Vet. Akad. Forh. 

 (1858) 22 — a rather common Florida tree (St. Mark's, Rugel; 

 Jacksonville, A. H. Curtiss ; Duval County, J. D. Smith; 

 Miami River, Sargent), with paler leaves, shorter aments, 

 and longer pedicelled capsules than are fourid on the 

 ordinary northern form. It is the Salix Humboldtiana 

 of Wright's P/aw/cs Cubenses, No. 2132. 



315. Salix cordata, var. vestita, Andersson. — The so- 

 called Diamond Willow of Nebraska and Dakota, may be 

 dropped from the Silva. It is not probable that any form 

 of Salix cordata ever becomes a tree ; and the large speci- 

 mens on the banks of the Missouri River in Dakota, with 

 the peculiar diamond markings, if they exist at all, belong 

 probably to 6". amygdaloides. 



329. Cham^cyparis sphjEroidea, Spach. — The first name 

 for this tree is Cupressus thyoides, L.; and this specific name 

 should be retained, the name of the White Cedar becoming 

 ChamcBcyparis thyoides. 



330. CHAMiECYPARis NuTKAENSis, Spach. — The orthography 

 of the specific name as written by Lambert (Gen. Pinus, 

 ii., 18), with whom it originated, is Nootkatensis. 



Juniperus flaccida, Schl. — Dr. Havard has discovered 

 this north-Mexican Juniper on the Chisos Mountains in 

 western Texas {Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., viii., 504), and it 

 must be included therefore in the North American Silva. 

 It is a shrub or small tree, with shreddy bark, spreading, 

 slender branches, acute and somewhat spreading denticu- 

 late leaves, and large globose or tubercled fruit. This is a 

 widely - distributed tree apparently, although nowhere 

 very common. It should follow funiperus pachyphlaa in 

 the catalogue. 



C. S. Sargent. 



New or Little Known Plants. 



Dendrochilum filiforme. 



THE remarkably well-grown specimen of this lovely 

 Orchid, illustrated on page 485, received the first 

 prize as the best single Orchid at an exhibition of the Mas- 

 sachusetts Horticultural Society in June last. It came from 

 the fine collection of Mr. John L. Gardner, of Brookline, 

 Massachussetts, where it was grown under the care of 

 Mr. C. M. Atkinson, the able head-gardener of the estate. 

 The plant had altogether forty-eight flower spikes, most 

 of them being over a foot long. 



A specimen of this size is rarely met with and presents a 

 spectacle not soon forgotten. The individual flowers are 

 small and of a rich yellow color, but they are so abundant 

 and so closely set that they fully justify the name of " The 

 Golden Chain," which has been given to the plant. 



Dendrochilum flfontiewdiS, introduced from the Philippine 

 Islands as far back as 1836, but it grows also in quantities 

 on Mount Mulu, in Borneo, where I found it a few years 



