April 6, iSg2.] 



Garden and Forest: 



157 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Prolcssor C. S. Sakcent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 1892. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



I'AGE. 



Editorial Articles :— Public Indiffoi-ence to Forests 157 



Early Sprinp; Flowers 157 



Sabal Palmetto in Europe 158 



The Story of a Suburban Place. — II Sylvester Baxter. 158 



Holiday Notes in Switzerland. — III Geo. Nicholson. 159 



Serotinous Pines. (With figure.) Ceo. B. Sudiuortk. 160 



Cultural Department : — Winter Climbers M. Barker. 162 



Odontoglossum Rossi. John Weathers, 163 



Two New Poppies Amy IVhitjnan. 163 



Nepenthes IV. H. Taplin. 163 



'• Falling" of Egg-plant Seedlings. (With figure.) 



Professor Byron D. Halsted. i6.j 



Correspondence; — Southern Forests and Forest-flowers L. Greenlee. 164 



Grafting.— II A. W. Pearson. 165 



In the Gardens of Brooltline, Massachusetts M. Barker. 165 



Wild Flowers in Cultivation Lora S. La Mance. 166 



Exhibitions :— The Spring Flower Show at Philadelphia 166 



Rf-cent Publications 167 



Notes 168 



Illustrations : — Pinus clausa, Fig. 24 161 



Seedling Egg-plants destroyed by a Fungus, Fig. 25 164 



Public Indifference to Forests. 



THE greatest difficulty in dealing with large questions 

 of national importance, whether political or economic, 

 is to induce men to take an interest in any subject which 

 does not personally and directly benefit them. Planning 

 for future generations is not an occupation which is attrac- 

 tive to the ordinary inind anywhere. Large issues demand 

 broad intelligence to cope with them and an amount of un- 

 selfish zeal which is not the endowment of everybody. 

 The Prometheus of a generation is very apt to find himself 

 chained to a rock, with the vulture of impatience gnawing 

 at his vitals, while he chafes at the mistakes and apathy of 

 his contemporaries, of which his clear vision foresees the 

 consequences. 



Public spirit that extends beyond the scope of one's 

 vision, and has no connection with one's pocket or per- 

 sonal pride, is rare. One who pleads for what most peo- 

 ple consider a sentimental cause has little chance with 

 the promoter of a railroad scheme which gives imme- 

 diate employment to many people and temporarily raises 

 the value of land. He finds it easy enough to induce men to 

 abate a nuisance at their own doors, but how many people 

 are there who are capable of understanding the importance 

 of preserving the forests on some mountain-slope in Colo- 

 rado which they have never seen or even heard of? This 

 anxiety besets him with regard to the blind destruction of 

 forests, which goes on in spite of warning, in the teeth of 

 -entreaty, in the face of the proved fact that a more judicious 

 management of our woodlands would result in direct pe- 

 cuniary advantage even to individuals, while in a broad 

 way it vv'ould render incalculable service in promoting the 

 health and prosperity of the entire country. With all the 

 abounding generosity which feeds and clothes and educates 

 the needy, the world is still lacking in that larger benevo- 

 lence which touches the roots of economic questions, and 

 helps to ward off evils to come. Ready as we Americans 



are with our pound of cure, it must be confessed that we, 

 in common with the rest of mankind, are often niggardly 

 enough about our ounce of prevention. The man of 

 science, who sees consequences clearly, stands in the 

 same attitude toward the destroyer of forests as a 

 ffrown-up person does toward a child who is deter- 

 mined to grasp the flame of a candle, without the same 

 power to prevent the consequences of ignorant rashness. 



It is not our purpose here to point out in what way or to 

 what extent a forest-cover on our mountain tops and 

 slopes works beneficently, nor to show what disasters are 

 sure to follow the destruction of such forests. There is 

 much to be learned about these questions, but we know 

 enough to demonstrate the folly of the reckless destruction 

 of our woods. We are not called upon to base our action 

 upon untried theories. Experience, and the most costly 

 experience, too, has amply demonstrated what a nation 

 loses when the wood-cover is stripped from its mountains, 

 and what it costs to restore the wholesome balance of natu- 

 ral forces when this is once disturbed. 



It is not knowledge that we lack. We have enough of this 

 to form the basis of wise and successful action in saving and 

 using our forests. The questions which the nation should 

 now be discussing are the practical details of forest-man- 

 agement — that is, we should have proceeded far enough in 

 this work to be studying and experimenting as to the most 

 economical and effective system of forest-management 

 under American conditions. Long ago public opinion 

 should have compelled the laying of the foundations of a 

 proper forest-administration for the lands of the nation and 

 for the control of the forests under the various states. But, 

 as a matter of fact, we have not begun to do anything ; we 

 have not begun even to get ready to do anything. To 

 our congresses and legislatures warnings of destruction 

 and depopulation such as have occurred over large territo- 

 ries of the French Alps sound like tales of little meaning. 

 The result is that we still need exhortation by forest-con- 

 gresses, and bulletins from the half-supported forest-bureau 

 of the Government, and the pleadings of special writers in 

 the newspapers ; and all this not for the purpose of in- 

 structing the people in the most simple and elementary 

 points of practical forestry, but to awaken them and their 

 legislators to the fact that such a thing as forestry has an 

 existence. 



Of course, it is rather discouraging to know that the pre- 

 liminary work, which ought to have been finished as early 

 as the middle of the present century at least, will still be 

 needed in the beginning of the next century. Other na- 

 tions have waited for calamities to arouse them to the 

 need of taking some thought for the future, and perhaps 

 nothing less than a series of disasters will suffice to con- 

 vince us of the necessity of some intelligent forest-policy. 

 And yet such effort cannot be wholly wasted. A few will 

 listen, and now and then one will be convinced, and ever 

 after he will carry about the burden of his responsibility 

 and become a centre of good influence. All this prepara- 

 tory work will make the ultimate change in public opinion 

 more radical and complete. The day is sure to arrive 

 when we shall look back upon the reckless attacks upon 

 our forests with torch and axe as the work of barbarians. 

 It is literally true that, as a rule, we show no more pru- 

 dence in our treatment of our forests than is manifested by 

 the savage who, after supplying his present needs and sa- 

 tiating his appetite,' lies down under a tree and sleeps with 

 no thought or care for the morrow. 



The flowers of early spring have a peculiar charm. 

 Every year as they open they bring a fresh delight, not 

 only by their rare beauty, but by the appeal they make to 

 the imagination as the pioneers of the great floral proces- 

 sion which is to sweep onward until arrested by another 

 winter. These flowers attract our sympathies, too, by their 

 singular delicacy. Nothing is so fragile as a Snowdrop, 

 and yet its spirit is sturdy enough to brave the ice of Feb- 

 ruary, and the dainty colors and tender grace of all of 



