302 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 3&8. 



it enlivens with its glorious panicles of flowers. A por- 

 trait of this plant was published on page 568 of the second 

 volume of this journal. 



So far as is now known, our fifth arborescent species is 

 confined to the high mountain ranges of southern Arizona 

 and northern Sonora. ■ This is the Yucca Schotti of Engel- 

 mann, who afterward gave the name of macrocarpa to the 

 same species. This is a flat green-leaved plant sometimes 

 twenty feet high, and is easily distinguished from all our 

 other Yuccas by the thick coat of white tomentum which 

 covers the stem and branches of the flower-panicle. It 

 is the only arborescent Yucca of the United States which 

 grows on mountains, the other species being found on 

 plains and deserts. Nowhere very common, it appears to 

 grow most abundantly and to its largest size at elevations 

 of from five to seven thousand feet above the level of the 

 sea, although it is occasionally found at lower elevations 

 where canons open out into the mesas. This is probably 

 the least known of all our Yuccas in cultivation. There are 

 a few noble specimens, however, in the gardens of Tucson, 

 Arizona, and seeds were distributed last year by the Arnold 

 Arboretum. West of the Colorado River Yucca arbores- 

 cens, or, as it is more commonly known, Yucca brevifolia, 

 forms open, straggling forests on the Mohave Desert, and 

 ranges to western Arizona, southern Nevada and south- 

 eastern Utah. This is a much-branched tree from thirty to 

 forty feet high, with short rigid blue-green leaves and com- 

 pact sessile clusters of small flowers. No forests on this 

 continent are so weird as those of this tree, which is a 

 source of never-ending astonishment and delight to travel- 

 ers on the railroads that cross the Mohave Desert. 



The last of our tree Yuccas is distributed from southern 

 Nevada over the Mohave Desert, where it is not very abun- 

 dant, through the passes of the San Bernardino Mountains 

 to the California coast, along which it ranges northward as 

 far as Monterey and southward into Lower California. This 

 is the common and only arborescent Yucca of southwest-- 

 ern California, and is sometimes of tree-like habit, but more 

 often produces from the ground several spreading stems. 

 Long confounded with the stemless Yucca baccata of 

 higher and more interior regions, it was first distinguished, 

 under the name of Yucca macrocarpa, from that species by 

 Doctors Merriam and Coville in their reports on the Death 

 Valley E.xpedition. The name macrocarpa, however, hav- 

 ing been previously applied to tw-o other species of Yucca, 

 this coast species is still in need of a name. 



Our tree Yuccas all produce baccate, succulent, sweet, 

 edible fruit, with the e.xception of Yucca elata and Yucca 

 arborescens ; that of the former is dry and pod like, and 

 that of the latter is covered with a thin coat of flesh, but 

 does not split open like the fruit of Yucca elata and the 

 other species with dry fruits. 



Japanese Vegetation in California. 



THE tendency toward extensive planting of Japanese 

 trees, shrubs and flowers, particularly in the coast 

 counties, grows more and more evident from year to year. 

 Japanese gardeners are visibly increasing in numbers ; the 

 close of the war has already stimulated immigration. Nor 

 is it only the gardener-class that counts in this respect. If 

 California, as appears probable, is to have fifty or si.xty 

 thousand Japanese merchants, students and laborers of 

 every class, oriental forms of gardening art will be fostered 

 by all the newcomers, and the plants of Japan will be even 

 more in demand. Some energetic importers have aroused 

 public interest in Japanese vegetation ; now we have local 

 nurseries also, which prove attractive to Americans, and I 

 expect to see the little Japanese gardener an indispensable 

 adjunct of a fashionable country house before many years 

 pass. 



