July 13, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



333 



show (the plants now growing strongly) that Nymphreas may 

 be safely transported, when moving, without injury. 



Nymphffia Candida is a white-flowering species from Bo- 

 hemia. This seems of second size, but very free-flowering. 

 The flowers are rather incurved at the tips of petals, which are 

 of medium width. The color might be compared in purity and 

 tone to that of the Snowdrop. 



N. odorata sulphurea, somehow, has failed to secure the 

 vogue of N. chromatella, but it has a charming flower of a sul- 

 phur tint, with light golden stamens, distinct, and well worth 

 adding to the best collections. It has slightly narrower petals 

 of less substance than N. chromatella. The leaves are macu- 

 lated brown above, and thickly spotted with blood-red under. 



The prevailing cool nights and frequent rains have not fur- 

 nished the very best conditions for the growth of the tropical 

 Nymphffias this season. The same conditions affect the hardy 

 ones, though more slightly. These latter seem, however, to 

 require more care in planting than the tender ones, which sel- 

 dom fail to grow away strongly, while if the rhizomes of the 

 hardy kinds are too deeply covered, or are not satisfied with 

 their compost, they are apt to make very little progress. They 

 also seem to resent shading and drip from other plants. The 

 Nelumbiums seem especially particular in their requirements 

 as to proper planting. If they are under proper conditions, few 

 plants make more rapid and satisfactory growth, yet slightly 

 different ones will cause them to halt. Of my two clumps of 

 these, both planted on the same day in the same apparent mix- 

 ture of soil, one has numerous large leaves and several buds, 

 while the other is only now putting out a few small floating 

 leaves. They are in different tanks, but have the same ex- 

 posure, except that the slow ones are slightly shaded and re- 

 ceive a drip from an Eulalia. As in other garden-plants, ap- 

 parently very slight conditions make the ditTerence between 



success and failure. <n. nr ^ j 



Elizabeth, N.J. J.N.Gerard. 



Armeria vulgaris. — A delightful margin to walks, beds 

 and borders is one formed of the common Thrift. It is 

 a very hardy plant, the growth even, of a refreshing green 

 color, and preserving its charming character the whole season, 

 but, in addition, during the month of June there is a wealth of 

 flowers that make an even surface of rich rose, distinct, decided, 

 and beautiful. The effect of the Thrift thus used is to;al ter for the 

 good the whole complexion of the garden. Its hard lines are 

 toned down, and in the month that we long for flowers they 

 are supplied in plenty. Edgings formed of this sea-shore 

 Armeria last in full beauty about four years, but after that period 

 it is wise to lift the plants, divide, and make a fresh planting. 

 At first, the plants, which should be put in tufts a few inches 

 apart, have not a very agreeable appearance, but they soon 

 fill their allotted space, and then we have a soft cushion of 

 growth, pleasant to the eye. Soft stone, with various pretty 

 creeping plants allowed to run over them, is excellent for an 

 edging, and for the sake of variety one may use the dwarf 

 Phloxes and such things as the Gentianella, very beautiful 

 where it can be induced to grow and flower with freedom. 



England. ^- ^' 



Correspondence. 



Roan Mountain — A Summer Resort. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — To some of your readers Roan Mountain is perhaps 

 still unknown, although the summit, which is within thirty 

 hours' ride of New York, is one of the most beautiful spots 

 in America, and offers opportunities to lovers of nature which 

 no other place of easy access to the people of our northern 

 cities equals. Roan Mountain, which is one of the highest of 

 the Appalachian peaks, is situated eighty miles north-west of 

 Asheville, in North Carolina, the boundary between that state 

 and Tennessee crossing its summit. It can be reached from 

 this city by an agreeable and easy Journey. The quickest and 

 most picturesque route is by Philadelphia, Harrisburg and the 

 Cumberland and Shenandoah valleys ; in Pennsylvania and 

 Maryland the traveler passes through one of the best-tilled and 

 richest farming regions of the continent ; just before the Poto- 

 mac River is crossed, he passes over the battle-field of Antie- 

 tam ; in Virginia he can break his journey at Louray and ex- 

 plore the caves which have made this place famous. The 

 accommodations here are excellent. A second stop can be 

 made a few hours further south at the Natural Bridge, one of 

 the marvels of America, and unsurpassed as a single object, 

 independent of other features of striking beauty. Passing 

 from the valley of the Shenandoah, the route enters that of 



the upper James, a region of fertile fields, low, well-wooded 

 mountains and picturesque scenery. The cars are changed 

 at Johnson City, in east Tennessee, once notorious for the 

 badness of its hotel, but now a booming town with an electric 

 railway, brick blocks, a magnificent new hotel, and all the 

 push and go of the " new south." 



