554 



Garden and Forest. 



[November 20, i5 



a reigning favorite, and American gardeners can claim a 

 fair share of credit in developing its beauties. Our cli- 

 mate offers exceptional advantages for the production of 

 seedlings, and the names of Dr. H. P. Walcott, W. K. Harris, 

 ]ohn Thorpe and T. H. Spaulding will always be honora- 

 bly associated with the history of the plant. Enthusiastic 

 cultivators of Chrysanthemums were confined, a few years 

 ago, to the more eastern states ; but they are multiplying 

 all over the country, and perhaps the finest collection of 

 flowers ever seen in America was exhibited at the late 

 show in Indianapolis. That popular appreciation of our 

 flower is not on the wane is evident from the fact that the 

 best Chrysanthemum blooms have been selling in the 

 New York market at five and six dollars a dozen, and 

 in one instance which has lately come to our knowledge, 

 twenty-tive flowers were sold by the grower for twenty-five 

 dollars. 



Among the Pines of Northern Michigan. — I. 



THE southern peninsula of Michigan has no mountains nor 

 very high hills nor any rocky surface worth speaking of 

 within its borders. There are hills, plenty of lakes, and a fair 

 proportion of swamps and marshes. The streams are usually 

 slow in the north, and naturally clear, but the largest ones are 

 often made muddy by the logs floating down to the mills. 



White Pine once extended to a line running nearly west from 

 the foot of Lake Huron. Probably nine-tenths of the mer- 

 chantable Pine has now been removed. This has been taken 

 nearly clean from the southern part of its former limits and in 

 the vicinity of large streams. The lumberman has chased the 

 Pines, Hemlocks and Cedars back from the streams and rail- 

 roads over the hills, and when too remote for convenient 

 transportation, he has constructed new railroads into the heart 

 of the timber. It is a rare thing to see a good forest near a 

 ■ railroad. 



Where the soil was of good quality much of the stump land 

 has been cleared and converted into farms, but where the soil 

 was poorest much of it still remains nearly as it was when the 

 lumberman left for new conc[uests. It is no longer thought 

 necessary to depend on a river to float logs to market. As 

 proof of this, Mr. Potts has constructed a railroad along the 

 Au Sable River to Lake Huron, on which he transports logs to 

 his large mills. He avoids losses, saves time and money, by 

 abandoning the old slow process of employing a boom com- 

 pany to take charge of his logs while passing down the river. 



The attention of one riding for the first time along any of the 

 railroads of northern Michigan is sure to be arrested by the 

 dead standing or fallen Pines, mostly small and slender, or 

 knotty and forked at the top ; trees left because there was no 

 money in them. If recently abandoned and killed by spread- 

 ing fires, the bark still covers the trunks, and most of the 

 limbs are there; if abandoned and killed some years before, 

 the bark has fallen, leaving a smooth trunk, which reveals every 

 unevenness in the surface, and the ends of many limbs have 

 broken oft" and fallen. The period of lumbering is indicated 

 by the signs above mentioned, as well as by the size of the 

 young growth which is covering the ground. The small young 

 trees and the shrubs still standing, though dead, often tell of 

 the destructive sweep of one, two, three or more fires since the 

 larg-est trees were cut and removed. 



Three to six weeks in each summer of the past two years 

 spent in traveling in the northern half of the lower peninsula 

 has made me somewhat familiar with this portion of Michigan. 

 The experiment station of the Agricultural College is testing a 

 few acres of Jack Pine plains in five different counties of the 

 state. In connection with this work, I take great interest in 

 studying the native plants with reference to species, distribu- 

 tion, modes of growth and adaptability to cultivation. In new 

 ground, roughly cultivated, and sown to Grasses or Clovers 

 for two years, the increased vigor of some of the herbaceous 

 perennials has been very noticeable. 



A large Hemlock near the margins of a recently cleared for- 

 est does not give much indication of the genuine grace and 

 beauty of a young tree well grown in an open space. The 

 trunk is nearly cylindrical till we come to limbs near the top, 

 which tapers rapidly to the apex. The limbs leave tlie trunk 

 at a very wide angle. Dead Hemlocks present a peculiar pic- 

 turesque and rugged appearance not easily forgotten. In the 

 swamps, or near them, are many Balsam Firs, some of them 

 with long, dense, conical tops. The Spruces are slender, with 

 branches slanting downward quite rapidly and curving out- 

 ward at the ends. 



