230 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 221. 



But of still greater importance is the fact that the refresh- 

 ing and uplifting influence of natural scenery is recognized 

 as an actual and practical truth. The humanizing influ- 

 ence of historic association may well be coupled with the 

 soothing and healing charm of natural scenery, because 

 neither of them appeals directly to any sordid or purely 

 material interest, but to our nobler impulses and passions. 

 The home of Washington, the winter camping-ground at 

 Valley Forge, the beautiful old colonial mansion and 

 grounds at Morristown, which was once the headquarters of 

 Washington, address the same class of emotions as do the 

 Natural Bridge of Virginia or the Big Tree-grove of Cal- 

 ifornia. They all minister in their degree to the mental 

 and moral health of communities. In this country there 

 ^re no remnants of royal hunting-parks for popular resort, 

 and few public footpaths even which lead across private 

 lines. As a nation our life has been so short that places of 

 historic interest are few compared with those in the Old 

 World ; and broad as is our national domain, the scenes of 

 natural beauty which are not private possessions are more 

 rare than they are in countries with a much denser popu- 

 lation. This Massachusetts movement ought to be con- 

 tagious, for there are few states in which a special act of 

 the Legislature is not needed whenever any land is acquired 

 for public use. Of course, there must be a commanding 

 public sentiment behind any act like this one creating 

 the Board of Trustees of Public Reservations. As the 

 report sets forth, the function of this Board is "to facilitate" 

 the preservation of beautiful and historical places, and the 

 appreciation of the value of such places, and the desire to 

 secure them, must precede and make possible any action 

 of the Board. When this sentiment comes in the fullness 

 of its power it will not only manifest itself by securing and 

 protecting by law a few tracts here and there, but it will 

 be seen in a reverent regard for natural scenery over the 

 entire face of the country. It will ensure not only intelli- 

 gent treatment of these reservations, but it will help to 

 protect every pleasing prospect from being marred, and it 

 will act as a sensitive public conscience to protest against 

 the obliteration and defacement of natural beauty and the 

 desecration of spots that are hallowed by historic memories , 

 wherever they are found. 



"Every one who has encouraged or even permitted 

 the natural growth of his filial love for mother nature 

 loves trees. Occasionally some such son or daughter has 

 been carried so far by this fondness as to learn something 

 about our trees and to know them for their own sakes, and 

 many more have wished for some ro)'^al road to a knowl- 

 edge of them. Some of these may be glad of the assist- 

 ance of definite information concerning just what trees 

 grow within easy walking distance of their homes, and 

 just where such can be seen." 



These sentences are from the introduction to a series of 

 papers on Amherst trees which Mr. J. Ellis Humphrey is 

 to contribute to TTte Aniheist Record, the first part having 

 appeared in its issue of the 4th instant, and it is this sort of 

 assistance which the author proposes to offer to his fellow- 

 townsmen, and to give them an annotated directory of the 

 species of trees to be seen within a radius of a mile from 

 the post-office of Amherst, Massachusetts, after the fashion 

 of the papers originally contributed by Mr. John Robinson 

 to nie Salem Gazette, and lately published by the Essex 

 Institute in a volume entitled Our Trees. Of Mr. Robinson's 

 work we have spoken more than once, and we are pleased 

 to notice that an authority of such rank as Nature, after 

 stating that the book makes no pretense of being a scien- 

 tific treatise, adds that "it is a series of homely chats 

 about trees by one who knows and loves them, and, there- 

 fore, by one who cannot help telling you something worth 

 learning, even though it be by the way and merely inci- 

 dental." 



The multiplication of these popular essays about our 

 trees is a hopeful sign. It is surprising how Httle most 



persons really know about the trees among which they 

 have lived from childhood, and almost everybody would 

 be grateful for some accurate information concerning 

 them. If there are people so unfortunate as not to care 

 to know about nature, it is possible, perhaps, to arouse 

 their slumbering senses and to invigorate their faculties by 

 pointing out the beauties and the uses of natural objects, 

 of which, for this purpose, trees are the most available, as 

 being almost everywhere present, of large size, picturesque 

 appearance and general usefulness. 



