AlAY 



iS88.] 



Garden and Forest. 



119 



portion of the year. The Pepper tree makes no Htter of cast- 

 off leaves, entertains no insects on trunk, branch or leaf, and 

 its light foliage, being in constant motion, shakes off the least 

 particle of dust; while all its neighbors are thickly coated with 

 soil, its shining, sweeetly scented boughs are always glossy 

 g-reen. 



It grows readily from the seed, and sliapes itself perfectly 

 without the aid of the pruning hook. A'. A. 



[The so-called Pepper tree [Schhiiis Mol/e) is a beautiful 

 small tree, a native of Chili and some parts of Brazil, and is 

 related to our Sumachs. It is now very generally planted in 

 Australia, southern Europe and other warm, dry regions of the 

 world. — Ed.] 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — 1 learn from your journal that in the " Handbuch der 

 Coniferen Benennung," JVelling/oiiia is retained as a genus 

 for Sequoia. I once asked Professor Gray if, when he was in 

 England, he called Sequoia IVeUingtonia? "No," he replied, 

 very earnestly. " It is too bad that a name prompted by nar- 

 row national feeling should be allowed to supersede an older 

 botanical name." Is it too late to accomplish anything in this 

 matter by remonstrance ? 



Cambridge, Mass. KatheJ-lllC ParSOnS. 



[European botanists, of course, speak of our Big- Tree as 

 Sequoia, but the name Wellinglonia is now so universally 

 adopted and is clung to with such tenacit)^ especially in 

 Great Britain, by all nurserymen and other cultivators, that 

 nothing short of a miracle will ever cause it to be discarded 

 in favor of Sequoia. — Ed.] 



To the Editor of Garden and Fore.st : 



Sir. — Your pleasant note concerning the Dog-wood with 

 rose-colored flowers which Mark Catesliy had growing in his 

 Virginia garden a century and a half ago, reminds me of a tree 

 in "Bear Camp," which has red flowers. Let me add that I 

 have foundin what is known as BigGum Bottom, ii new station 

 for Rhododendron Vascyi. Hundreds of thousands of plants are 

 scattered over an area of at least a square mile. Tliey are of 

 all si/.esand are loaded with flower buds. F. E. Boynton. 



Macon Co., N. C. April lotli. 



Recent Pul^lications. 



Versailles et les Trianniis, par Paid Bos(i. Illustre. Paris, 

 Henri Laurens. {Bihliotlieque d' Histoire el d' Art.) 



French writers have a peculiar gift for picturesque and vivid 

 description, as well as for recounting the facts of history witli a 

 touch so light tliat the record reads like a romance. Versailles 

 and the life which there was led during the most brilliant epoch 

 in the annals of France, offered a congenial theme to a pen of 

 the truly Gallic sort. Monsieur Bosq has proved himself the 

 owner of such a pen, and, moreover, has gracefully interwoven 

 with his own words copious e.xtracts from famous writers of 

 earlier generations. The result is a book small in size and 

 sparkling in tone, which, nevertheless, contains a large amoimt 

 of information, and gives us a better idea of the former aspect 

 of Versailles and of the scenes which have passed there than 

 we could obtain by much laborious searching in a multitude 

 of more serious-seeming volumes. 



The readers of this Journal, it may be supposed, will take an 

 especial interest in the descriptions of the great park of Ver- 

 sailles — the most famous park of modern times — and of the 

 smaller ones which surround the Great and the Little Trianon. 

 These descriptions are, of course, untechnical, but they are 

 clearand mteresting, and take us liriefly through the history of 

 the great works of which they speak. One fact which will sur- 

 prise many readers is tliat the great parkin front of the palace 

 of Versailles was not the creation of Le Notre, with whose name 

 it is so inseparably connected, but was laid out by Lemercier 

 and planted by Boyceau during the reign of Louis XIII., and 

 merely enlarged and remodele'd by Le Is'otre when Louis XIV. 

 made Versailles his principal residence. The first task which 

 this monarch undertook was the remodeling of the park, and 

 from 1664 to 1669 he occupied himself with little else. It is 

 impossible here to repeat the account which M. Bosq gives of 

 the work accomplished in these years ; but one or two facts 

 may be cited to give an idea of its magnitude. Nothing was 

 left of the original design of the park except a few of the prin- 

 cipal lines. Its borders had lieen extended until an English 

 visitor Gould speak of it as a " province in itself." Ninetv-five 

 sculptors were employed to people it with statues. It had 



fourteen hundred jets of water distributed among many foun- 

 tains of immense size and lavish sculptured decoration. Trees 

 of the largest growth had been brought in incredible numVjers 

 from various parts of Europe. Thousands of Orange trees 

 stood in pots of costliest porcelain. The great Canal was 5,134 

 feet in length and 380 in breadth, and ended in a piece of 

 water 608 feet square. Groves, trellises, "green parlors," 

 labyrinths, and wide, formally outlined stretches of turf suc- 

 ceeded one another in bewildering variety and on the most 

 colossal scale. And when the great fountains played " the 

 whole world came to gaze." Nor when the park was finished 

 was the work upon it done, for it was continually altered, part 

 by part, until three almost entire reconstructions could be 

 counted during the lifetime of Louis XIV. Under Louis XV. 

