June i, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



263 



Both these trees are very (loriferous, and when in flower arc 

 masses of yellow bloom, the fragrant little golden halls liangingin 

 innumerable racemes from every part of the trees. The Black 

 Wattle seems to possess about the same degree of hardiness 

 as Eucalyptus globulus. The Golden Wattle is more tender, 

 but will do well in localities of extreme aridity, and is contented 

 with a very poor soil. These trees being somewhat difficult 

 to transplant, the experiment has been ti'ied of planting the 

 seed in cuttings of bamboo or cane four or five inches long, 

 set up on end and filled with earth. One or two seeds are 

 planted in each tube. When the trees are six or eight inches 

 high they are easily transferred to the field, tube and all, with- 

 out disturbing the roots, and the cuttings of bamboo are left 

 to decay. 



Another noteworthy tree is the Blackwood (A. melaii- 

 oxylon). Its symmetrical shape, dense foliage and abundance 

 of flowers make it a very desirable tree for avenue-planting, 

 while the wood, much resembling that of the Black Walnut, 

 is highly esteemed in Australia for cabinet-making. The 

 Blackwood, like the Golden Wattle, belongs to the wonderful 

 phyllodineous Acacias, no less interesting morphologically than 

 they are curious to the most careless observer. The leaves 

 on the young tree for the first few months are soft, feathery 

 and bipinnate. The leaf-stalks soon begin to broaden and 

 lengthen out, until at last they become the somewhat stiff, 

 leathery phyllodia which form the foliage of the mature tree, 

 though sometimes retaining upon their tips, for two or three 

 years, remnants of the bipinnate leaves of their youth. 



These are a few of the more important of the many inter- 

 esting trees which are being brought to the attention of Cali- 

 fornia planters by the experiments at Santa Monica. The 

 station is in charge of Mr. Wm. S. Lyon, an accomplished 

 botanist and an enthusiastic tester of trees, whose pen has, 

 moreover, done much to bring about a proper public senti- 

 ment in regard to all questions relating to the forestry-inter- 

 ests of the state. 1 7,4- r- u i 



Monteciio, Cai. F?-a}ik M. Gallaher. 



Recent Publications. 



Traits des Arbres et Arbrisseaiix, Forestiers, Indusiriels et 

 d' Ornement, Cullives oti Exploites en Europe et plus particit- 

 lierement en France, donnant la Description ct V Utilisation 

 d'environ 1,800 especes et 1,000 varietes. P. Mouillefert. 

 Paris, Paul Klincksieck. 1891. 



The object of this work, which is appearing in parts and 

 which we should judge was about one-quarter finished, is to 

 furnish a brief account of the trees and shrubs which grow 

 spontaneously or are cultivated in Europe and principally in 

 the territory of France. The author is a well-known and 

 learned dendrologist and Professor of Sylviculture in the 

 National School "of Agriculture of Grinon, where a well- 

 arranged arboretum is maintained under his direction. 



The works of comprehensive scope devoted to the elucida- 

 tion of cultivated ligneous plants which have previously ap- 

 ]3eared in the present century is that of Loiseleur, a French 

 botanist, who published in its early years a classical treatise on 

 trees and shrubs usually known as the Notiveau Duhamel, it 

 being regarded as an enlargement and continuation of the 

 Traite of Duhamel, the great French dendrologist of the 

 eighteenth century (Loiseleur's work is in seven folio vol- 

 umes, sumptuously illustrated with colored plates, and has 

 become so rare and expensive that many cultivators of trees 

 are prevented from consulting it); the exhaustive and indis- 

 pensable Arboretum et Frtciticetum Britanicum of Loudon, 

 published fifty years ago and before the introduction into gar- 

 dens of many of the plants now cultivated, especially those of 

 western North and South America, Mexico, Japan, Australia 

 and New Zealand ; and the Dendrologie of the German, C. 

 Koch, published from iS6g to 1872, and exclusively devoted to 

 an account of the woody plants cultivated in northern and cen- 

 tral Europe. The time then had come in France for a com- 

 prehensive work on the sidjject which should include, besides 

 the familiar trees and shrubs of the gardens of I^aris and of 

 the north of France, the innumerable forms of woody vegeta- 

 tion which have been brought from all the dry temperate and 

 subtropical regions of the world into the gardens of I^rovence. 



