February 3, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



57 



There are so many fungous enemies in the greenhouse that 

 the spraying'-pump will come to be a regular adjunct to the 

 propagatiiig-beJ and to the growing of plants under glass. 

 Ruigeis College. Byroii D. Hatsfed. 



Galvanized Iron for Propagating-beds. 



IN building a greenhouse five years ago I made a propagat- 

 ing-bench of the usual width and fit'ty feet in length. As 

 a test, half of the bed was laid with a slate bottom and the 

 other half with galvanized sheet-iron. The experience of these 

 years does not show any essential difference in the rooting of 

 cuttings in the bed. Tlie bottom-heat does not seem to vary 

 with the slate or the iron, when the average depth of three to 

 four inches of sand is used as a covering. It is probable that 

 less depth of sand and careful tests would show a higher tem- 

 perature on the iron than on the slate ; but in our ordinary use 

 of the greenhouse there has been no appreciable difference. 



It has been a siu'prise to me that the galvanized iron shows 

 no sign of wear. The bed now looks as though it would last as 

 long as the two by three-inch scantling upon which the sheets 

 and the slate were laid. Having had the same satisfactory re- 

 sults in the use of sheet-iron in other places, I decided this 

 season to use the sheets as a bottom for propagating-beds 

 which we were building. As the houses were constructed 

 mainly for one pin-pose, the result has been more than satis- 

 factory. The beds can be maintained at any desired degree 

 of temperature and moisture with the greatest ease. In some 

 houses and undersome management there might be danger of 

 an excess of moisture in the sand for. =ome cuttings ; but in such 

 cases it would be easy to provide drainage by punching holes 

 in the sheets, as might be found necessary. Ordmarily, this 

 would not occur. 



In regard to cost, I find that the sheet-iron comes next to 

 boards. For a heavy quality the cost is $4.50 per 100 square 

 feet. Considering the ease in laying, this must be regarded 

 as a moderate expense ; and considering the very satisfactory 

 results, it seems to me that it is worthy of more general use. 



Waban, Mass. Wm. C. Strong. 



Berberis Thunbergii.— Those who desire to increase their 

 stock of this handsome shrub will find this a favorable time to 

 sow seeds. Seeds from berries gathered from the bushes 

 now will germinate better than those gathered earlier in the 

 season, as the weathering effects of frost seem to help germi- 

 nation. The seeds should be rubbed clear of the pulpy mat- 

 ter which encloses them, as berries planted whole will some- 

 times lie in a dormant state for two years, or, at least, until 

 the resinous matter surrounding them has decayed. Even with 

 this precaution, it takes nearly a whole season for the crop to 

 come up. Like almost all Barberries, this species is very 

 easily reared, and seedlings may be planted directly from the 

 seed-bed as soon as they are large enough to handle. This, 

 probably, is the best of all the Barberries which are hardy in 

 this latitude. B. . Darwinii and B. stenophylla, two equally 

 handsome species which are evergreen, at least in southern 

 Europe, are doubtfully hardy here. With full exposure, B. 

 Thunbergii makes a neat and perfectly regular bush. There 

 is at the Bussv Institute a remarkable specimen, being one of 

 the first raised in this country, which every autumn is covered 

 with thousands of scarlet berries, and is so conspicuous an 

 object that it attracts attention from a considerable distance. 

 The berries hang on the bushes until spring, as no birds or 

 animals seem to care for them. 



Wellesley, Mass. 



T. D. H. 



Correspondence. 



The Forests of Washington. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir,— The forests of western Washington are inconceivable 

 to those to whom the word forest suggests a vision of sun-lit 

 green. Green they are, but it is the sombre darkness of the 

 conifer. To the woods of the Blue Ridge they are as the 

 movement of Milton's lines to the lilt of Dobson's song. 



Imagine yourself seated in an old stage, with a pair of 

 Cayuse ponies hitched to it, and driving for the first time, on a 

 December afternoon, through a belt of Washington timber- 

 land. The timber skirting the stage-road will, of course, be 

 very inferior, since the road has chosen the direction of least 

 resistance ; but in your innocence you will not guess this, and 

 will promptly conclude there never was another spot just like 

 tills peculiar one where you find yourself. It is mid-Decem- 

 ber, but the air is like one of the misty days of late October ; 