The more people, and especially the more children, 

 there are in the United States who have learned to know and 

 love and respect trees, the better it will be for the future of 

 the nation. Our prosperit)' is dependent on the preservation 

 of our forests. A forest is only an aggregated mass of 

 trees. When we come as a people to know and appreciate 

 and love trees we shall learn to love forests, too; and once 

 loving them, we shall appreciate their value, and efforts to 

 preserve and maintain them and make them useful and pro- 

 ductive for all time will then be a comparatively easy task. 

 But to do this a whole generation of Americans must 

 be educated. The lesson must begin in the cradle, 

 and it must continue year after 3'-ear until our people love 

 trees and know 'their value as well as they know the Con- 

 stitution of the United States and their rights as citizens. 

 It is for these reasons that every addition to our knowledge 

 on this subject is valuable, and we therefore welcome the 

 appearance of such papers as these Mr. Humphrey is 

 publishing, and which we hope later to see gathered 

 together in a handy volume which will serve as another 

 text-book for the people of New England. 



American Conifers in Scandinavia. 



OUR correspondent. Dr. C. E. Hansen, of Copenhagen, 

 who has charge of one of the richest collections of 

 coniferous plants in northern Europe, sends us the following 

 notes relative to certain American species in Scandinavia : 



Sequoia gigantea has been tried in Norway in several places 

 along the coast between Christiana and Molde in latitude 

 62° 44" north. In the botanic garden at Christiana a specimen 

 six feet high when planted stood for several years, always los- 

 ing in winter the growth of the previous season, so it is not 

 probable that it will prove hardy there. In a garden at Bale- 

 strand a Sequoia about three feet high was planted in the 

 spring- of 1876 ; in the severe winter of 1880-81 the leader was 

 killed back, although a new one was afterward formed, and in 

 September, 1885, the tree had attained a height of seventeen 

 feet and ten inches. In south-western Sweden the Sequoia 

 seems hardy, although it is probably not to be found farther 

 north than latitude 57° 43". 



Thuya gigantea occasionally suffers from cold at Stock- 

 holm, but T. occidentalis is hardy at Upsala in latitude 59° 52" 

 north ; on the west coast of Finland it can be found as far 

 north as 63° and is said to grow as far north as 65° 51". Taxo- 

 dium distichum is not hardy in southern Norway, and in 

 Sweden it is rare and probably is not cultivated farther north 

 than the southern part of the kingdom. Dr. Schuhueler, in his 

 Viridariiim, says of Abies Fraseri, that he has never seen this 

 species anywhere in Norway except at Molde, in 62° 44" north, 

 and in the botanic garden at Christiana, where formerlv there 

 were two plants. The tallest of these died in the sumrner of 

 1881, its roots having reached the wet subsoil. This specimen 

 had produced good seeds for a number of years and was forty- 

 five feet high, with a spread of branches of thirteen feet on the 

 ground, and was forty years old. In Sweden this species is 

 hardy at Stockholm, and is probably hardy in St. Petersburg. 



In southern Norway plants of the Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga 

 taxifolia) may be seen fifty feet in height. In Sweden it is 

 hardy at Stockholm, as is Pinus rigida. Pinus Strobus has been 

 planted in many places on the coast of Norway up to latitude 

 63° 26" north, where it is hardy, and it may be expected to 

 thrive even farther north. The largest plant in Norway is 

 near Christiana, at Bagstad, and is about one hundred years 

 old. This plant is eighty feet high, with a trunk circumference 

 of more than six feet. Near Stockholm, in the park of the 

 royal castle at Drottingholm, several fine specimens of this 

 species are found. When I visited these trees I did not take 

 their exact measurement, but observed that my arms would 