The plan of Professor Mouillefert's work, as explained by 

 the author, who has devoted many years to preparing himself 

 for his task, embraces a brief history of all the principal trees, 

 native or exotic, foimd in Europe growing spontaneously in for- 

 ests, in dendrological collections like those found in the botanic 

 gardens of all Europeancities, and in publicgardens and parks ; 

 and also of the shrubs most commonly cultivated in orangeries 

 and greenhouses — that is to say, all woody plants cultivated in 



forests and gardens. Of such plants the author estimates the 

 number of species as from eighteen hundred to nineteen 

 hundred with eight hundred or nine hundred varieties. 



The systematic catalogue is jjrefaced by an introduction, 

 containing a brief treatise on those departments of botany 

 which must be understood in order that trees may be studied 

 intelligendy, to which is added a list of technical cxijressions 

 usetl in the work and eleven plates illustrating the form 

 of cells, the structure of tissues and of wood, the various 

 forms of leaves, and the different sorts of inllorescences and 

 of fruits. Coming to tlie catalogue itself we hnd that the his- 

 tory of each plant is composed of four princip;d parts. The 

 first is devoted to the origin and the geographical range of the 

 species ; in the second the principal botanical characters which 

 distinguish the species are given in simple language, the 

 author wisely confining his descriptive matter to the essential 

 or dilTerential characters wliich may be relied on to distin- 

 guish a plant of the particular species from the best-known 

 species or type of the genus, in this way avoiding needless 

 repetitions and bringing out the salient characters of each 

 plant. The third part treats of the soil and exposure best 

 suited to develop the plant in question, with notes on methods 

 of propagating it ; and in the fourth part is set forth the nature 

 of the products — that is, the wood, the fruit, the bark, etc. — 

 with notes on its value from the ornamental or from a sylvicul- 

 tural point of view. An atlas or thirty-two colored plates ac- 

 companies the work, illustrating representatives of the princi- 

 pal groups, each plate displaying as far as possible a branch in 

 flower and in fruit, a flower witli its principal organs, an entire 

 fruit and a fruit in section, and the seed. Besides these colored 

 plates, the work is further enriched by one hundred and 

 eighty-nine plates, reproduced from photographs, made by the 

 author, of cultivated trees in different parts of France. These 

 usually represent trees without leaves that their appearance in 

 winter may be made familiar. 



On the whole, the treatment of the subject so far as the re- 

 sult of Professor Mouillefert's observations have been pub- 

 lished is good, although, as is generally the case with botanists 

 working with plants represented by cultivated individuals ex- 

 clusively, the number of species in some genera is unneces- 

 sarily enlarged, and too much attention is often paid to 

 ephemeral varieties of little morphological or horticultural 

 value; and "book species," which would disappear in the 

 course of a critical study of all the members of the genus in 

 their wild state, are too frequently admitted, as is perhaps in- 

 evitable in a work of this character. But, after all. Professor 

 Mouillefert does not pretend to present his readers with an 

 exhaustive study of the wild types of all the trees and shrubs 

 cultivated in Europe, and confines himself to a treatise on the 

 cultivated plants themselves as they appear in French gardens. 

 This he has so far succeeded in doing in an acceptable and 

 most useful manner, and we can recommend his work to all 

 persons familiar with French who occupy themselves for 

 profit or for pleasure with the cultivation of woody plants. 



Notes. 



The Societe Nationale d'Agriculture de France, at a recent 

 meeting held in Paris, awarded its gold medal, stamped 

 with the portrait of Olivier de Serres, to Professor Sargent's 

 Silva of North America, now being published by Houghton, 

 Mifflin & Co. 



According to the Zeitung, of Cologne, the owner of a Cherry- 

 tree, which stood upon a piece of ground required for the en- 

 largement of the railroad station at the village of Niederlahn- 

 stein, was recently paid $600 for the tree in addition to the 

 value of the land, and accepted this sum only after a long con- 

 tention, declaring that the tree was worth at least $900. 



In the mid-May issue of the Revue Horticole a portrait ap- 

 pears of Deut/.iaparvi flora, the most beautiful species, perhaps, 

 of the genus, one of the best hardy shrubs in cultivation, and 

 a native of Manchuria. It has recently reached the gardens of 

 western Europe as it now appears through the Arnold Arbore- 

 tum, which received it many years ago from the Botanic Gar- 

 den at St. Petersburg. 



A correspondent sends us from Boston flowers of the double 

 form of the beautiful Cuckoo-flower (Cardamine pratensis), 

 which has recently been found near Woburn, in Massachu- 

 setts, where it has lieconie naturalized and covers a consider- 

 able area. This |jlant, which is rare in the eastern states, is 

 also a native of Europe, where the double-flowered form is 

 said to be not uncommon. 



