350 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 231. 



the habit which it assumes when it has grown in the open 

 ground and the development of the lower branches has not 

 been interfered with, and which is quite different from the 

 stately, long massive-stemmed habit it assumes in the 

 dense forests of southern Oregon. 



As a timber-tree Umbellularia is extremely valuable. No 

 other Pacific-coast tree produces such valuable timber for 

 the cabinet-makerand joiner. The wood is rich light brown, 

 heavy, hard, very strong, and close-grained, the satiny 

 surface, often marked by contorted and twisted grain, being 

 susceptible of receiving a beautiful polish. It has been 

 much used in California for furniture and the interior finish 

 of dwellings, and in Oregon for the cross-trees, cleats, bits 

 and jaws of ships and boats. 



It would be interesting to know if this tree, which was 

 transported many years ago into the gardens of Europe, 

 has succeeded in establishing itself anywhere beyond the 

 region of its home. It might be expected to flourish in 

 southern Europe, and to surpass the true Laurel there in 

 size and beauty ; in some parts of India and Australia, and 

 in southern Japan, we should expect also to find Umbellu- 

 laria growing into a stately and beautiful tree, although it 

 is in California, no doubt, that it is destined to play its 

 most important part as an ornamental and as a timber tree. 



A CRITICAL examination of several parts of the Central 

 Park in this city shows that the ten thousand trees which 

 the managers claim that they have removed during the 

 last three years are not missed, and that their removal has 

 left no unsightly gaps. Indeed, the park is still so over- 

 crowded with trees that it is difficult to realize that its 

 plantations have ever been thinned. The park, as a work 

 of art, is suffering because surplus trees are filling up the 

 open glades and recesses of turf along the drives, and are 

 gradually cutting off all the vistas which gave the land- 

 scape variety, mystery and interest. For this reason the 

 park is becoming, every year, more and more of a wood, 

 and less of a park, as it was originally designed. But 

 more important than the loss of design, which can always 

 be restored in a comparatively short time, is the danger of 

 ultimate ruin to all the trees in the park b}^ overcrowding. 

 In every direction short-li\'ed, misshapen, scrubby or half- 

 dead trees are using up the light and air and soil needed 

 for better specimens which would last for a century if they 

 were allowed the chance to grow. It is probably not an 

 exaggeration to say that the park and its plantations would 

 be immensely improved by the immediate removal of one- 

 half of the total number of trees now growing in it, and 

 that six mouths after they had been cut, not one person in 

 a hundred thousand visiting the park would miss them or 

 realize that the axe had been at work. 



For years the trees in the park have been neglected, and 

 they are now beginning to show the effects of this neglect. 

 They were not properly thinned when they should have been, 

 because the commissioners of that time declared that they 

 feared to face the popular outcry against cutting a tree. 

 But in these last years tlie people of this city have learned 

 a great deal about their park and its requirements ; they 

 realize its value now as they have never realized it before ; 

 they know more about trees and their needs than they did 

 a generation ago, and the commissioners may be sure that 

 they will be supported in any well-considered and care- 

 fully studied scheme for improving the park plantations. 

 They should not allow another winter to pass without be- 

 ginning a systematic thinning of the trees under their 

 charge, for now that they have become so large and over- 

 crowded, they suffer more serious injury in one year than 

 was possible in ten j^ears while they were still small. 



We have heard, from what seems to be a trustworthy 

 source, that the Yosemite Commission has just agreed to 

 pay a contractor $3,000 to "underbrush the valley." 

 Precisely what this phrase means we do not know, but in 

 view of what has happened when zealous choppers have 



turned themselves loose with axes in that beautiful spot, 

 the news is enough to excite apprehension. Every one 

 who has visited the Yosemite recognizes the singular charm 

 which the beautiful growth of shrubs and small trees gives 

 to it. The persons who were at one time in charge of the 

 valley certainly did not appreciate the value of this low 

 growth and its luxuriant foliage. It is just possible that 

 there is some one now in command who can be trusted 

 to spend money for the "improvement" of the ^'alley in 

 such a way that it will not add to the disfigurement which 

 the place has already suffered, but certainly this is a 

 matter which ought to be discussed and explained. This 

 valley belongs of right to the people of the United States. 

 Its unique beauty and grandeur should be theirs to enjoy, 

 and for their children to enjoy forever. It would be a dis- 

 grace to civilization, as well as an outrage upon the plain- 

 est justice, if any unskilled hand is allowed to be lifted up 

 against the trees and shrubs of the valley. What the 

 people have a right to demand in such cases is the widest 

 publicity. No one will question that for any alleged im- 

 provement of the Yosemite Valley there should be a fixed 

 plan, and that this plan should be published ; that no hap- 

 hazard work should be undertaken ; that not a tree should 

 be cut, and not a lane laid out without minute directions 

 and without every needed restriction and protection against 

 possible injury to the beauty of the place. 



Let the people know just what is going to be done in 

 the Yosemite Valley, why it is to be done, and who is 

 do it. • tn 



The forty-firat volume of Tlie Garden is dedicated to our 

 excellent correspondent, Max Leichtlin, of Baden-Baden. 

 In the dedicatory remarks we learn that he was born at 

 Carlsruhe, in Baden, on the 20th of October, 1831. When 

 fifteen 3'^ears old he became an apprenticed gardener, and 

 afterward held gardening situations at Frankfort, Bolweille 

 and Ghent. Some years of his life were then spent in trav- 

 eling, and in 1856 he returned to Europe from South 

 America ; then, after spending a few months in Dublin,, he 

 served for two years in Van Houtte's nursery, in Ghent, 

 which at that time was considered one of the best schools 

 of horticulture in Europe. Leaving Ghent he engaged in 

 the business of paper manufacturing with his two brothers, 

 and for sixteen years devoted himself exclusively to this 

 occupation. Then, having amassed a considerable fortune, 

 he retired to Baden-Baden and founded the private botani- 

 cal garden which has since made the name of ]\Iax Leichtlin 

 a household word wherever hardy plants are grown. No 

 man of our time has introduced so many first-rate hardy 

 plants into cultivation, and no one has been more success- 

 ful in cultivating and propagating them. Bulbous plants 

 especially have interested Max Leichtlin, and his collection 

 of Lilies at one time was the richest in existence. After- 

 ward he devoted himself to Irises, and has introduced many 

 interesting species. As a raiser and hybridizer he has 

 achieved great success with the Nerines and Aubrietias, 

 some of the best varieties of these handsome genera being 

 due to his patient skill and perseverance. It is to him that 

 gardens are indebted for Janksea Heldreichi, Ostrowskia 

 magnifica, the largest known Bellflower, Meconopsis acule- 

 ata, Tellima parviflora, and a host of other plants, includ- 

 ing many Lilies, Tulips, Alliums and Irises, especially of 

 the bulbous and Oncocyclus sections. IMax Leichtlin is as 

 generous as he is successful in gardening, and his greatest 

 happiness is found in sharing his treasures with his friends 

 and correspondents, who are always being placed under a 

 debt of gratitude to him, not always easy to repay in kind, 

 as no plant interests him unless it is new or extraordinarily 

 rare, or so difficult to cultivate that everybody else has 

 given it up as hopeless. 



The landscape, forever consoling and kind. 



Pours her wine and her oil on the smarts of the mind. 



— L<nueil. 



