March 7, 1SS8.] 



Garden and Forest. 



It is thus natural that when trees have to be planted, the 

 preference should be given to such as are likely to supply 

 this great need, and it is equally natural that the first 

 thought should turn toward the familiar Eastern forest trees 

 that serve these purposes so well. Thus the seeds of the 

 Hickories, and of the White and other Eastern Oaks, soon 

 found their way into private grounds and nurseries for 

 trial. It may be broadly said that the outcome of these 

 experiments (repeated since on the experimental grounds 

 of the University of California) has been eminently unsatis- 

 factory. The young trees not only refuse utterly to avail 

 themselves of the longer growing season for more rapid 

 development, but show a perverse disposition to branch 

 out low and form bushes without a definite trunk; and when 

 pruned up with a view to forming a single strong trunk, 

 will sometimes return to first principles by sending up 

 shoots from below. I doubt whether there exists at this 

 time in the State, a specimen of an Eastern Oak or Hickory 

 that would not have been better developed almost any- 

 where east of the Mississippi River, at the same age. 



Not all the deciduous forest trees of the Atlantic States, 

 however, behave in this wa)^ Thus the Cork Elm, the 

 Linden, several Maples, the White-wood (Liriodendron) 

 and some others, develop normally, and some of them 

 somewhat more rapidly than in their native clime. But 

 none of these can properly fill the gap left by the Oaks and 

 Hickories ; and hence, substitutes for these have been 

 sought in other climateC- notably in Australia, whose 

 rapid-growing Eucalypts :ind Acacias have already acquired 

 a wide distribution h) California. Oddly enough, some 

 trees from diametrically opposite climates seem also to 

 adapt themselves to that of California, and most promising 

 among these, at the present time, is the European or 

 "English" Oak {Q. Rnbur, var. pedunculala). 



E. W. Hih-ard 



"Growing Deciduous Forest Trees from Seeds. 



WE sow all of our tree seeds in Spring, and as the following 

 rules are based on our own e.xperience, they all apply to 

 spring sowing. 



White Ash seeds ripen in early October, and fall after the 

 tirst severe frost. They should be mixed with moist sand, 

 and not allowed to become dry before sowing. This same 

 treatment should be followed with all the native Ash family 

 with one e.xception, viz., the Green Ash, which hangs on 

 longer and will germinate if sown dry; all others will remain 

 dormant until the next season, if sown dry. 



Hard Maple seed ripen early in October, and require the 

 same treatment as the White Ash. 



Soft Maple seeds ripen in spring immediately before, or 

 about the time, that Apple trees begin to blossom. They 

 should be sown within a few days after gathering. 



Elm seeds ripen in spring, and they require the same treat- 

 ment as those of the Soft Maple. 



Black Walnuts, and all nuts with a pulpy covering, may be 

 spread in thin layers, say six inches deep, and covered with 

 sods and litter to prevent dying during the winter, in which 

 case the pulpy covering will be easily disposed of in sprinsj. 



Other I\'2its and Acorns, together with seeds of the Tulip 

 tree and Bassiuood, are safer treated as recommended for Ash 

 and Hard Maple seeds. 



Catalpa and Ailanthus seeds are Icept dry during winter 

 and sown rather late in spring. 



Birch and Alder seeds are kept dry, and sown dry early in 

 spring. 



Locust seeds and those of all that family are kept drj' 

 through winter and soaked in hot water immediately before 

 sowing. 



All seeds with a fleshy covering, such as Apple, Cherry, 

 Mountain Ash, Cucumber tree, Buffalo Berry, Red Cedar and 

 Holly, are washed free from the pulp, mixed with sand and 

 sown in spring. We make an exception generally with the Red 

 Cedar and the Holly, as they never germinate evenly in the 

 spring, therefore we bury them in a rot-heap during two 

 winters and one summer, and sow the following spring. 



Poplar and Willow seeds are very tine and delicate, and re 

 quire skill, close attention, and continual moisture during the 

 early part of the season. Therefore it is cheaper and surer to 

 raise them from cuttings than from seeds. 



All seeds mixed with sand must be placed so that water will 

 not stand around them. Frost will not injure them, unless in 

 a position where they will freeze dry. A cool shed where 

 they are protected from sun and wind, will be a proper place. 