The Arbor-vitas or White Cedar is everywhere in the swamps 

 and varies much in appearance. In autumn we see the dead 

 or dying fan-shaped branches and leaves among those of more 

 recent growth, which are green. Every one has an idea of 

 the shape of the trunk of a well grown White Cedar, as they 

 are almost the only trees used here for telegraph poles. Very 

 large trunks are sometimes seen, where trees have not been 

 much crowded and where the soil and climate are suitable. 

 We measured one at three feet from the ground, with a 

 diameter of four feet and four inches. It tapered very 

 rapidly, and was not much higher than some of the larger 

 telegraph poles in large cities. The tree stands near Kingsley, 

 in the south-eastern part of Grand Traverse Comity. 



The Norway Pine, as it is always called Ijy lumbermen in 

 Michigan, is the Red Pine {Piiius reslnosa, Ait.). It is abun- 

 dant on the sandy lands above referred to, sometimes scat- 

 tered here and there in open places among the Jack Pines, or 

 occasionally foimd in large groves in which there are but few 

 other trees, and so thick that underbrush is very scanty. A low 

 tree, with a large top, as found in open places, makes a 

 rapid growth, consequently has much sap-wood. They are 

 called Black Norways by lumbermen, and are considered of 

 little value. Tall trees, where they have been crowded, have 

 small tops, and long, naked, straight trunks. These are called 

 Yellow Norways, as most of the wood is heart-wood and yel- 

 low. The bark is not in vertical folds or ridges, as is familiar 

 in the White Oak and Tulip tree, but comes off in irregular 

 patches or scales from an inch to three inches in diameter. 

 The bark is dull red in color. The top is more nearly like that 

 of the Austrian Pine than that of any other tree in general cul- 

 tivation. It has a healthy, sturdy look, and in every respect, so 

 far as observed, is a much finer ornamental tree than the Aus- 

 trian Pme. The seeds are not abundant, hence young trees 

 are not often raised and put on the market. The trunks are 

 extensively used for flooring, bridges, timbers for frames of 

 houses and piles. In Kalkaska County I measured a sound 

 stump three feet and three inches in diameter, though most of 

 the logs cut at the mills would not exceed a foot and a half in 

 diameter. 



Across the Jack Pine plains, in many places, teams may be 

 driven almost anywhere. A road soon becomes worn and cuts 

 into the sand. A new road is easily made by cutting a few 

 trees and bushes, or, perhaps, with no outlay of labor. Roads 

 are cheap and abundant, running everywhere, often confusing 

 the stranger, as he may not know whether this is a highway or 

 a road leading to a camp or a small farm-house. These wind- 

 ing roads, in open places through the valleys and around or 

 over the gentle hills among the Jack Pines and scai'let rocks, 

 are often very pleasant, though in time they Ijecome monoton- 

 ous to the traveler. rtr c^ r, 



Agricultural College, Mich. VV. J. Beal. 



Hardy Shrubs with Ornamental Fruit. 



A FEW notes on the appearance of certain shrubs in this 

 region may be of interest to eastern readers. 



Rhainniis Caroliniana, as it grows in the grounds of the 

 Agricultural College here, is a neat, tree-like shrub of five feet 

 in height. The broadly lanceolate, recurved leaves are three 

 to five inches long, shining dark green. The foliage alone 

 would render it highly ornamental, but with the added attrac- 

 tion of its load of brightly colored fruit it becomes one of the 

 most desirable specimen shrubs for the lawn. The fruit is a 

 three-seeded, globose drupe, the size of a small cherry, borne 

 in simple panicles of three to six in the axils of the leaves. 

 About the 1st of August these take on a color too deep for 

 scarlet and yet not crimson, the effect of which, in contrast 

 with the dark polished leaves, is wholly pleasing. This color 

 is maintained till the last of September, when they ripen to a 

 waxy black. 



The next botanical order aftbrds two attractive plants which 

 are abundant in the wooded ravines of eastei'n Kansas and as 

 far west as the Solomon Valley. These are the Wahoo and 

 the Bitter Sweet. 



The Wahoo or Burning Bush, Etconyvius airopurpiireics, is 

 found in thickets along the borders of timber, growing^ to the 

 height of six or eight feet — a perfect miniature tree. The odd 

 little velvety, dark brown blossoms will be noticed only by the 

 real lover of trees and woods ; but the brilliant coloring of the 

 autumn fruit challenges the admiration of every passer. The 

 outer coating of the fruit is pale crimson, siiowing, as it opens, 

 the seeds encased in a deep scariet aril. The European 

 Wahoo, ofrovving in our trial rows, has fruit a little smaller, with 

 the seed enclosed in an orange aril. 



The closely allied Bitter Sweet, Celastrus scandens, twines 

 so closely with the branches of its supporter that the rambler 



