46 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 205. 



berries are gathered at times by the plain fisher-folk here, 

 and boiled over a slow fire. The wax rises to the top, and is 

 then skimmed off and cooled into the required form. Candles 

 of bayberry were no infrequent commodity in rural communi- 

 ties during Revolutionary days. 



The Poison Dogwood (Rhus venenata) disputes the ground 

 with the Bayberry. Dense masses of this poisonous shrub 

 were seen everywhere, bearing compact panicles of yellowish 

 white unripe berries, while over the exposed sand-dunes 

 trailed the much-dreaded Poison Ivy (R. Toxicodendron). 

 The dark glossy pinnate leaves of the former turn to the most 

 vivid and attractive hues, and are much collected and admired 

 for their autumnal coloring. R. venenata, with white berries 

 and conspicuous autumn foliage, however, is exceedingly dan- 

 gerous and virulent. Notwithstanding the bad reputation of 

 the two plants, they are important as conservatives in nature. 

 The drifting sand is anchored ; skurries of sand are pre- 

 vented, and an otherwise inhospitable neighborhood is made 

 inhabitable. Once familiar with the Sumachs, and remem- 

 bering that those species only are poisonous which have white 

 berries, one can go into tfie woods with impunity and collect 

 anything herbaceous, shrubby or arborescent without fear. 



Rosa lucida grew also in this sea-shore tangle, and the half- 

 ripe hips, tinged orange, glistened in the sunlight. Associated 

 with these species, twisted into fantastic shapes by the wintry 

 storms, and scrawny for want of sufficient nourishment, stood 

 the cosmopolitan Red Cedar (Juniperus Virginiana). Some 

 botanists hazard the opinion that the Bermuda Cedar is 

 only a geographical variety of the Savin of North America. It 

 is recorded in Garden and Forest (vol. iv., p. 290) that a tract 

 of ground in the Bermudas is covered with Bermuda Cedars 

 of large size, springing from a dense undergrowth of Wax 

 Myrtle or IVIyrica, identical with the species so common on our 

 Atlantic seaboard, and of Baccharis, similar to, although dis- 

 tinct from, our seaboard species, and of Pteris aquilina. I 

 found the Red Cedar on Barnegat Peninsula, with the Wax 

 Myrtle, with Baccharis halimifolia and with the Bracken (Pteris 

 aquilina). It seems, therefore, that the two Cedars keep the 

 same company at least. 



With this impenetrable jungle as a background, and almost 

 buried in the salt-water sedges and grasses, the Rose Mallow 

 (Hibiscus Moscheutos) covered the meadows and more ele- 

 vated hummocks with brilliant pink flowers, while Golden- 

 rods and Sabbatias, in close masses, occupied the foreground. 

 The landscape, so desolate and depressing, was thus trans- 

 formed into a large unkempt garden, flavored by the salt of 

 the ocean. For those who wish to see some vegeta- 

 tion as a relief from the everlasting glitter of sand and water, 

 these native settlers offer more than a hint for the proper 

 making of a planting list. c^ ,,,tT ,, 



Philadelphia, P.i. J- '"• Harshhcrgcf. 



Chanicecyparis squarrosa. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Last autumn I saw in Kew Gardens a small tree with 

 beautiful feathery, bluish gray leaves, labeled "Chama?cypriris 

 squarrosa." I do not find this particular variety of Chama'cy- 

 paris in the books or catalogues. Is it obtainable from nur- 

 series here? Many evergreens fail with me on exposed hills 

 of Staten Island, and I should like to know it this one would 

 probably prove hardy ? 



Slaten Island. J. M. N. 



[This plant, which is an abnormal form of the well- 

 known Japanese Chamcecyparis obtusa, is usually met with 

 in nurseries, where it is now common, as Retinospora 

 squarrosa. It is a rather freer-growing plant and quite 

 as hardy as the other forms of the Japanese Chama;cy- 

 paris or Retinospora. — Ed. J 



Recent Publications. 



Preliminary Report on the Native Trees and Shrubs of Ne- 

 braska. By C. E. Bessey. Bulletin of the Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station of Nebraska, vol. iv., article iv. 



The territory embraced in the state of Nebraska is, with 

 reference to its native silva, one of the most interesting por- 

 tions of the United States, occupying as it does a mid-conti- 

 nental position between the two great natural forest-regions of 

 the east and the west. A considerable number of tlie species 

 of the forests of the Atlantic seaboard extend to the eastern 

 confines of the state, while others descending from the slopes 

 of the Rocky Mountains reach the eastern limits of their dis- 

 tribution within its borders. 



