Mav ^o, iS 



'■] 



Garden and Forest. 



167 



vent it. Under these conditions the Norway Spruce is ready 

 to disarm criticism and challenge admiration. 



Again, the Austrian and Scotch Pines are lioth e.xcellent 

 trees for a first establishment of wind-ljreak in exposed situ- 

 ations, and any wholesale condemnation of them shows only 

 a lack of knowledge as to their best possibilities. On the other 

 hand, while the Douglas Fir appears in every way a most 

 promising tree for our Eastern climate, it is proving a little too 

 much on the part of "Strobus " when he calls attention to its 

 remarkably handsome record in England. If this record 

 proves anything it certainly goes to show that it is Ijetter 

 adapted to the English climate than to ours, as we very rarely 

 find the same tree doing equally well in England and New 

 England. 



In closing, let me state frankly that American trees are, for 

 general use, far more valuable than foreign ones, but we 

 should be very sorry to give up our acquaintance with many old 

 favorites from across the water, especially as we are just begin- 

 ning to find out exactly what their real value is likely to be to 

 us here in the future. ~ rr ,■ 1 



Boston, Mass. /• H. Bowdltch. 



[The Norway Spruce is unquestionably one of the 

 very best Conifers which can be used in the Northern 

 States to make a hedge. It grows rapidly, is very uniform 

 in color, as our correspondent points out, and bears the 

 shears well. The White Pine, too, makes an excellent 

 and very hardy hedge ; and with a little care in selec- 

 tion, plants of the White and of the Colorado Spruces could 

 be found of uniform color. The last has probably never 

 been tried as a hedge-plant. Its hardiness, rigidity, pleas- 

 ing color and pungent foliage seem to adapt it admira- 

 bly for this purpose. It would not be surprising if the 

 Douglas Fir should succeed equally well in England and 

 in New England, although it is perfectly true that the same 

 tree rarely does equally well in western Europe and eas- 

 tern North America. Few trees flourish under such widely 

 different climatic conditions as the Douglas P'ir. It grows 

 on the North-A\'est Coast in a mild climate, where the an- 

 nual rain-fall is between sixty and seventy inches, and on 

 the dry eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains of Col- 

 orado and New Mexico, where the cold is intense and the 

 rain-fall is often less than twenty inches. The plants 

 which grace the plantations of Great Britain are of 

 Oregon and Californian origin. Those which now pro- 

 mise so well in our North Atlantic States are all from seed 

 collected in Colorado. — Ed.I 



Recent Publications. 



Report upon tJic Forests of Honduras. By E, D. M. Hooper. 

 London, 1887. 



This is the last of a series of reports upon the forests of the 

 British possessions in Tropical America, including those 

 of Jamaica, of St. Vincent, of Grenada and Carriacou and of 

 St. Lucia, made by Mr. Hooper, a trained ofticer of the Indian 

 Forest Department detailed for this duty. 



British Honduras owes its existence as a Colony to the 

 value of its forests, and for two centuries the cutting and ex- 

 portation first of logwood and then of mahogany has practi- 

 cally been the only occupation and the sole source of reve- 

 nue of its people. The best logwood was used up years ago, 

 and it no longer pays to export it ; and the mahogany trade 

 does not appear to be in a very flourishing condition. The 

 large trees near the streams have been cut, and none remain 

 except in remote and often almost inaccessible parts of the 

 Colony. The government is now, however, fully roused to 

 the importance of protecting the mahogany in the forests and 

 has adopted stringent regulations controlling the cutting of 

 these trees upon the puljlic domain. Mr. Hooper recom- 

 mends the organization of a forest establishment and the ap- 

 pointment of forest inspectors to regulate the cutting of Ma- 

 hogany trees, the location of forest roads and the planting and 

 care of valuable timber and rubber trees ; and in view of the 

 importance of the tiniljer industry of tlie Colony his recom- 

 mendations certainly sliould be adopted. 



