490 



Garden and Forest. 



[October 9, 1889. 



about one and a luilf broad, ovoid-compressed, with two 

 edges, and bearing at the summit two narrowly oblong-acute 

 leaves from six to nine inches long. Such is the description 

 of this species as it appears a-t present, but it remains to be 

 seen what results cultivation will produce. 



Odontoglossuin VVendlandianiiin . — This is also a new Odon- 

 toglossum, introduced to cultivation for the first time, by the 

 same firm, this year from the mountain ranges of Colombia. 

 It has pyriform compressed pseudo-bulbs two to three inches 

 long, and narrowly oblong-acute deep green leaves about a 

 foot long. As yet only few flowers have been produced, but 

 it is probable that next year the true habit of the plant will be 

 seen to much greater advantage. The individual flowers seen 

 were from two and a half to three inches across, with lanceo- 

 late-acute sepals and petals, the former being retlexed at the 

 sides, and the latter very wavy on the margins. The ground 

 color of both sepals and petals is creamy-white, thickly cov- 

 ered with brown and crimson spots and blotches, which give 

 the segments a very handsome appearance. The more or less 

 oblong acuminate lip is somewhat like that of O. a-ispum, but 

 is much more wavy at the sides. It is pure white, with sev- 

 eral rich brown blotches below the crest, which consists of 

 two long, elevated and deeply-toothed keels in the centre, with 

 shorter diverging ones on each side. The column is whitish, 

 spotted with purple at the side, and furnished with small in- 

 cised wings. John Weathers. 



St. Albans, England. 



Seasonable Work in the Flower-Garden. — Little experience is 

 needed to teach that many of the so-called hardy plants are 

 tender enough in some sections to need protection in the bor- 

 der or to justify the care of lifting and placing them in a frame 

 or some other structure, where frost may be partly excluded. 

 Any plants that remain green above ground through the win- 

 ter, such as the Kniphofias (Tritomas), may be lifted, and the 

 tops cut off to within nine inches of the ground, and heeled-in 

 in a cool cellar. It will be found that Eulalia Japonica, and 

 its varieties, are not always hardy, and they may be treated in 

 the same way with perfect success. When the plants are 

 lifted annually, and put out in spring as soon as the soil is 

 warm enough, they make better growth, for the reason, per- 

 haps, that it is possible to thoroughly enrich the soil at plant- 

 ing-time. Montbretias, Crocosmias, Gladioli and Tigridias may 

 now be lifted and the tops cut, not pulled, off, and stored 

 away in dry soil, where frost cannot reach them. We used to 

 lift Hyacinthiis candicans, but find that, if planted where there 

 is no danger of water accumulating, it is much best to let it 

 winter out. 



If it is desired to increase the stock of any of the tall Phloxes, 

 these should be lifted, potted and placed in a cool house, and 

 cuttings made of the young shoots as soon as they are long 

 enough. Young plants are usually far more vigorous than the 

 old ones, as these are liable to become impoverished, and are 

 better replaced by strong young stock. The Salvias that are 

 accredited with being hardy are S. Greggi, S. Pitcheri and 5". 

 farinacea. All three are too good to risk out-of-doors, and 

 part of them should, at least, be taken in. We have found 

 them stand well enough during some winters, while in others 

 they die. The same may be said of Anemone Japonica and 

 its varieties. These should all be lifted, the tops cut off and 

 the roots laid in, in a cool place, the cooler the better, so long 

 as the frost does not get to them. As these Anemones have a 

 great tendency to start into growth during winter, if it is 

 desired to propagate them, the tendency may be taken advan- 

 tage of by cutting all the smaller roots into pieces four inches 

 long and laying them in sand in the propagating-bench. These 

 will start at once, and may be potted, and all will make flow- 

 ering-plants the next season. We have some 200 plants, all 

 beautifully in bloom, from small roots treated in this way last 

 fall. Any bulbs, such as Narcissus, that are yet to be planted, 

 should be got in the ground at once to enable them to get well 

 established before frost, which, fortunately, has been in no 

 hurry to appear this year. 



Passaic, N.J. O. 



Prunus pendula. 



OUR illustration upon page 487 represents an old and very 

 large specimen of this tree which has already been de- 

 scribed in this journal (vol. i, p. 196), growing in the garden of 

 Dainichido, a temple garden on the road from Nikko to 

 Chiuzenji, and shows the habit which this interesting tree as- 

 sumes when it is full grown. 



