October 26, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



505 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1892. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : — Trees in October 505 



"Jericho Roses " 506 



The Weepiiif; Spruce 506 



Notes of a Summer Journey in Europe. — XVI y. G. Jack, 506 



The Mountain Floi^a of Alabama Dr. Charles Alohr. 507 



Plant Notes : — Aristolochia Sipho. (With figure.) 509 



Yun-nan Rhododendrons 510 



New or Littlk-known Plants : — Cypripedium Warnero-superbiens. {With 



figure.) 510 



New Orchids R. A.Rol/c. 510 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter IV, Watson, 510 



Cultural Department : — A Few Neglected Gi"apes E, P. Powell. 512 



The Vegetable-garden Professor IV. F. Massey. 512 



The Crown- bud of Chrysanthemums T. D. H. 513 



Begonia gracilis y. N. Gerard. 513 



The Ornamental Value of Sedges Professor L. H. Bailey. 514 



Correspondence: — Some Remarkable Plants in San Diego.. ZPr. E. F. Franceschi. 514 



Apples Exempt from Scab George J. Kellogj^. 514 



Why do Fruits Drop Prematurely ? Professor S. A. Beach, 514 



Warm Water for Tender Nymphseas W. IK Lee. 515 



A Unique Chrysanthemum Show .Clara S Brown, 515 



Periodical Literature 515 



Notes 516 



Illustrations ; — Aristolochia Sipho on the house of Mr. S. B. Parsons, Flushing, 



Long Island, Fig. 86 509 



Cypripedium Warnero-superbiens, Fig. 87 511 



Trees in October. 



THIS year the beauty of the autumn landscape has 

 been enhanced by the delaying of severe frosts and 

 by a succession of windless days, which gives the final 

 touch of perfection, like the bloom on a fruit, to the rich 

 color which enwraps the woodlands. Though chilly nights 

 have done their work, the days of early October were re- 

 plete with sunshine and the temperature has been perfect, 

 as if nature wished to aid the rejoicings of the Columbian 

 year, and to that end had hung out her banners in more 

 dazzling splendor than ever. Perhaps the dryness of the 

 season has prevented the best development of the leaves, 

 and in some cases marred their beauty. The absence of 

 high winds, however, has kept the trees in foliage beyond 

 the usual time, and made the outdoor enjoyment of them 

 continually possible. To the tramping myriads in New 

 York these days have been a priceless boon, as well as to 

 the throngs of spectators who watched for hours the great 

 processions on the natal day of the New World. 



If a June day in New England is perfection, as the poet 

 sings, that "rareness" is rivaled by these October days 

 when earth and sky and air are once more attuned to 

 perfect harmony, and the funeral pyre of the dying summer 

 is robed with purple gold and flames with crimson and 

 yellow fire. The variations of tint in even a small group 

 of trees are wonderful. The scarlet of the Swamp Maple 

 is relieved against the claret and bronze of the Ash ; the 

 bright chrome of the Beech melts into orange shading into 

 red of the Rock Maple ; the Oak, with its amber-bronze 

 flushed with crimson, forins the deepest tone in this scale 

 of color which is here and there relieved by the green of 

 some slowly fading deciduous tree or the rich dark foliage 

 of the Pines and Hemlocks. Upon the hills the Chestnuts 

 turn to amber, the Scotch Larches hold aloft their tasseled 

 branches of tawny gold, so that the frost-touched Hickories, 



shriveled and brown, look dull beside them, while the dark 

 blue Cedars stand up stiff and tall unchanged as yet by the 

 cold. 



Physiological botanists tell us that the kindling color in 

 autumn leaves is due to the breaking up of the chlorophyll 

 pigments into xanthophyll and erythrophyll, but if the man 

 of science pursues the subject much beyond the giving 

 of names to substances of whose composition he knows 

 little, he soon reaches the absolute limit of his knowledge 

 in this direction. We know that in our New England 

 states these colors are much more brilliant than they are on 

 the other side of the Atlantic, and our trees when trans- 

 planted to the gardens of Europe lose much of their autumn 

 glory. It is supposed that our less humid climate in some 

 measure accounts for the difference, and we know that the 

 autumn coloring of the woods in a cool moist season, when 

 lusty growth continues until freezing weather, is not so 

 rich as it is in those years when the autumn air is drier 

 and the sunshine brighter. Frost may hurry or modify 

 this process of changing color, but it is not essential, cer- 

 tainly, because leaves often turn long before the frost ap- 

 pears. Thoreau says that color stands for all ripeness and ■ 

 that leaves before they fall acquire these bright tints just 

 as fruits do when they mature. This is poetical analogy, 

 however, and not science, for it is found that the changes 

 in these two cases are caused by entirely different pro- 

 cesses in the subtle chemistry of life. 



But, whatever the causes of this marvelous change or 

 however its processes are carried on, no one can look un- 

 moved upon the splendid pageant. Our eyes never become 

 weary of it, and every year it is witnessed with renewed 

 wonder and delight. Individual trees and small groups of 

 trees are strikingl)^ beautiful in their way, but they cannot 

 compare in magnificence with a great stretch of forest when 

 it can be seen from above or when it sweeps up some 

 broad mountain slope. Perhaps this is an insignificant 

 point to be considered by those who wish to preserve our 

 forests, and yet, if our woodlands are swept away in great 

 breadths, the country would be robbed of a distinct feature of 

 its autumn attractiveness. We should think lightly of Venice 

 if she were ready to give over to the destroyer her acres of 

 canvas rich with color and splendid in design. Certainly 

 that man lacks patriotic pride who can see unmoved the 

 destruction of miles of forest which every autumn paints 

 in colors which would drive Titian and Veronese to despair 

 if they should ever attempt to emulate them with brush 

 and palette. 



We have heretofore noticed the fact that individual trees 

 of the same species often show marked differences in their 

 autumn coloring. Close observation shows that these 

 characters are persistent — that is, if the leaves of a certain 

 Oak are more brilliant than those of any of its associates 

 this }rear, they will continue so year after year. The gen- 

 eral display may vary with the season, and, as a whole, it 

 may be more or less brilliant, but these individuals always 

 stand distinctly out from the others in effects of color. It 

 is also true that sometimes the leaves on a single Maple- 

 branch will turn scarlet, while the remainder of the tree is 

 green, and it will do the same thing ne.xt year, and the 

 ne.x't. Gardeners have perpetuated peculiarities of this 

 sort with trees of abnormal color like the Purple Beech, or 

 unusual habit of growth, like the Pyramidal Oak. Is it not 

 a promising field of experiment to select certain trees with 

 reference to the quality of their autumnal tints and secure 

 a race of Maples or Oaks or Elms of unusual brilliancy .'' 

 It might be found that the stock on which these cions were 

 grafted would influence their coloring. It might be dis- 

 covered that the peculiar brilliancy of individual trees is due 

 to some chemical quality of the soil in which their roots 

 feed. These certainly are matters which ought not to be 

 left to conjecture. In the interest both of science and of 

 art, the subject is worth investigation by our experiment 

 stations, and there may be enterprising nurserymen who 

 are willing to put the matter to practical test as a business 

 venture. 



