December ii, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



589 



GARDEN AND FOREST, 



l-UBLISHED WEEKLY KY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



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



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1889. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : — Trees in Winter. — Abies Veitchii in the United States. — 



Unlawful Timber Cutting 589 



Ornamental Planting in Paris 590 



The River Birch. (Illustrated) C. S. S. 591 



New or Little Known Plants : — Croton Alabamensis. (With Figure ) 



Charles MoJir. 592 



Chrysanthemum, Mrs. Andrew Carnegie. (Illustrated.) John Thorpe. 592 



Cultural Department: — The Shrub Garden in November J. G. Jack. 592 



The Roses of the Year E. G. Hill. 596 



Chrysanthemums in 1889 Dr. H. P. VValcott. 596 



Orchid Notes yohn Weathers, F. Atkms. 597 



Begonia octopetala Lemoinei J.N. Gerard. 597 



Forcing Asparagus J- G. Gardticr. 598 



The Forest : — Among the Siskiyou Forests Charles H. SJiinn. 598 



Correspondence : — Trees in the James River Valley . . .Professor J. T. Rothrock. 598 



Melothria pendula E.N. Reasoncr. 599 



Recent Publications 599 



Periodical Literature 599 



Notes 600 



Illustrations : — The River Birch in Winter, Fig. 149 593 



Croton Alabamensis, Fig. 150 594 



Chrysanthemum, Mrs. Andrew Carnegie, Fig. 151 _ 595 



Trees in Winter. 



TREES, to many persons, are attractive only when they 

 are clothed with leaves, and many people Avhose 

 interest in them is considerable do not notice those pecu- 

 liarities which make it easy to recognize one tree from 

 another after the leaves have fallen. But to the real lover 

 of trees, they are equally beautiful and interesting at all sea- 

 sons of the year; and no one can pretend to know trees 

 well who cannot distinguish the different species as quickly 

 and as easily in winter as in spring or summer. If trees are 

 considered from an ornamental point of view only, almost 

 every one of them has some special and peculiar beauty 

 which is only displayed in winter. The fine spray of the 

 Beech is seen only at this season of the year, and there is 

 no more beautiful object in nature than the delicate rami- 

 fications of the American Beech seen against the clear blue 

 sky of a brilliant winter day. The sturdiness of the Oak 

 is only realized in winter, when the knotted strength of its 

 liinbs is not disguised under their covering of leaves. The 

 Birch is a far more graceful and attractive object in winter 

 than at any other season of the year ; and what is there 

 more stimulating to the imagination than to stand on a 

 clear winter's day and look up into the marvelous structure 

 of one of the great Elms which, here and there, still grow 

 near some of our northern rivers.? The bark of all trees 

 appears, at least, more beautiful in winter than at other 

 seasons, because the eye, undisturbed by the contempla- 

 tion of masses of foliage, can then take in all the details of 

 its varied texture and wonderful colors. 



The artist and the mere lover of beauty will be well re- 

 paid by constant visits to the woods in winter ; but for the 

 student of trees — that is, for one in search of accurate 

 knowledge concerning them — it is as important to study 

 trees in winter as in summer. It is not easy to imagine that 

 there are educated people in a community like this who can 

 mistake a Birch-tree for an Oak in winter; and yet there are 

 thousands of people who drive or walk in the parks every 

 winter of their lives and never see the slightest difference 

 between one mass of naked branches and another. And 

 yet the differences between the various families of trees 

 are clearly enough defined to make their recognition easy 



and fairly certain. Nor is it difficult to determine the 

 various species when once the characters peculiar to each 

 are fixed in the mind of the observer; and such characters 

 are often more constant and stable than characters derived 

 from the shape of the leaf or from the size and shape of the 

 fruit upon which people, who are not scientific botan- 

 ists, depend generally to identify any given tree. Each 

 species of tree has its peculiar habit, which may be seen at a 

 glance in winter, and which it retains always, unless the 

 individual has been subjected to some abnormal condi- 

 tions. The character of the bark rarely changes on indi- 

 viduals of the same age, although the bark of old trees is 

 often very different from the bark of young trees of the 

 same species. The color of the branclilets and the char- 

 acter of the winter-buds often afford certain means of de- 

 termining closely related trees. The winter-buds are quite 

 distinct on each of the six or seven Magnolias which grow 

 in the American forests, and no one who has studied these 

 trees has any difficulty in distinguishing one species from 

 the others by a glance at a winter-bud. The winter-buds 

 of our Hickories are all different on the different species 

 and always constant, and as individuals of the species 

 vary greatly in their leaves and fruits, botanists are some- 

 times obliged to fall back on the winter-buds in order to 

 be certain of their determinations. And in every tree there 

 is, in addition to its general appearance, which is in itself 

 sufficient to make its recognition easy with a little prac- 

 tice, some special character which will enable the lover 

 of trees to confirm his first impression, and to distinguish 

 a particular species of Oak, or Hickory, or Poplar from 

 every other. 



A knowledge of trees, the ability, at least, to recognize 

 and identify them, adds vastly to the pleasure of every one 

 who walks abroad where they grow. One meets and 

 greets them like old friends. Every season invests them 

 with a new charm, and the more we study them, the greater 

 will be our admiration of the wonderful variety and beauty 

 which they display in winter. 



The handsome Silver Fir, Abies Veitchii, was discovered 

 on Mt. Fusi Yama, in Japan, in i860, by Mr. J. G. Veitch, 

 and was described by Dr. Lindley in the Gardeners' Chron- 

 icle of January 12th, 1861. Mr. Veitch, who was instru- 

 mental in introducing at that time many Japanese plants into 

 England, did not succeed in bringing home living specimens 

 of the Fir which commemorates his services as a botanical 

 explorer; and A. Veitchii remained unknown in English 

 gardens until 1879, when Maries, a collector sent to Japan 

 by the Veitches, succeeded in introducing it. Mr. Thomas 

 Hogg sent, in 1876, a number of Japanese plants to the 

 Parsons Nurseries in Flushing, New York, and among them 

 was a Fir to which Mr. Parsons gave the name of Picea 

 Japonica, under which name he has propagated and sold 

 it. We are able now to identify Mr. Hogg's plant with the 

 Abies Veitchii oi Lindley, so that the irregular and unpub- 

 lished nursery name may be disposed of finally. The inter- 

 esting feature in this matter is, however, that this tree, 

 which was particularly desired in England, and for the in- 

 troduction of which special efforts were made, was culti- 

 vated in this country for three years before it reached 

 Europe, and that no one knew anything about the Flush- 

 ing plant, or took the least trouble, apparently, to find out 

 what it was. 



It is, of course, too early to speak of the value of this 

 species as an ornamental tree in this country. Mr. Hogg's 

 plant, still in the Flushing Nursery, is fifteen or sixteen feet 

 high, with a spread of branches twelve feet across on the 

 ground. The foliage is thin and poor, and the lower 

 branches are failing. The ornamental value of the species, 

 hov.'ever, cannot be judged fairly by this specimen, as it is 

 planted in poor soil, and has evidently been starved and 

 neglected. The smaller specimens in Mr. Hunnewell's 

 Pinetum at Wellesley, imported from England, and in Mr. 

 Dana's garden on Long Island, are in excellent health, 

 deeply colored, and promise to develop into handsome 



