526 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 245. 



is a thousand pities we Americans liave to wait until our wild 

 tiowei's are gone before we awake to tlieir value. 



July and August were hot, dry months in the south-west. A 

 trip through the valleys at this time showed that the display of 

 wild flowers was greater than the average display of cultivated 

 llowers in village and country door-yards. There the early 

 annuals had been burned up by the heat, and the autumn 

 flowers were not yet in bloom. Not so the field and wood. 

 The dry and rocky hillsides were dotted with white Euphorbia 

 coroUatas, rose-purple Echinaceas and the great purple- 

 throated blooms of Ipomcea pandurata. The fence corners 

 were fringed with scarlet Silene Virginica and magenta-col- 

 ored Callirrhoes, while the meadows were seas of gold and 

 white and pink, where the Coreopsis, Sabbatias and Iirigerons 

 nodded their countless blossoms in the summer breeze. 

 Mother Nature's garden is always full, in spite of drought, be- 

 cause of her abundant supply of deep-rooted perennials and 

 heat-loving, drought-enduring plants. There is a lesson in this 

 for each of us, if we would but take it. 



Another lesson we might learn with profit from a midsum- 

 mer outing is the great value of fine-fruited plants. We used 

 to think plants were only worth growing for flowers ; then we 

 learned to appreciate fine foliage as well ; now we need to 

 learn that few things are more attractive in midsummer, 

 autumn and winter than plants and shrubs with beautiful 

 fruit. How full the woods are of pretty things in that line ! 

 There are hundreds of dusky crimson spikes of Rhus glabra 

 o-leaming in the sun like jeweled passementerie, acres of the 

 Symphoricarpus or Indian Currant, with their coral-like sprays 

 of tinv red berries; there are bead-like fruits on the Black 

 Alderi the Spicewood and Cornus, long strings of sinning black 

 berries on the Pokeweed and huge umbels of purple-black 

 Elder-berries. To these we may add the homely fragrance and 

 the dainty green of the wild Hop, the curious clusters of the 

 Bladder-nut and the equally curious pale brown, warty clusters 

 of Buckeyes. Nature has something for every season. 



Pineville, Mo. Lora S. La Maiice. 



The Sierra Nevada Forests. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — An association styled "The Sierra Club" has recently 

 been incorporated at San Francisco " to explore and render 

 accessible the mountain regions of the Pacific coast ; to pub- 

 lish authenfic information concerning them ; to enlist the 

 support and co-operation of the people and the Government in 

 preserving the forests and other natural features of the Sierra 

 Nevada Mountains." Among the incorporators are many of 

 the leading citizens of the country. The University of Cali- 

 fornia and the Leland Stanford, Jr., University are represented 

 upon the Board of Directors. 



The beautiful forest-growth of California, its gigantic Red- 

 woods, its magnificent Douglas Spruce, its glorious Pines (P. 

 Lambertiana and P.ponderosa)are noted the world over. Hid- 

 den among these great trees, in shady recesses, are the sources 

 of many living springs, which supply water to the plains below, 

 thirsting for irrigation, and carry wealth, beauty and prosperity 

 wherever they flow. Whileit is true that the snow-capped peaks 

 of the Sierras furnish an ever-living water-supply to the rivers 

 of California, still the forests, with their soft loam and deep- 

 cut canons, are in turn natural cache-basins, retaining the 

 supply of moisture and gradually measuring it out to the sur- 

 rounding country as regularly and as automatically as the flood- 

 gates of a reservoir. If the forests are destroyed the water will 

 rush down the rocky cafions and bare mountain-slopes with- 

 out restraint, as is now the case in all the mountain torrents 

 above the timber-line. 



In the timber-regions no care is taken to prevent fires which 

 every year destroy leagues of forest which a century cannot 

 restore. Again ; after the tree is felled by the lumbermen 

 only one or two of the end or butt logs reach the mill, and the 

 remainder are left to rot or to furnish material for a conflagra- 

 tion when the first careless mill-hand or sheep-herder passes 

 by and builds his camp-fire.* 



The State Board of Forestry of California recommends the 

 withdrawal of the remaining unsold timber-lands and advo- 

 cates laws to regulate the amount cut each year by the timber- 

 men in order to prevent this wholesale destruction. The men 

 who have formed the Sierra Club will aim to bring these mat- 

 ters to the attention of the people of California and create a 

 public sentiment strong enough to be recognized by Congress, 



* Mr. Hubert Vischer, C. E., in First Biennial Report Cal. State Board of For- 

 estry (Appendix "A"), states that only seventy-three per cent, of logs cut are 

 actually sawed. 