Robert JDouglas. 



Answers to Correspondents. 



Cutting down Chestnut seedling trees from sixteen to twenty 

 inches in diameter, I find them rotten at the heart. What is 

 the cause, and how may I know when the decay Ijcgins ? 



Sharon, Conn. j- -L' D- 



The disease known as heart-rot, and under other names, 

 which produces a decay in the centre or heart of trees, mostly 

 older trees, is caused by various fungi, which attack the tree 

 either from the root or above ground. While the precise 

 progress of the disease is not yet fully understood, there seems 

 no doubt, that other cau.;es predispose the tree for the attack 

 of the fungus ; a dying or dead root, or the stump of a broken 

 branch give usually entrance to the mycelium of the fungus. 

 Unfortunately, neither the beginning nor the progress of the 

 deterioration, which is the consequence of the fungus growth, 

 is readily observed, since the tree, attacked only in the old, 

 inactive wood, shows no outward sign of interior disease in its 

 general appearance, and the fungus may do its destructive 

 work for years without fruiting, by which alone it makes its 

 existence apparent externally. Whenever a fungus (fruiting) 

 appears on the stem, especially on the scar or stump of a 

 broken branch, or near the foot of the tree, it is usually the 

 sign of a heart-rotten tree. This disease is often the conse- 

 cpience of injudicious pruning of older trees, and should induce 

 a more careful use of the pruning knife ; shallow soil with 

 hard-pan subsoil, especially it subject to overflow, is also con- 

 ducive to this disease and necessitates earlier utilization of the 

 timber to avoid loss. B. E. F. 



Recent Publications. 



Gleanings in Old Garden Literature, by W. Carew Hazlitt. 

 New York : George J. Coombes, 1887. Reprinted from the 

 English Edition. 



This book on Old English Gardens is a charming new 

 volume — one of that charming series called The Book Lover s 

 Library, which is issued in England, but also in New York, by 

 Mr. George J. Coombes. 



It is a small volume, written in a bright and unpedantic style, 

 yet the amount of curious information it contains is immense. 

 Early herbals and physic gardens, kitchen, window and cot- 

 tage gardens, and orchards are described, together with meth- 

 ods of bee-keeping and wine-keeping. The herbs and vege- 

 tables, the flowers'and trees which the Englishman of former 

 generations loved, are named. Bacon as a gardener has a 

 chapter to himself. The way in which Bacon and Shakespeare 

 spoke of the Strawberry forms the text for a delightful little es- 

 say. Elizabethan gardening, the French and Dutch schools, 

 Evelyn and his " Sylva," Walpole and the gardeners of the 

 eighteenth century — all these are successively discussed by the 

 aid of numberless citations from rare and cpiaint publications; 

 and, in short, nothing which relates to the craft of gardening 

 or the love of flower's and plants in the olden time has been 

 overlooked by this industrious yet lively author. The wide ex- 

 tent of his acquaintance with the by-paths of literature is 

 proved on every page, and a valluable bibliography of English 

 works on gardening published between 1603 and 1800 brings 

 his volume to a close. As an appendix he adds, moreover, 

 a reprint of Gibson's "Account of the Gardens in and round 

 London," which was written in 1691. 



It should be explained that Mr. Hazlitt's book contains small 

 reference to gardening as an art in the wider sense— to what 

 we call to-day Landscape Gardening. Individual plants and 

 the methods of cultivating them are his concern, and the old 

 books which would be most useful to the landscape gardener 

 have no place in his lists. But within its own field his book 

 seems complete, and it should find a place on the shelves of 

 every horticulturist who has a soul for the history and litera- 

 ture of his favorite recreation and an eye for a pretty volume. 



Flora Peoriana. The Vegetation in the Climate of Middle 

 ////^ow, by Frederick Brendel ; pp. 1-89; Peoria, 1887. 



We cannot do more than call attention to this interesting 

 paper, the result of thirty-five years' study of the vegetation of 

 a small area of about thirty-five square liiiles, by an excellent 

 botanist and observer of n.iture, who explains in his preface 

 that " it is intended to show how local floras should he treated 

 to be useful to phvtoseography ; how notice should he taken 

 of soil and climate to understand the vegetation of a certain 



