436 



Garden and Forest. 



fNUMBER 238. 



Early in July our low Blaclcberries or Dewberries ripen, and 

 some of them cannot be surpassed anywhere. They are 

 large, juicy, sweet and of exquisite flavor. The common high 

 Blackberry is at home here, as it is everywhere. The fruit, 

 which ripens in August and September, is plentiful and of ex- 

 cellent quality. We also have the low Sand Blackberry (Rubus 

 cuneifolius). The fruit of this species is in perfection a little 

 earlier than that of the tall Blackberry. The berries are shin- 

 ing black, of good size, and of delicate flavor. This species 

 does not extend very far north. It is found only sparingly in 

 the southern part of New York and Pennsylvania, thence ex- 

 tending in sandy districts mostly along the sea-board to Florida. 

 We find, too, the running Swamp Blackberry. The fruit of 

 this species is small and sour, and by no means tempting to the 

 palate, but the vine is evergreen and very ornamental, espe- 

 cially in autumn and winter, when most of the leaves take on 

 their bronze and scarlet hues ; others, however, retaining their 

 shining green color throughout the winter season. 



Several kinds of Blueberries and Huckleberries grow in the 

 Pines. The earliest is Vaccinium vacillans, which is very plenti- 

 ful in the dry sandy barrens. It is a foot or two in height, and 

 ripens its fruit early in July. The tall Swamp Blueberry (V. 

 corymbosum), with its many varieties, is very abundant in the 

 swamps and damp places. The size and quality of the fruit 

 vary greatly. I have sometimes found the berries as large as 

 good-sized cherries on tall bushes in damp woods. These 

 large berries remind me of a fright I experienced some 

 years ago. A party of us were in the woods in Atlantic County, 

 not far from Egg Harbor River. I had wandered away from 

 the rest to a thicket of the largest huckleberries that I had 

 ever seen, nor have I since seen their equal. They were 

 growing on tall bushes far above my head. I was intent on 

 examining and testing the fruit, bending the bushes down and 

 breaking off the twigs here and there, with which to surprise 

 the rest of the party, when on looking up, not more than a 

 hundred yards distant, I saw distinctly a large black bear stand- 

 ing on his hind feet eating huckleberries like myself. Which 

 was the more astonished or frightened. Bruin or I, it would be 

 hard to tell. At all events, he came to his senses sooner than 

 I did, and dashed off through the thicket, making a crashing 

 noise as he went, leaving me almost paralyzed with fear. This 

 incident, occurring in one of the oldest states of the Union, in 

 the very heart of civilization, gives some idea of the extent of 

 the swamps and woodlands that still remain here. 



We have another class of Blueberries which differ some- 

 what from Vaccinium. They belong to the genus Gaylussacia, 

 and are distinguished from the other species by having ten 

 seeds which are quite large compared with the numerous 

 tiny ones of Vaccinium. One of these, G. dumosa, is a 

 half-creeping, dwarfish plant, sending up fruiting stems six to 

 eighteen inches in height. It has racemes of very pretty open 

 bell-shaped white flowers, often tinged with pink. The fruit 

 is shining black, of good size, but flat and insipid. The Dan- 

 gleberry (G. frondosa) is very abundant. The fruit is blue, 

 with a white bloom. It is sweet and is usually found in mar- 

 ket mixed with the Swamp Blueberry (Vaccinium). The 

 black Blueberry (G. resinosa) is also abundant. This is 

 more of a dwarf species than G. frondosa, and the fruit is black, 

 without bloom, and has a more delicious flavor than the 

 former. We sometimes find a form of this with handsome 

 white berries, one side with a pink tinge. The Cranberry is 

 . found in most of the bogs, and in some places is quite plentiful. 



The Chokeberry (Pyrus arbutifolia) is everywhere in damp 

 places. The fruit is red, sometimes bluish; it ripens in 

 August, hut is not very good. The Beach-plum is also found 

 here. The fruit, though it varies greatly both in size and 

 quality, is better than the Chokeberry. Some of the plums are 

 scarcely worth the gathering, while others are large and luscious, 

 and most tempting to the thirsty passer-by. The bushes 

 never attain the size of even a small tree. The Wild Cherry 

 assumes such fine proportions as to make a handsome orna- 

 mental tree, and its fruit, while not to be despised by human 

 mortals, is a constant source of temptation to the birds. I 

 have planted several Cherry-trees and some of White Mul- 

 berry for the sole use of my feathered friends. 



Wild Grapes are numerous, and the Summer Grape (Vitis 

 aestivalis) makes excellent jelly and wine. The Frost Grape 

 (V. cordifolia) is quite palatable after frost. The Persimmon 

 forms thickets in many places. The fruit usually ripens after 

 frost, though I have occasionally found trees with fully ripened 

 fruit before frost. When ripe it is orange-yellow, soft and 

 sweet, and relished by many. 