Here, the traveler leaving the East Tennessee, Virginia 

 and Georgia Railroad embarks on a narrow-gauge road built 

 to bring the iron ore from the famous Cranberry mines situ- 

 ated at the foot of the Roan. Its way for twenty miles is up 

 the broad valley of the Wautauga River, a tributary of the Hol- 

 ston, which flows out from the western slopes of the Blue 

 Ridge ; then it swings to the south and traverses Happy 

 Valley, whose fertile soil a hundred unmanured crops of 

 corn have not exhausted. This is the first valley in Tennessee 

 settled by whites ; here is still to be seen the remains of the 

 first block-house built to afford defense against the Indians ; 

 here is still standing the tree under which the first court was 

 held in Tennessee, and not very far away are the ruins 

 of the first iron furnace established west of the Allegha- 

 nies. Gradually the valley narrows and the road-bed is car- 

 ried along the borders of Doe River, a tumultuous moun- 

 tain stream, which heads high up on the flanks of the Roan. 

 In picturesqueness this part of the journey is not surpassed 

 by that of any other rail route in the country ; at one place, 

 the stream tumbles through a narrow gorge at the foot of 

 precipices hundreds of feet high ; at others, its rocky banks 

 are clothed with tall Hemlocks, shading vast thickets of the 

 great Bay (Rhododendron maximum), which grows here 

 with a luxuriance and splendor which astonishes the traveler 

 unfamiliar with the Appalachian forests. Here twenty years 

 ago he could have seen these forests in all their magnificence 

 and Nature's supreme effort in forest-production, tor in the 

 number of species of which they are composed, and in the size 

 and beauty of individual trees, these southern forests surpass 

 every other deciduous forest of the earth. But the magnifi- 

 cence of the forest of the Doe River valley is a thing of the 

 past ; twenty saw-mills and a dozen tanneries strung along 

 the line of the narrow-gauge railroad have done their work 

 effectually. First the Black Walnuts went, and then the 

 Cherries, for which this valley was famous. When these 

 were consumed, the lumbermen turned their attention to the 

 Yellow Poplar (Liriodendron Tulipifera) ; their work has been 

 done thoroughly ; stumps of this tree seven or eight feet across 

 are common enough, but the big trees are all gone. Now they 

 are cutting White Oaks, and the Hemlocks for tan bark. Large 

 Hemlocks, however, can still be found near the streams, and 

 on the first bench above the river stand as fine Chestnut-trees 

 as can be seen on the continent. 



At Roan Mountain Station the rail is left and the journey to 

 the summit of the mountain is made over an excellent road. 

 The distance is only twelve miles, the summit being easily 

 reached in four hours. The ascent is of peculiar interest to 

 the lover of trees, who will see a great variety and many noble 

 specimens. At the sheltered base of the mountains, Magno- 

 lias abound, and then the road winds upward gradually from 

 these and their relative, the Tulip-tree, through White Oaks 

 and Chestnuts, Lindens and Red Oaks, Buckeyes, Birches, 

 Sugar Maples and Hawthorns, until, as the upper limits of the 

 forest are reached, its conspicuous features are the Black 

 Spruce, the Balsam, the Striped Maple, the Mountain Maple, 

 the Beech, the Yellow Birch, and the Mountain Ash, that is to 

 say, the inhabitants of the sub-arctic forests of North America. 

 In this short drive, therefore, of twelve miles, are to be seen 

 trees which, at the sea-level, are scattered through more than 

 ten degrees of latitude. On the western slopes of the Big 

 Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, individual trees are, perhaps, 

 larger, and the number of species rather greater than in the 

 forests of the Roan, but in no place easily accessible to trav- 

 elers unaccustomed to rough mountain travel can the Appa- 

 lachian forests be seen so well as on this mountain. 



If the journey is made, as mine was, in the last days of 

 June, a wonderful sight awaits the traveler as he emerges 

 from the forest on to the long grassy summit for which Roan 

 Mountain is famous, for at this season the Mountain Rhodo- 

 dendron (R. Catawbiense) is in bloom. The summit is in the 

 form of a saddle several miles long, the extremities being 

 formed by two elevations of about equal height (nearly 6,800 

 feet) ; up to the edge of this open space the advance of the 

 forest is pushed in irregular outposts, sometimes in narrow 

 lines, and sometimes, where the shelter is better, in solid 

 blocks of a few acres in extent. Along the borders of the 

 forest, sometimes scattered individually, and often in broad 

 masses, covering hundreds of acres, the Rhododendron grows 

 mixed with bushy plants of the Mountain Alder (Alnus viridis). 