 new and equally great changes were made, but during his 

 later years this king abandoned the great palace and park for 

 the Trianon ; under Louis XVI. it fell into deplorable neglect, 

 and the Revolution ruined it. Napoleon did much to restore 

 the park, however, and between the years 1S60 and 1881 it was 

 replanted, part by part. 



The palace called the Great Trianon was built, to please 

 Madame de Montespan, upon the site of a village of that name 

 which was razed to make room for it. Louis XIV. pulled it 

 flown and reconstructed it, and in his later years gave much 

 attention to its magnificent gardens and took especial pleasure- 

 in nocturnal promenades in gondolas on its canal. Louis XV., 

 taken with a sudden passing fancy for gardening, made it the 

 scene of many agricultural and horticultural experiments ; and 

 his gardener, Claude Richard, did real service to the world bv 

 lirst growing in the gardens of the Great Trianon many plants 

 which are now common all over Europe. It was he, says M. 

 Bosq, who first cultivated what the French call " plantes de la 

 terre de bruyere" and the English " American plants " — Azaleas, 

 Rhododendrons, Andromedas, and other peat-loving plants. 

 In 1759 Louis XV. added 'o his horticultural establishment a 

 botanical garden, and placed it under the charge of Bernard 

 de Jussieu, who pleased his master by asking nothing of him, 

 " not even re-imlmrsemeut for his outlays." 



With the Petit Trianon the name of Marie Antoinette is in- 

 separably connected ; and it is a name which will be long re- 

 membered by historians of the landscape gardener's art, for in 

 her time the first " English garden " in France was laid out in 

 this lovely spot. It is still one of the finest examples of this 

 school of gardening in Europe, and — a fact which M. Bosfjdoes 

 not note — it is of especial intei-est to American visitors. The 

 elder Michaux, one of the earliest systematic explorers of the 

 Flora of America, traveled under commission from Louis XVI., 

 and the plants he sent home as valuable novelties were culti- 

 vated in the " English garden" of the queen. Her gay existence 

 in this garden was soon cut short in blood and fire by the Revo- 

 lution, but many fine specimens of American trees sfill bear 

 witness to Michaux's energy and to the fact that the most pleas- 

 ure-loving monarchs may produce lasting beneficial results 

 while striving merely to gratify their own passing tastes and 

 fancies. 



Periodical Literature. 



THE Fcljruary number of Pclermann' s Mittlieilungeit con- 

 tains an interesting article by Dr. von Lendenfeld upon 

 "The Influence of Deforesting upon the Rainfall of Australia." 

 The author confesses that his iuvestisjations have not been 

 carried on long enough or over a wide enough area to warrant 

 him in claiming scientific x'alue for his conclusions. Yet he 

 seems to think himself justified in believing that opposite ef- 

 fects follow in Europe and in Australia upon the cutting off of 

 forests. In Europe the struggle for life between different 

 kinds of vegetation means a struggle for light ; in Australia it 

 means a struggle for moisture. The trees of Australia, having 

 adapted themselves to the exigencies of a dry climate, send 

 forth their roots very widely and deeply, and so wholly absorb 

 all the moisture which exists that no grass will grow beneath 

 them. Nor do they, like European trees, give back by evap- 

 oration a large part of what they take — as is conspicuously 

 shown in the case of the Eucalyptus, which perpetually turns 

 the edges of its leaves towards the sun and closes its pores 

 during the hottest part of the day. If, says Dr. von Lenden- 

 feld, the forests of central Europe were all destroyed, the an- 

 nual rainfall would be diminished by ono-cjuarter and vegeta- 

 tion in general would suffer proportionately. From this opin- 

 ion many scientific observers will dissent. But whether Dr. 

 von Lendenfeld is right or wrong in holding it, does not affect 

 his assertion with regard to Australia — the assertion that when 

 forests are cut there, the immediate effect is a rapid increase in 

 the minor forms of vegetation. The roots of the trees, re- 



