December 25, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



623 



technical matter, of use only to ornithologists. Further, as it 

 was primarily designed for orinthologists, only those colors 

 which obtain in our native birds are shown, and many colors 

 and shades of common occurrence among our flowers and in 

 the lower ranks of life are wholly imrepresented in the colored 

 plates. Will not some one pre])are a pocket edition, adapted 

 alike to field and study, that shall, as far as possible, show 

 every color in nature, and state also what combinations are 

 necessary to produce each? C. R. Orcutt. 



San Diego, Cal. 



The Disappearance of Wild Flowers. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — In addition to the causes of the disappearance of our 

 wild flowers, as stated by Professor Beal on page 527 of 

 Garden and Forest, I would cite another. For many years I 

 had been in the habit of visiting a cosy nook on Long Island, 

 New York, where the Sangtiinaria Canadensis grew luxuri- 

 antly, the ground being completely covered with foliage and 

 flowers, in their season. The past spring I again visited the 

 wood, after an absence of three years, but scarcely a flower 

 was to be seen, only here and there one in the thicket, away 

 from the former mass. Neither were there any tree leaves on 

 the ground, the owner of the wood having raked them all off 

 for bedding purposes, the result of which was the loss of our 

 favorite flowers. The removal of the leaves left the Blood 

 Root without the winter protection it needs. I think this will 

 account for the loss of a great many of our native plants ; the 

 clearing of our forests has removed the protection that nature 

 afforded them. C. L. Allen. 



Floral Park, N. Y. 



The National Flower. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — The national flower should be as nearly universal in 

 the states as possible. It should be a home flower, not im- 

 ported. It should lend itself to art in form and color. It should 

 be significant of a national sentiment and embody an Ameri- 

 can idea. Let me suggest another, yet unnamed, for the honor 

 of representing our country, namely, the Starwort or Aster. It 

 is more abundant in North America than elsewhere. One hun- 

 dred and twenty-four species belong to our flora. It ranges 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canada to Central 

 America. It is beautiful ; it is hardy ; it is perennial ; and de- 

 serves the sentimental regard of all wlio see it yearly adorning 

 our fields and woods in summer and autumn. 



Let the wild Aster be our country's flower. 



See how it gems with stars the glorious flag ! 

 Onward it spreads, the symbol of our power, 



"The Star of Empire," past each barrier crag ; 

 And every blossom, many joined in one, 



Presents the Union, peace and freedom won. 



Cambridge, Mass. £• S. D. 



Recent Publications. 



A Rambler's Lease, by Bradford Torrey. Houghton, Mifflin 

 & Co., 1889. 



This little book is a record of the impressions and observa- 

 tions of one who, in the phrase he quotes from Charles Lamb, 

 delights to " walk about, not to and from." Such books, as we 

 have had occasion to say more than once before, are growing 

 to be a prominent and distinctive feature in American litera- 

 ture, and each new one deserves a welcome as a sign that the 

 love for out-door life, as it means not sport, but a keen, intelli- 

 gent pleasure in the beauty and significance of natural objects, 

 is steadily on the increase among our countrymen. Perhaps 

 certain recent volumes by other hands have been more poeti- 

 cal, more full of the personality of the writer than Mr. Torrey's. 

 Nevertheless there is individuality and a touch of poetic feel- 

 ing in his pages, too ; and he has occasionally an epigram- 

 matic way of putting a valuable truth which should impress it 

 with peculiar distinctness upon the mind of the reader. When, 

 for examjDle, he says that he has almost written "highwayman" 

 instead of " highway surveyor," we feel a sympathetic thrill 

 inspired by the memory of such ravages among beautiful 

 road-side growths as he himself is deploring. 



Birds, even more than plants, have been the objects of Mr. 

 Torrey's studies, and his chapters are pretty equally divided 

 between the attractions of animate and of inanimate nature, 

 thus giving his book more variety than is found in some others 

 of its character. Few pages are pleasanter than those which, 

 under the title of "Bashful Drummers," describe his long- 

 thwarted efforts to see as well .as hear the partridge drum- 



ming — none, unless it be those which recount his "Woodland 

 Intimacy " with a vireo. Another very chaiming and more 

 definitely instructive essay was noticed in these columns when 

 first printed some months ago in the Allantic Montlily — the 

 one which recites the sur])riping number of jikinls which may 

 be found blooming in No\eml;cr on a New England sea coast. 