The Golden Gate Park possesses a good illustration of Jap- 

 anese garden art, developed from the best of several gardens 

 begun there during the early part of 1894 for the Midwin- 

 ter Fair. Adults as well as children derive constant pleas- 



ure from these miniature landscape-gardens. What a terri- 

 ble national genius such gardens exhibit ! Century-old 

 Pines and Oaks, crags, mountains, rivers and the whole 

 free wilderness one sees compressed into lilliputian 

 dimensions with an exacting, relentless energy concealed 

 under childlike smiles. 'l"he children, who love the gar- 

 den, feel only its beauty ; but older persons cannot forget 

 its esoteric significance. A thousand years hence, when 

 every inch of land in America is precious, may not such 

 gardens become one of the leading types, even here.' 



At present such a possibility seems very distant. The 

 mere increase of Japanese vegetation in its natural forms 

 is wholly consistent with occidental garden ideas. Every- 

 where one sees evidences that many of the characteristic 

 plants of Japan are becoming naturalized. Among trees 

 I note especially Salisburia adiantifolia, Sciadoptys verti- 

 cillata and Laurus Camphora, all of which are becoming 

 popular, and the latter extremely so. The Camphor and 

 the lilac-flowered Paulownia imperialis are exceptions to 

 the general rule that Japanese plants only thrive in the 

 Coast Range valleys, for one finds extremely healthy speci- 

 mens even in the hotter parts of the San Joaquin Valley. 

 I measured a Paulownia-tree not long ago that, having 

 grown two years from seed, and accidentally broken off at 

 the surface, had sent up in one season a stem eighteen feet 

 high and over two inches in diameter. The Paulownia, 

 massed on hillsides with golden Acacias, is in its properly 

 effective place, and southern Californians are beginning to 

 use it on a large scale. Oaks of east Asia are only in nur- 

 series as yet, but Oak planters, who are but few in any 

 generation, are watching them with much interest. The 

 deciduous Magnolias begin to be fairly abundant. On*e 

 nursery has sold 20,000 trees in the past ten years, includ- 

 ing seven or eight species, and now has half an acre de- 

 voted to this brilliant spring-flowering tree. 



Another pleasant incident is the increased planting of the 

 Bamboos. There is little or no botanical classification as 

 yet, but the common varieties and several good species of 

 Japanese Bamboos are quite often seen in gardens. There 

 is talk of making a tree-lined avenue from San Francisco 

 to San Jose, nearly forty miles. If carried along the foot- 

 hills, such an avenue would cross many streams and moist 

 places, where clumps of the hardier species of the giant 

 Bamboo might safely be planted, so as to give what is now 

 an almost unknown effect in the California landscape. 



The Japan Maples thrive within reach of the sea air. 

 Superb specimens of all the rich-colored cut-leaved varie- 

 ties are to be seen in Sonoma, Marin, Alameda, Santa 

 Clara and southward to Los Angeles, but without special 

 care they usually fail to prosper inland. There is no rea- 

 son why they should not be grafted on stronger-growing 

 native species, and some of the dwarfed plants which come 

 from Japan strike deeper root and become almost trees. 

 To the Japanese gardeners such a Maple must seem a mere 

 monstrosity, and I have seen them look upon one with 

 serious disapproval. They feel much the same way about 

 grafting the pretty little Dwarf Orange, the Oonshiu, on 

 some sturdy standard seedling, where it soon makes a 

 large head and bears fruit of twice the usual size. 



Among more brilliant lesser shrubs, the Tree Pseony of 

 Japan bids fair to become a notable California flovi'er. Not 

 that one sees it frequently as yet, but many are planted 

 and growing, and showy masses of them attract much ad- 

 miration and inspire more extensive planting. The roots 

 are usually somewhat expensive, though I have sometimes 

 seen good collections of fifty named varieties sold for 

 $35.00 per hundred, but this was rather late in the spring, 

 when care was needed to establish them. They bloom 

 early in April, a full month before the herbaceous Paeonies, 

 and in old gardens the plants stand four or five feet high. 

 They are eminently adapted to all parts of the Pacific coasj;. 



Camellias, though grown in houses, are properly out- 

 door shrubs in most parts of California, and ver}' large 

 importations have been made from Japan. The largest 

 Camellia-tree I have seen brought over was about twenty 