ST that prompt and efficient means 'may soon be used to pre- 

 serve these natural parks. 



These men are lovers of nature, but it is not sentiment nor 

 a desire to interfere with a legitimate business of timber-cut- 

 ting that influences them in this work. It is rather a convic- 

 tion that the future agricultural development of the Pacific 

 coast is at stake, and can only be secured by adopting some 

 efficient means for preserving portions of the coniferous for- 

 ests, which are the natural reservoirs of the Sierra Nevadas. 

 San Francisco, Cal. Mark B. Kerr. 



Fungus Troubles in the Orchard. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The Apple-leaf blight has been serious in Kansas this 

 year, if we may judge from the following extracts from a letter 

 written by a leading pomologist in that state. These statements 

 are interesting in connection with the current discussions upon 

 the Apple-scab : 



"I am satisfied that the almost total failure of our apple- 

 crop is due to the same cause as the failure in western New 

 York two years ago — an extremely low temperature and ex- 

 cessive humidity prevailed before, during and after the blos- 

 soming-period, which augmented fungus growth. The leaf- 

 growth was deformed, contracted and weakly, and the small 

 apples, not larger than a small-sized marble, showed the 

 presence of the fungus in a remarkable prevalence, as it 

 caused about all the fruit to drop oflT, and the few which held 

 on were so scabbed and distorted as to be hardly recognizable 

 as apples, and soon after dropped also. Later on, the leaves 

 showed the rust-colored spots, while the first growth curled 

 up, and many dried up and died. The injury in old bearing 

 orchards was quite noticeable in the later growth, which ap- 

 peared stunted ; at least, thedevelopment was not freely made, 

 and below the standard of healthful trees. 



"The present year is the first in the history of the country 

 which has developed these conditions, and our people were 

 unprepared to protect the orchards because not expecting such 

 an attack. The same cause developed the Raspberry-rust to 

 an alarming extent, and in some plantations the canes mid- 

 way are as denuded of foliage as in vi'inter-time. This, it 

 seems to me, must weaken them and render them susceptible 

 of injury by the winter's cold, and therefore materially lessen 

 the next year's crop." 



Cornell University. L. H. Bailey. 



A Good Hybrid Anthurium. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Anthurium Greyanum is one of the finest of the Andre- 

 anum section, and is a hybrid between that species and A. 

 ornatum. The foliage is intermediate between the two, having 

 the compact habit of A. ornatum and the bright foliage and 

 free habit of A. Andreanum. The flower rises well above the 

 foliage and is very attractive ; the spadix, red-brown, two and 

 a half inches long ; spathe open, cordate-ovate, pure white, 

 two inches across and three inches long. The name was 

 given in compliment to William Grey, of Albany, New York, 

 by whom it was raised. 



Orange, N. J. R- M. G. 



ChrysanthemuiTis at Short Hills, New Jersey. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Messrs. Pitcher & Manda seem to win a fair share of 

 the prizes in the various Chrysanthemum shows each year. It 

 is doubtful, however, if their greatest prize is not the reputa- 

 tion gained each season in their nursery. As is well known, 

 they invite their friends several times each year to special ex- 

 hibitions of plants and flowers. As the years go by these invi- 

 tations seem to be accepted in increasing numbers, as visitors 

 have found there a constantly enlarging and well-kept collec- 

 tion of fine plants. It is perfectly true that not even at the 

 largest and best-furnished public horticultural show can a vis- 

 itor see a tithe of the plants always on exhibition under these 

 acres of glass. Then, again, there are people who enjoy 

 flowers free from the blare of trumpets and the glamour of 

 electric-lights. This week, as is their annual custom, the 

 United States Nurseries opened the Chrysanthemum season 

 with a private exhibition, at which were shown all the flowers 

 which, later on, will be entered in the numerous exhibitions 

 in all sections of the country. The Chrysanthemum-plants 

 filled four of the largest houses of the hill-ranges. Each of 

 these houses is some 250 feet long by sixteen feet wide, from 

 which one familiar with the ample flowering habit of the plant 