The list prepared by Professor Bessey contains no less than 

 sixty-one native arborescent species, a surprisingly large num- 

 ber when it is remembered that, apart from the Cottonwood 

 and Willow-lined streams, the woods are confined to the ex- 

 treme eastern and the extreme western borders of the state, 

 the central, and by far the larger part, being treeless. 



From carefully prepared tables of the distribution of the dif- 

 ferent species at different elevations, and in dift'erent parts of 

 the state. Professor Bessey reaches the conclusion that " nearly 

 all have probably migrated to the plains from the east," and 

 that many of them have not "done more than to get a little 

 foothold in the extreme south-eastern counties, to which they 

 have come from the heavy forests of Missouri. A few have 

 doubtless crossed the Missouri River from western Iowa, 

 although this number is evidently very small. Nearly all our 

 trees have come up the Missouri bottoms and spread from the 

 south-eastern corner west and north-west. Possibly a few 

 have come up the Blue River from Kansas, but these must 

 eventually be traced to the Missouri River bottoms at the 

 mouth of the Kansas River." Of the plants which have trav- 

 eled from the west the Buffalo Berry (Shepherdia argentea) 

 appears to be the only one that has spread over the entire 

 state; although the western Shadbush (Amelanchieralnifolia), 

 a denizen of a considerable portion of western America, is 

 found as far east as the shores of the Great Lakes. But the 

 number of western trees and shrubs now found within the 

 state is certainly small, considering the facilities for their trans- 

 port, and, as Professor Bessey suggests, " it is singular that so 

 few of the western plants have come down the streams, 

 especially as prevailing winds are also from the westerly parts 

 toward the east," and it would have appeared " much easier 

 for the western trees to come down-stream, and with the wind, 

 than for the Elms, Ashes, Plums, etc., to have gone up the 

 streams against the prevailing winds." But this is explained 

 by the supposition " that eastern conditions are slowly advanc- 

 ing westward ; and that such climatic and otiier changes are 

 slowly taking place upon the plains as favor the eastern rather 

 than the western trees," which now appear to be slowly retreat- 

 ing, while eastern species are slowly pushing their way west- 

 ward. 



The results of Professor Bessey 's investigation are of par- 

 ticular interest and value in the new light which they give 

 upon the distribution of several of our trees. A comparison 

 of his paper with the ninth volume of the Final Reports of the 

 Tenth Census, in which all the information available ten years 

 ago about the distribution of the trees of North America was 

 supposed to have been collected, shows that the range of not 

 less than twenty-two Nebraska trees was inaccurately given in 

 that work. Pinus ponderosa, which was then believed not to 

 grow naturally farther east than the Black Hills of Dakota, is 

 now known, as Professor Bessey has pointed out in an earlier 

 publication, to extend along the Niobrara River to Long Pine 

 Creek, in Brown and Rock counties ; it also occurs on the 

 North Platte as far eastward as Deuel County and in the valley 

 of the Loup in \'alley, Greeley and Custer counties. It grows 

 at the highest elevations in the state, ranging from over 5,000 

 to about 7,000 feet above the level of the ocean. Fine trees 

 are still abiuidant upon the slopes and summits of rocky hills 

 in the northern and north-western portions of the state, al- 

 though the best and most accessible of the Nebraska pine has 

 already fallen to supply the wants of the settlers. 



The White Oak (Ouercus alba), believed to have been ar- 

 rested on the west by the Nodaway River, in i\Iissouri, is now 

 shown to reach Cass and Nemaha counties, in south-eastern 

 Nebraska, where also occur the Red Oak (Q. rubra) and 

 the Scarlet Oak (O. coccinea), whose western range was not 

 ' supposed to extend farther than western Iowa. The Iron- 

 wood, or Hop Hornbeam (Ostrya Virginiana), Professor Bes- 

 sey has found in several of the eastern and northern coimlies, 

 although eastern Iowa was given in the Census Report as the 

 limit of its range westward. The fact that the Canoe Birch 

 (Betula papyrifera), the Western Birch (B. occidentalis) and the 

 River Birch (B. nigra), all occur in Nebraska, is for the first 

 time shown in Professor Bessey 's catalogue, in which are in- 

 cluded the Butternut (J uglans cinerea), the Shellbark Hickory 

 (Hicoria ovata), the Big Shellbark (H. sulcata), none of which 

 were credited to Nebraska in the Census Report. 'The number 

 of Poplars is increased by the discovery that the Aspen 

 (Populus tremuloides), one of the few trees which occur on 

 the two sides of the continent, extends as far south as Ne- 

 braska, where it has been noticed in the north-western and in 

 the south-eastern counties, and that the narrow-leaved Roclcy 

 Mountain Poplar (P. angustitolia), not known before east of 

 the Black Hill region in Dakota, really reaches Nebraska. 

 The Papaw (Asimina triloba) and the Dwaii Sumach (Rhus 



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