 and the grass on the road-side has a vividness of green, a cer- 



tain mossy depth of color, as though the earth were covered 

 with layer upon layer of tiny-leaved grass that is like nothing 

 but tlie spring grass of Great Britain. There are no fiowersby 

 the side of the road, but Ferns in the wildest luxuriance. They 

 range in size from the minutest seaweed-like tracery of green 

 to the Elk Fern, as tall as a man, and with the decorative vigor 

 of a tropical Palm. Above all this, so far above as to seem of 

 another world, reach the forest-trees. They are all ever- 

 greens. Round-bodied, straight and flawless, they stretch up- 

 ward one, two, and even three hundred feet. They are so tall 

 that one scarcely observes the slightest tapering in the ma- 

 jestic cohmins at the point where at last they throw out the 

 first limb, laden with lieavy foliage of down-drooping dark- 

 ness. There are not twenty or a hundred of these trees in 

 range as you creep along, but tens of hundreds ; they grow as 

 closely as Hop-vines in a Hop-yard. The wonder that ever 

 increases is how the soil supports such a growth. 



In many places the trees have fallen, and lie tangled to- 

 gether, forming a barrier twenty or thirty feet high. If they 

 should all fall the pile they would make would be about as 

 high as the trees now stand. The density of the forest makes 

 it almost iinpenetrable ; for, beneath the up-reaching Pines, 

 the ground is covered with the tough tangle of Sallal (Gaultheria 

 Shallon), hung with pink waxy bells, which enmesh the feet at 

 every step ; and the riot of the Ferns, that snap back into the 

 face, further impede the way. Four miles is as far as a strong 

 man can walk in a long day's struggle with the baffling, en- 

 trapping blockade of living green. 



The gigantic conifers and the immense Ferns are the 

 living representation of those pictures of the carboniferous 

 age that decorate the pages of geologies. We seem to have 

 prowled into Nature's laboratory, and caught her at coal- 

 making some eons too soon. Many beds of coal have been 

 discovered ; but it is lignite coal, still soft and half-formed. 

 The stone, too, is crumbly and unfinished. The whole energy 

 of the black mellow soil goes into the monster evergreens, and 

 there seems no place for flowery frivolities beneath their som- 

 bre magnificence. This is in the interior of the woods. Down 

 near the salt-water of the Pacific the character of the growth 

 changes. There the Tide-land Spruce (Picea Sitchensis) pre- 

 vails, a scrub growth, averaging about one hundred feet in 

 total height, and of a gnarled and irregular figure. Upon 

 every notch or crotch of the limbs is a clump of moss, so viv- 

 idly green that even the grass pales in comparison ; and, from 

 this bed of mold, spring hundreds of Ferns, but always of one 

 sort, with a delicate but simply pinnate frond. 



The curious excrescences of moss give the Tide-land 

 Spruce an unnatural look that is slightly revolting ; it takes the 

 character from the trees' anatomy ; but, in themselves, these 

 bosses of green, pierced by the Fern-fronds, are lovely. The 

 south sides of many of the trees are covered with this deep 

 moss, and from it the Ferns cascade downward to the ground. 



Among the Tide-land Spruce are patches of small Alders, 

 gray for the season, and grayer with fine filmy Spanish moss, 

 hanging in shreds, and giving a ghostly indefiniteness to their 

 outlines. Under-foot the same vivid moss and Ferns, only the 

 Alders, stretching their twigs like a seine in which filaments of 

 seaweed have been caught, speak to us of winter in this cli- 

 mate of moist mildness, in this "land where all things always 



seem the same." . ■ u i^r 17 



Bergen Puint, N.J. J^ouzse fierricM Wall. 



The Hardiness of certain Evergreens. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Your correspondent, Mrs. Dandridge, suggests reports 

 on the hardiness of certain evergreens. In tliis neighborliood 

 English Laurels do not survive, even when given slight pro- 

 tection. I have never seen one left outside for the winter that 

 was alive in spring. Aucuba Japonica does well where it 

 gets a little shelter ; near a dwelling or under the shelter of 

 deciduous shrubs it will survive without any covering. Hy- 

 drangea hortensis and H. Otaksa are never killed outright by 

 the winters here, but trying seasons sometimes kill the ends 

 of the branches, and then we get no Hovvers, for the flowers 

 are produced on the wood of the previous season. So, to be 

 siu'e of bloom, it is better to pack leaves among the tops. I 

 had no idea tliat Chimonanthus fragrans was considered ten- 

 der. We never protect it hereabouts, and it is never injured. 

 Deodar Cedars do very well when protected for a fevv' years 

 while small. There are very fine specimens here, one in par- 

 ticular, which stands on a rocky eminence. There are 

 several flourishing trees of the great evergreen Magnolia 

 about us, and manv more could be had if they were intelli- 

 gently looked after for a few years after being planted. A 



