58 



Garden and Forest. 



[March 28, 



to collect one quart of which an entire day is required, renders 

 it a luxury, and to obtain more than a small quantity is difficult. 



The comestible qualities of these berries are well known, 

 and are referred to by Purvancher, " Baies d'un l.)lanc pur k la 

 maturity, trfes sucrees, comestibles," 



The same author further remarks that " Les feuilles et les 

 fruits ont une savein- analogue k la Gaultheria ou a Tecorce 

 du Bouleau-Merissier. On en fait des infusions d'un goiit 

 fort agrealjle, dont on use en guise de th^ dans certains endroits 

 de nosCampagnes."* It is also of interest to note that the local 

 name of this plant, i. e., in Newfoundland, is Capillaire. 



The use of the berries of Chiogenes as a source of jelly, 

 suggests that the fruit of its near relative, Gaultheria, Avhich is 

 certainly more aliundant, might be utilized in a similar manner 

 with equally good results. 



McGill University, Monti-i-al, March 17(11, 1888. /). P_ PeilhixlloW. 



Correspondence. 



" Landscape Gardening — A Definition." 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest; 



Sir. — The thoughtful article under the above caption in the 

 lirst nuniber of Garden and Forest is needed to correct a 

 current misconception concerning the sphere of the landscape 

 gardener. Mere ingenious design, skillful arrangements of bed- 

 ding plants and conspicuous eccentricities, are frequently mis- 

 taken for landscapie g.-irdening. JVIany self-styled landscape 

 gardeners are responsilile for this absurd error. They hide and 

 destroy the very art which they profess to cultivate. Flower 

 beds, fountains, and other objects which should be mere 

 accessories, are made the leading features in many parks. To 

 these objects the people point as examples of landscape gar- 

 dening ! With the same reason one might call a handsome 

 dormer-window a complete example of architecture ! 



As Fine Art is a conception of the mind, it follows that, in 

 order to render it material, tangible, we must employ some me- 

 chanical or industrial art. The architect depends upon the car- 

 penter and mason for the labor of construction. So landscape 

 gardening, the Fine Art, depends upon the industrial art which 

 shapes the ground, plants the trees, makes the walks and 

 drives. This industrial art is no doubt a legitimate branch of 

 horticulture. It is the sphere of the artisan. To call this 

 artisan an artist, a landscape garde'ner, is like calling the amanu- 

 ensis who writes the conceptions of Longfellow a poet. In 

 my own teaching I have given this industrial art the name 

 Landscape Horticidture,. for such it is. Nearly all our pro- 

 fessed treatises upon landscape gardening do little more than 

 designate the most important rules and operations of land- 

 scape horticulture. This is the case larg'ely of necessitv, for it 

 is a difficult matter to give adequate instruction in a Fine Art. 

 It does not deal in formulas. But horticulture allows of closer 

 rules, and for convenience of treatment I divide it into four 

 broad divisions : Pomology, Olericulture or Vegetable Gar- 

 dening, Floriculture, Landscape Horticulture. 



Michigan Agricultural College. i-. li. Btxtlcy , 



Fraxinella. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Now when garden-lovers are beginning to think about plants 

 for the coming season, and when so many new ones are being 

 brought to their notice through your columns, may I say a 

 word in behalf of an old flower which ought to be more often 

 seen ? 



Fraxinella {Diciamnus Fraxinella), a native of Southern 

 Europe and some parts of Asia, has been cultivated for fully 

 three centuries in England and was esteemed by our grand- 

 mothers with the best of those flowers which we call "old- 

 fashioned." To-day it seems almost forgotten. I have chanced 

 to see it only once — in a garden near Boston — and although I 

 have spoken of it to many persons, I have met none, except 

 the owners of this garden, to whom it was familiar. 



It Ijelongs to the Rue FaiTiiiy, and is a perennial herb with an 

 al most woody base and very graceful foliage — the pinnate leaves 

 with many serrate leaflets, like those of the Ash on a smaller 

 scale, having given rise to its common name. The flowers are 

 rather large and borne in a long terminal raceme in summer. In 

 one — the prettiest — variety, they are white; in the other, Gray, in 

 the "School and Field Book of Botany," describes them as "jiale 

 purple with reddish veins," but I should call them dull pink 

 with reddish veins. Their irregular shape — unique in tlie Rue 

 Family — their size and arrangement, suggest in some degree 

 the Lark-spur, but Fraxinella is more delicate and graceful. Its 

 chief distinction lies, however, in its odor. Gray calls this odor 

 * Flore Canadienne, 363. 