Crab-apples of poor quality we find scattered about. If we 

 liad nothing better they could be utilized in making jellies and 

 preserves. The Prickly Pear grows in the dry Pines. The 



fruit is edible, and will make nice-looking jelly. The barbed 

 prickles with which tlie plant is armed are annoying to one who 

 gathers the fruit, and I cannot recommend it in the face of so 

 many small fruits which are greatly superior for household 

 purposes. The aromatic Wintergreen is everywhere in the 

 damp Pines, and in the autumn it gives emi)loyment to many 

 poor people, especially Italians, who gather the fruit for market. 

 Vineland, N.J. Majy Treat. 



Native Shrubs of California. — VII. 



ONE of the delightful unfading pictures in our memory of 

 eastern woods in their June glory is that of the shrub or 

 small tree known as Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida). A 

 full-grown specimen, with its widespread and stratified 

 branches, each ultimate twig bearing a large white cruciform 

 involucre which commonly passes for a corolla, is an object 

 of striking beauty in the forest-glades where it occurs. C. 

 florida was one of the earliest of American shrubs to find 

 a place in the parks and shrubberies of Europe ; several varie- 

 ties, one with red floral bracts, and another with drooping 

 branches, are now generally offered by nurserymen at home 

 and abroad. 



We have in California a second species of Flowering Dog- 

 wood, C. Nuttallii, Audubon [Birds, 467). This is superior to 

 the eastern species, at least in point of size and speciousness. 

 Though commonly enough a shrub of fifteen or twenty feet 

 in height, C. Nuttallii is sometimes a tree of fifty or sixty 

 feet ; its white floral bracts, not rarely two or three inches long, 

 are in sixes, not fours, and the whorl, or "flower," is therefore 

 five or six inches broad, and circular rather than cruciform. 

 The oldest trees do not, to my knowledge, present that strati- 

 fied arrangement of branches, as I have called it, which marks 

 the eastern species ; but at all stages of development its head 

 is more compact and massive ; moreover, the flowers are 

 not borne in the same profusion as in the older eastern 

 trees. C. Nuttallii is, nevertheless, really one of the beauties 

 of the forest in several sections of California and Oregon. 

 Late in April of the current year, while passing along the ele- 

 vated mountain-road between Knight's Valley and Lakeport, 

 near the summit of a ridge leading up to Mount St. Helena, 

 on rounding an abrupt bend in the road which brought me at 

 once from the dry southward to the cool moist northward 

 slope, I was brought to a sudden halt, struck with wondering 

 admiration as I saw before me a half-dozen fine young trees of 

 this species in full bloom. And, as if to intensify the happy 

 impression of an old-time woodland scene in New England, I 

 found, as I came near the trees, the ground beneath them 

 half-covered with the ample spotted foliage of one of our west- 

 ern Erythroniums, E. giganteum, a plant as much larger than 

 the eastern Dogtooth Violet as the western Dogwood is larger 

 than the New England tree, the flower-stalk supporting from 

 three to six pale yellowish or almost white blossoms. 



This Dogwood is said to have been formerly indigenous to 

 the San Francisco peninsula. If this is true, no specimens 

 have been allowed to remain, though few of our native shrubs 

 could be more worthy of preservation for ornamental pur- 

 poses. A group of these planted in our Golden Gate Park, or 

 a single one of them in any private shrubbery, would elicit 

 praise from all admirers of beautiful trees if seen in flower, 

 while even the fruit, a close globose cluster of scarlet berries, 

 coming on late in summer, is singularly attractive. 



The brilliancy of Poppies has been appreciated in many 

 parts of the world from immemorial ages ; and not until after 

 the discovery of California were any shrubby genera of this 

 family known. Romneya, with its fine sea-green foliage and 

 enormous white flowers, is now familiarly known and much 

 admired both at home and abroad. I lilce quite as well our 

 other shrub Poppy, the Dendromecon. This has not yet been 

 added to the list of cultivated shrubs in even our own country, 

 though its merits were recognized in Europe as soon as the 

 first pressed specimens for the herbarium had been seen 

 there. The flowers of this are yellow, and resemble those of 

 the Eschscholtzia, but the foliage is entirely different, being 

 narrow and willow-like, and clothing all parts of the bush up 

 to the base of the slender flower-stalks. 



One of the prettiest contrasts, in a floral way, which the 

 Coast-range landscapes afford, is seen where, as on Mount 

 Tamalpais, long stretches of bushy slope exhibit a commin- 

 gling of the intense blue of a small Ceanothus and the rich 

 yellow of the Dendromecon. 



All our native shrubs, in so far as they have been made the 

 subjects of such experiment, respond quickly to the cultiva- 

 tor's efforts, in an increased luxuriance of foliage and greater 

 profusion of bloom, and I am confident that any one who 



