January 27, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



37 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



rUliLISIIED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Builuing, New Yokk. 



Conducted hy Professor C. S. Sakgunt. 



ENTERED AS SKCOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE TOST OFnCH AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1S92. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGR. 



Editorial Artici.hs ; — Tlie Reciuty of Evergreens in Snow. (Willi lii;ure.) 37 



Dr. Mayr on the Parasitic Fungi of Nortli American Forest-trees 37 



Notes of a Summer Journey in Europe. — V J. G, yack. 38 



Is Grafting a Devitalizing Process ? — I Professor L. H, Bailey, 39 



Plant Notes ; — Some Recent Portraits 40 



Foreign Correspondence : — New Garden-plants of 1891. — II W. IVatsott, 



Cultural Department : — Christmas Roses D, Deivar. 



Seasonable Hints \V. H. Taplin. 



Begonias y. N. Gerard. 



Wlnter-tlowering Aquatics lyvi. Tricker. 



Citrus trifoliata as a Hedge-plant Processor IF. F. Massey. 



The Pin Oak Joseph Meehan. 



Correspondence : — The Senecios of the Canary Isles H. Christ. 



Plants for the Sea-shore J. /K Harshber^er. 



Chamaacyparis squarrosa J. M. N, 



Recent Publications 46 



Notes 48 



Illustration: — A New England Winter Scene, Fig 9 41 



The Beauty of Evergreens in Snow. 



ONE of the lovehest of all winter effects is seen when 

 wet and clinging snow falls upon the green branches 

 of conifers, emphasizing their beautiful outlines by its 

 " ridge of pearl." 



The peculiar delicacy of snow-shadows, with their ten- 

 der bluish tint, has something to do with the charm of 

 such a scene as is depicted on page 41, and black and 

 white, however subtly shaded, cannot convey that combi- 

 nation of color peculiar to a winter landscape, that fills the 

 .eye with a sense of beauty whose evanescence adds to its 

 precious quality. 



The sheeted ground sparkles in sunshine with myriad 

 lights; its seemingly unbroken surface, if studied, reveals in- 

 numerable soft dimplings, wherelurk the shadows that diver- 

 sify its whiteness. Through the mass penetrate here and 

 there the brown spears of plants and tall grasses, their dry 

 leaves and shrunken blades tipped with silver, their faded 

 blossoms feathery with plumes of snow. Small trees, spring- 

 ing in the shelter of their elders, are overwhelmed with an 

 ermine burden, beneath which they bend like a boy-prince 

 weighed down by a regal mantle too heavy for his youth- 

 ful shoulders, and their broken shadows fall upon the snow 

 in wavering patches of purple and gray. Where the drifted 

 snow has been melted by an underlying hillock, its dash 

 of yellow-brown gleams like a golden boss upon a silver 

 shield. 



The tiny tracks of woodland creatures, which have stolen 

 forth for provender, make interesting suggestions of hid- 

 den life in the solitude, guiding the traveler into the shelter 

 of the trees, where in the crotches of the branches the snow 

 lies massed in great heaps. Each bough shows its outline 

 doubled by a furry trimming. The tall trunks are flecked 

 with snowy patches. If the tree be deciduous a reproduc- 

 tion of its line, firm and graceful as a Japanese drawing, 

 lies across the white ground. Here at your feet, like a 

 master's sketch, can be seen emphasized the swelling of 



the limb as it throws out a bough, the delicate interlacing 

 of branches, the intricate network of the topmost tangle of 

 twigs. The pyramidal form of the evergreen flecked with 

 light is tenderly reproduced in a tint hovering between 

 blue and gray, which is the despair of the painter, as it is 

 the delight of his eye. 



Near the base of the trees where the ground is sheltered, 

 the snow has been warded off, and the soft brown carpet 

 nestles warmly up to the roots and stems, while the wide 

 branches curve with their tips in the snow, making an 

 arched wigwam, protected from the storm. The top nee- 

 dles, agitated by a morning zephyr, have shaken off their 

 hoary hoods, and stand up green and shining against the 

 pale blue of a winter sky, innocent of cloud. As the sun 

 climbs higher there is a low patter among the branches, a 

 fall of snow from an upper limb ; soon the rebound of a 

 released branch brings on an avalanche, as the sturdy tree 

 struggles to shake itself free from the encumbering mass. 

 Then from the tree distils an aromatic fragrance as the wet 

 branches grow warm with the approach of noon. The stir 

 of the branches, the rustle of the melting snow falling 

 among them, give a low sweet murmur, the song of the 

 young Fir-tree dreaming of the far-off Palm ; of the old 

 Hemlock sighing for some Indian dryad of its youth ; of 

 the Pine whispering a saga of a sea-fight and a storm. 



The effect of looking down a woodland-path when the 

 trees on either side are laden with snow is of some strange 

 massive architecture of marble, through which one wan- 

 ders, wondering at the freaks of the builder who has 

 planned these bewildering arches and groinings, sup- 

 ported on columns of diverse proportions. Fantastic 

 forms are everywhere apparent, and the stillness is that 

 of a deserted cavern furnished with stalagmites that ape a 

 forest. For Nature in her various processes is at one, whether 

 she builds trees of stone, or stiffens her forests into a mam- 

 moth cave of wonders ; and to see these underground 

 effects beneath a blue sky is one of the shows of winter, 

 which has its own museum of delights, wherein ice and 

 frost and snow play marvelous and varied roles for the 

 beholder. 



Dr. Mayr on the Parasitic Fungi of North American 

 Forest-trees. 



N Garden and Forest, of December 24th, 1890, ap- 

 _ peared a review of Dr. H. Mayr's Die Waldmigeti 

 von Nordamerika, in which the reviewer criticised that por- 

 tion of the work relating to the fungi found on forest-trees. 

 Since the appearance of the review Dr. Mayr has kindly 

 sent to the editor of Garden and Forest specimens of some 

 of the fungi mentioned in his work, with the request that 

 they be submitted to the revievs'er and the result of his 

 examination printed in Garden and Forest. The following 

 notes are therefore offered in compliance with Dr. Mayr's 

 request : 



In our former notice we expressed the opinion that what 

 was considered by Dr. Mayr to be a new species, and 

 called Rhytisma punctiforme, was in reality the R. 

 punctatum described by Fries in 1819, founded on the 

 Xyloma of Persoon, j8oi, a species found both in Europe 

 and North America, where it is common, having been re- 

 corded in this country in 1831 by Schweinitz. An exam- 

 ination of Dr. Mayr's specimen of R. punctiforme shows 

 that it is undoubtedly R. punctatum, Fries, which is con- 

 sidered by Rehm and some other recent writers to be a 

 good species, although it was regarded by Tulasne as a 

 form of R. acerinum. In our review it was also remarked 

 that, as far as could be told from Dr. Mayr's description 

 and figures of his Microspha?ra Corni, it was identical with 

 the M. pulchra, Cooke and Peck, described in 1872. Exam- 

 ination of the specimens sent confirm the accuracy of our 

 former statement, the appendages, asci and spores agree- 

 ing entirel)^ with those of M. pulchra, and whether one 

 agrees with those mycologists who believe that M. pulchra 

 should be referred to a still older species or not, if the spe- 