" strong and aromatic," and it is this and more — very strong, 

 very aromatic, very sweet, and quite unlike the scent of any 

 of our common garden-blossoms. There is a hint of vanilla 

 aliout it, and a certain richness and penetrating quality which 

 betray its southern origin. Yet, although rich, it is not heavy, 

 but as fresh as the smell of lavender. Fraxinella is also an ob- 

 ject of interest from the fact that the volatile oil generated by 

 its flowers is so strong that on warm, still, summer evenings a 

 lighted match held a foot above them will cause a flame to 

 Ijurst forth. 



Philip Miller, in his " Gardener's Dictionary," published in 

 1724, says of Fraxinella: "These plants continuing a long 

 time in Beauty, are very great Ornaments to a Garden ; and 

 their being very hardy, requiring but little Culture, renders 

 them worthy of a Place in every good Garden." Pequot. 



New London, Conn. 



\Dictamnus Fra.xinellao\\'^\\VLO\.\ohe. uncommon in Amer- 

 ican gardens. It deserves a place in every collection, however 

 select, of hardy herliaceous plants. It is easily propagated by 

 seed or division, and will flourish in any garden soil! — Ed.] 



The Forest. 



Forest Trees of the Far North-west. 

 "T^HESE notes refer to an area which includes the extreme 

 -'• western part of British Columbia, with adjacent portions 

 of the North-west Territory, as well as part of the "Coast strip" 

 or southern part of Alaska. The area is embraced inageneral 

 way by 56° 30' and 63^ north latitude, the i2Sth and 138th de- 

 grees of west longitude. Through this almost unknown por- 

 tion of the continent a geographical and geological reconnois- 

 sance was carried last summer by the writer, on behalf of the 

 Geological Survey of Canada. 



The region in question is drained by the Stikive and other 

 rivers which flow through the coast ranges to the Pacific, by 

 the Liard, a main tributary of the Mackenzie, and by several 

 branches of the Yukon. These large rivers form routes of tra- 

 vel through the country, hut the several drainage basins do 

 not constitute regions of diverse Floras. The great division 

 from this point of view, is found between the lumiid climate 

 of the coast and the relatively dry and extreme climate of the 

 interior ; the lirst constituting the continuation of the botanical 

 region of the British Columbian coast, the second that of the 

 interior of the same province. The considerable altitude of 

 the interior also has its influence on the vegetation. The 

 average "base level" or valley level of the interior is about 

 2,500 feet. DilTerence of latitude shows a comparatively small 

 effect, in conseriuence of the fact that the country as a whole 

 liccomes lower northward. The region may, generally speak- 

 ing, be described as mountainous, though there are as well 

 large tracts of low 'lands and the river valleys are generally 

 quite wide. 



The chief facts to be recorded with respect to the distribu- 

 tion of trees are those bearing on the northern limits of the 

 well known western forms, the number of species represented 

 so far north being quite restricted. In the interior region, 

 which may be treated as a whole, the Douglas Fir, Engelmann's 

 Spruce, the Hemlock (7>?/^'-<? Mertensiana) and the red Cedar 

 {Thuya gigantea),-i\\ comvViQW and chai'acteristic trees a few 

 degrees to the south, are nowhere found. The White and the 

 Black Spruce (Picea alba and P. nigra). Balsam Fir [Abies sub- 

 alpina), Aspen {Populus treinuloidcs)w\(\Q.oX\a\'\wooii. iPopulus 

 trichocarpa probably with P. balsainifera) occur in suitable lo- 

 calities over the whole region east of the Coast Mountains, the 

 two first-mentioned trees constituting probably half the entire 

 forest-covering of the country. 



The White Spruce, along the rivers and in low ground, forms 

 fine well grown groves in which many trees attain a diameter 

 of two feet, to the most northern point reached, and affords 

 timber of fair quality. It is found with Abies subalpina at the 

 upward limit of forest growth on the inland mountains, about 

 4,200 feet. The Black .Spruce has scarcely received mention 

 in previous notes on the distribution of trees in British Colum- 

 bia, but is now known to be abundant locally on high plateaus 

 about the region of the upper Fraser, and in the country here 

 described is common in swampy places and along shaded 

 river-banks with a northern exposure. It attains a considera- 

 ble height, but is never large enough to afford good lumber. 

 Abies subalpina was found wherever the upper limit of trees 

 on the mountains was approached, but was not observed near 

 the rivers, except on Bennett Lake, near the head of the Lewes, 

 in latitude 60', where it is \'ery abundant. The Aspen is es- 

 pecially characteristic of second-growth woods and dry open 

 grassy hillsides, of which there are many along the Pelly 

 and Lewes branches of the Yukon. The Cottonwood here 