 In "Esoteric Peripateticism " we have a deljghtful plea for 

 those contemplative rambles, which are too often considered 

 a mere waste of time in thus busy land. As Mr. Torrey well 

 says, every impulse toward such a manner of spending one's 

 hours should be sedulously encouraged because " there is little 

 danger that the lives of any of us will be too solitary or lived 

 at too leisurely a rate. The world grows busier and busier. 

 Those whose passion for Nature is strongest and most deep- 

 seated are driven to withhold from her all but the odds and 

 ends of the day. We rebel sometimes ; the yoke grows unen- 

 durable ; come what may, we will l)e quit of it ; but the exist- 

 ing order of things proves too strong for us, and anon we 

 settle back into the old bondage." Mr. Torrey's " ideal plan " 

 would include two walks a day — "one in the morning for ob- 

 servation, with every sense alert ; the other toward night, for 

 a mood of 'wise passiveness ' wherein Nature should be left 

 free to have her own way with the heart and the imagination." 

 He well emphasizes the fact that really and f idly to enjoy hours 

 out-of-doors some brancli of science should be studied, that 

 the senses may be alert to good purpose and the intellect as 

 well as the faculty of mere passive enjoyment be gratified. Of 

 course, as he admits, there is some danger in scientific study 

 — the danger that the receptive, emotional, beauty-loving 

 faculties may be blunted and the mind alone be used. "One 

 may become so zealous a botanist as almost to cease to be a 

 man. The shifting panorama of the heavens and the earth no 

 longer appeals to him. He is now a specialist, and, go where 

 he will, he sees nothing but specimens." But this danger can 

 be avoided. It is possible to "give free play to fancy and im- 

 agination without permitting ourselves to degenerate into 

 impotent dreamers. Every walker ought to be a faithfid 

 student of at least one branch of natural history, not omitting 

 Latin names and the very latest disco\'eries and theories. But, 

 withal, let him make sure that his acquaintance with out-door 

 life is sympathetic and not merely curious or scientific." Only 

 by a combination or alternation of the two moods — the two 

 attitudes — can the truest enjoyment be extracted from the 

 natural world. And how the two may exist and develop 

 together Mr. Torrey displays so well in his various chapters 

 that his example should profit as well as entertain all those who 

 are moved to make the best of that " Rambler's Lease" in the 

 real estate of others to which they as well as he have a right. 



Recent Plant Portraits. 



Botanical Magazine, December. 



Thrinax excelsa, /. 7088 ; probably one of the so-called 

 Thatch Palms of the West Indies, but described from a plant 

 of uncertain origin long cultivated in the stove-house of the 

 Royal Gardens. 



Tigridia Pringlei, /. 7089 ; first described and figured by 

 Mr. Watson in Garden and Forest (i., 388, f. 61). 



Cabomba aquatica, t. 7090 ; an interesting aquatic plant 

 ound in still waters from Mexico to southern Brazil ; differing 

 from the species (C Caroliniana) of the southern Lfnited 

 States by its much narrower leaves and yellow flowers (those 

 of the North American species are white). The Cabombas 

 are remarkable in the two forms of leaves produced on the 

 same stem, the one form submerged and the other floating. 

 The submerged leaves are round in outline, but are cut into 

 narrow, thread-lilce divisions, while the floating leaves, with 

 much longer petioles, are round and peltate. The small 

 flowers are attractive, although they remain ojien during a 

 single day only. 



Amorphophalt.us Eichleri, t. 7091 ; a showy species from 

 an island in the Congo River. The flowers, like those of the 

 other species, emit a horrible odor. 



Clintonia Andrewsiana, t. 7092 ; a native of the Cali- 

 fornia coast-region, with showy, rose colored tloweis in a 

 dense terminal umbel. 



Masdevallia chim.era, Gartenjlora, December ist. 



Salvia splendens, var. Bruanti, Gardeners' Chronicle, De- 

 cember 7th. A variety with tall spikes of bright scarlet flow- 

 ers and good habit. 



Salvia Bethelli, Gardeners' Chronicle, December 7th. A 

 form of 6". involucraia, ^with var^_ large spikes of puce-col- 

 ored flowers. 