The illustration is from a photograph made by Mr. James 

 M. Codman during his visit to Japan in the summer of last 

 year. 



The Forest. 



The Forest Pavilion at the Paris Exposition. 



1AST week we gave part of a letter originally pub- 

 _^ lished in L Independence Beige, describing the 

 beautiful forest pavilion on the Trocadero, which the 

 French Forest Department had erected, and giving an ac- 

 count of some of the forest-material which has been 

 arranged with exquisite art. The department desired, 

 however, to explain to visitors its method of work, and 

 the result of this work, beyond the mere keeping up of the 

 state forests, building roads through them to facilitate ex- 

 cursions and hunting, and making preparations to cut and 

 re-plant for coming generations. The duty 01 the foresters 

 does not cease here, and millions are annually expended 

 to repair the accumulated ruin caused by deforestation 

 of the hills and mountains by former generations. Forests 

 are re-planted to resist the force of floods and preserve the 

 mountains from being scoured by torrents and swept down 

 upon the plains. The writer adds : 



Numerous are the victories already won. Vast tracts of 

 desert have been re-covered with vegetation ; villages are 

 springing up again where whole populations had fled before 

 the invading waters and the danger of landslides ; mountains 

 and hills once denuded are now covered with verdure ; culti- 

 vated fields and orchards have replaced the arid and desert 

 plains. 



The Administration of Forests, proud of these results, ex- 

 hibits them in the form of models in relief, maps and pictures. 

 It has gathered a great mass of documents in two halls, com- 

 fortably arranged, where easy-chairs invite the visitor to seat 

 himself in front of wide tables strewn with photographs, 

 albums and numerous publicadons. Here are views of the 

 torrents of Arbonne, and of Secheron, in Savoy ; here are 

 photographs of the basin of the torrent of Vaudaine and of the 

 torrent of Riouchanal, with sections of work already com- 

 pleted there. There are curious models in relief of other tor- 

 rents, besides dioramas, which give faithful and striking rep- 

 resentations of some of the magnificent works in progress. 

 At the end of the forest pavilion are three dioramic views, in 

 an excellent light, with well-studied perspective. Near each 

 one is suspended a placard containing, in large letters, the 

 printed explanation of the enterprise, the means employed 

 and the results obtained. The first is a view of the Valley of 

 P^guerre, near Cauterets. There the object was to keep in 

 place a mountain which threatened to crumble and destroy a 

 pretty town. The soil was loosened by the melting snows, 

 and immense blocks, bowling down the rocky slopes, can- 

 nonaded the settlement at Ralliere or that at Manhourat. To 

 rescue the valley, the rocky sands were sown and planted. 

 Walls of stone, without mortar, were placed at all points where 

 there was no chance of grass growing. The work was begun 

 in 1885, and to-day the problem is solved. In the diorama the 

 workmen are seen clinging to the side of the mountain, dig- 

 ging out the rock, blasting, constructing walls and terraces, 

 sowing and planting on dizzy ledges, to which both men and 

 material are hoisted by ropes and windlasses. 



Next comes the picture of the torrent of Bourget, in the 

 Department of the Basses Alpes, which had devastated the val- 

 ley of the Ubaye for years, but is now under control. 'A 

 series of weirs has been constructed which have raised the 

 bed of the torrent and checked the undermining of the moun- 

 tain ; the violence of the rise of the waters is weakened by 

 diminishing the incline and by successive falls, and the slid- 

 ing down of the banks has ceased. The diorama shows us 

 these weirs, and the barrier of living basket-work ; the for- 

 estal guards are there, strengthening the stone work and busy 

 in planting trees to bind the sod. The subjection of the tor- 

 rent is complete ; it is now a gentle mountain stream, bor- 

 dered by a thousand acres of forest in thriving condition. 

 This work occupied nearly eighteen years. 



The third diorama shows the torrent of Riou-Bourdoux, 

 also in the Basses Alpes, noted for its ravages and the most 

 terrible of all the torrents of the French Alps. It destroyed 

 everything in its sudden overflows. Forests, houses, flocks, all 

 had disappeared, swept away by its floods or swallowed up in 

 its deposits of mud, sand and rocks. Not a tree, not a blade of 

 grass, not a living being remained. Barcelonnette, near 

 which it debouches, was endangered. In 1875 the struggle 

 with the torrent began, and now it is vanquished. Here the bar- 

 rier against floods is a colossal wall of masonry, with hydraulic 