The forests of British Honduras, so far as their composition 

 is concerned, can be grouped in two distinct divisions — the 

 Pine forests of the coast and of the " Broken Ridges" of the 



interior and the low-land hard-wood forests which cover the 

 rest of the Colony. The tree which occupies almost ex- 

 clusively the dry gravelly soil of the broken ridges is the Pinus 

 Ciibensis, a species which finds the northern limits of its dis- 

 tribution in South Carolina, and is common on our Gulf Coast 

 east of the Mississippi. It is a very valuable timber tree ; and 

 it is not impossible that these Pine forests of Central America 

 may become a considerable factor in the luml>er supply of the 

 world. The most important of them occupies " the Pine 

 Ridge South of the Cayo stretching away south to an unknown 

 distance and westward into Guatemala. Its area cannot even 

 l)e guessed. And generally Pine forests may lie said to oc- 

 cupy such land in the Colony as is raised above the general 

 level of the country." Of the character of these Pine forests 

 Mr. Hooper says : " Except in the narrow valleys, the forest 

 of Pinus Cubensis may be considered a fine one. I counted 

 loi trees in a fairly average acre. The growth is tall and 

 straight, but it is slow, a cut tree showing 60 rings in a radius 

 of 6.6 inches at four feet from the ground, and at this point the 

 bark was i !4 inches thick. A tree of 15 inches in diameter 

 measured 75 feet in length to the branching and had a total 

 length of 114 feet, while a tree 10 inchesin diameter was 67 feet 

 in length." The timlier was found to be of excellent quality and 

 hardly inferior to that of our Southern Pine, which it much re- 

 sembles. The second division of the Honduras forests, that 

 covering the general level of the country where the soil is 

 deep and rich, is far more valualjle and extensive. It consists 

 of hard-wood trees. "This forest," says Mr. Hooper, " is diffi- 

 cult to descrilie." It is a majestic admixture of graceful trees 

 of towering height with an undergrowth of all sizes — from 

 small seedlings to large poles. The soil, which is of the 

 richest loam, is carpeted with a thick growth of small palms, 

 club-mosses and ferns, emerging from which is a small tree 

 growth formmg so thick an intermediate stage between the 

 ground and the summits of the majestic trees that the latter 

 can be recognized only from their bark displayed on a level 

 with the beholder. Over the smaller tnuiks are festooned 

 long garlands of Vanilla and other root Orchids, while para- 

 sites, with the most fragrant masses of flower, are clustered 

 on every branch, interspersed with clumps of Bronielias and 

 similar growths. The intermediate growth is composed in 

 great measure of the Cohune palm [Attalea) and from its 

 presence in quantity the type of forest takes its name. Its 

 distribution is affected by the near presence of running water, 

 for it often monopolizes the banks of rivers and is not so gen- 

 erally represented further away. It is found vegetating in 

 clumps, small and large together — trees having as yet no 

 stalk healthily growing associated with parent stems over 

 which are masses of thick woody creepers, and were it not 

 for the compactness of the growth giving material support, 

 numbers of trees would be brought down by the weight of 

 these climbers. The tree itself grows solidly even when in 

 the open, it seems but little affected f>y wind and in this re- 

 spect resembles Pine trees in being elastic. The tall tree 

 gi-owth which towers over the general forest includes Ma- 

 hogany, hitherto the most important tree in Honduras, its ex- 

 port having been at all times the staple trade of the Colony. 

 It is found in some less accessible parts in a state of natural 

 distribution — that is to say, trees of all sizes and age in proxi- 

 mity to one another. Linfortunately this is seldom seen in the 

 parts of the country which are within reach of the cutter. In 

 other places where it has been, it is found no longer, the 

 s|3ecies being cut out and even seedlings arc not present. 

 Finally, in parts we see the young Mahogany, which is as yet 

 in comparative infancy and has not pushed its head through 

 the canopy of the older untouched trees ; but shoukl the de- 

 mand for the undersized woo(.l continue it is certain that, with 

 the multiplicity of small mahogany merchants with little or 

 no capital, this will also disappear and the Coliune forest with- 

 in easy reach of streams will be without Mahogany. Apart 

 from its appearance on Cohune ridge, I would add that the 

 distriljution of this species is general except on Pine ridge 

 and the poorer broken ridges and Logwood swamps. Else- 

 where it is common, whether in hills or in valleys, on rocky 

 soils or deep loams." Mahogany is not the only valuable 

 timber which these forests contain. Mr. Hooper in an 

 appendix to his instructive report enumerates no less than 50 

 others of commercial importance, which when better known in 

 Europe will greatly increase the revenue of the Colony. The 

 fact that only 15 of these have been determined botanically 

 during all the years that Honduras has been occupied by 

 Europeans, shows the difficulty which attends the study of 

 trees in the high, dense forests of Tropicid America, and 

 the field for investigation these forests offer to the ambitious 

 and energetic botanical explorer. 



