June 13, 1S8S.] 



Garden and Forest. 



191 



This enormous difference in favor of the European 

 Oak seems partly, at least, due to its peculiar root 

 habit. A seedling a year old, appearing above ground 

 with a stem the size of a goose quill at the base and 

 six to eight inches high, will show a straight tap root 

 three to four feet long and one-third of an inch thick 

 near the crown. It thus quickly reaches a depth in the 

 soil where moisture is found during the whole of the rain- 

 less summers of California ; and hence, doubtless, its 

 vigorous growth during the entire long growing-season, 

 the leaves remaining active from after March to the end 

 cf October. The latest leaves, howe\'er, belong almost 

 entirely to the second growth, which pushes out very 

 vigorously toward the end of June, and frequently reaches 

 a length of four feet before the end of the season. 



But all this is very much changed when the tap root 

 has been seriously shortened, or destroyed in transplant- 

 ing. The European Oak then assumes the habit of 

 root, as well as of stem, e.xhibited here by the eastern 

 Oaks, and its growth becomes equally slow. Some two- 

 years'-old seedlings, transplanted from the nursery 

 to the brow of a dry hill above the University, show 

 this to perfection. The tap roots having, of necessity, 

 been badly mutilated, fibrous roots branch out from the 

 stump, but have thus far, in two years, been unable to 

 reach the moist depths of the very rich soil. They have 

 not only no second growth, but no tendency even to 

 form a definite trunk ; the branches tend to spread out 

 low, and between them, crops of suckers rise from 

 the base of the stem at the time when the standard trees 

 begin their second branch growth. These weakly shoots 

 form the next year's branches, while the larger ones 

 frequently die back. This curious habit, resulting in 

 the formation of low, scraggly bushes, instead of 

 stately trees, is just what is shown here by the Oaks of 

 the Mississippi Valley when left to themselves ; and the 

 unlooked for resistance of the European Oak to the 

 severe drought of the California summer, as well as its 

 surprisingly rapid de^-elopment, thus seems to find a sim- 

 ple explanation in the peculiar habit of its root to push 

 down into the moist soil the very first season. It would be 

 interesting to know whether in its native country, or 

 in the region of summer rains in the United States, it ex- 

 hibits a similar tendency. 



Thus, while this Oak promises excellent results as a 

 timber tree, not only for California, but, doubtless, a 

 /or/tori, for Oregon, its propagation evidently requires 

 considerable care. The acorns must either be planted 

 where the trees are to stand, or transplanting must be done 

 while the seedlings are quite young, and with great care 

 not to mutilate the tap root. Both acorns and seedlings 

 must be fully protected against animal depredations, 

 especially against the rodent family, and later, as saplings, 

 against ranging cattle and horses. 



But if, as may reasonably be hoped, these precautions 

 will insure to the Pacific coast a supply of hard-wood 

 timber that will do away with the heavy cost now in- 

 volved in the importation of this necessary material, the 

 labor will be amply repaid. It may be objected that vvath 

 such rapid growth, the timber may not possess the same 

 qualities as in its native climate. But when it is consid- 

 ered that the more rapid grov/th is accomplished in 

 a proportionately longer space of growing time, this ap- 

 prehension loses much of its force ; and it is not at all 

 probable that the English Oak, with a habit so widely 

 different from that of the native Oaks of California, should 

 produce a wood of a quality so inferior as theirs. 



University u£ California, Maj', 18SS. £■ W. Hilgard. 



Correspondence. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — Is tliere not some way of inducing the guardians of the 

 Central Park to remove the hundreds — indeed thousands — of 

 dying Norway Spruces which so seriously deface its beauty ? 

 There is scarcely a point of view in the whole park from which 



some of tiiese trees may not be seen in a very advanced stage 

 of hopeless decay and ugliness. Just at this season, when 

 everything else is clothing itself with fresh green, their mourn- 

 ful, miserable forms are especially distressing; but there is no 

 season when they are not eyesores in themselves and wit- 

 nesses to want of attention or want of judgment on the part of 

 the Park authorities. Of course the cutting of trees which are 

 sickly beyond hope of recuperation sometimes involves the 

 necessity of replanting, but with regard to most of these 

 Spruces this would not be the case. Let any one follow the 

 East Drive, for example, and note those which are the most 

 obtrusive in their decay. He will find, if he has any eye tor 

 the grouping of trees and the effect of landscape arrange- 

 ments, that in a great majority of cases their presence would 

 be undesirable even if their condition were better. Nature 

 seems by chance to have recognized this fact, for in one or 

 two places in the parlc where the presence of Spruces is really 

 desirable, they have flourished well. On the West Drive, for 

 example, near the well-known group of Weeping Beeches, 

 stand several Norways in fine condition, and admirably placed 

 as regards tlie general effect of the scene. 



I know, of course, that difficulties attend the cutting of trees 

 in public places. Fetish-worship, as directed to trees, seems 

 not yet to have become extinct in the minds of the ignorant ; 

 and whenever an axe is laid to a trunk in the Park there is 

 almost sure to be a letter in some daily paper from some cranky 

 lounger calling attention to the reckless injury to public prop- 

 erty which is being worked. By such persons a park seems to 

 be regarded simply as an expanse of ground in which to grow 

 trees- not an expanse in which they should be grown in the 

 right places and grown well. But the Norway Spruces of the 

 Central Park are now so far advanced in decay that even the 

 self-appointed apostle of ignorance in tree-preservation could 

 hardly raise his voice in their favor. And whether he should 

 protest or not, intelligent public opinion would certainly sus- 

 tain the Park authorities should they enter upon a campaign 

 of almost wholesale cutting. It would be a relief to intelligent 

 eyes to be rid of these distressing olijects, and an even greater 

 relief to note the increased cliance for development which 

 their removal would alTord to their healthy neighbors, and the 

 increased beauty of the wayside groups or little dells which 

 they are now crowding and deforming. 



New York, May ist. 



PJiilodcndron. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — In regard to the hardiness of the Spanish Chestnut, of 

 which you ask the experience of your readers, I would say 

 that it is somewhat tender here, but hardly more so than the 

 English Walnut. Both are tender when young, losing the ex- 

 treirie ends of their branches in winter. As they get stronger 

 year by year, this loss does not occur, and, in time, they be- 

 come large, fruitful trees. Of both the Spanish Chestnut and 

 the Eng-iish Walnut there are many very large trees about 

 Philadelphia, bearing fruit freely every season. 



Germantown. Jo.U'ph Meehail. 



Recent Publications. 



The Botanical ]]'orks of t/w late George Engeliiiann. Collected 

 furffenry Shaw, Esq., and edited by William Trelease and Asa 

 Gray. Pp. 548. Cambridge, 1887. 



Mr. Henry Shaw, of St. Louis, the founder of the Botanical 

 Garden of that city, which l:>ears his name, has certainly reared 

 a more appropriate memorial to his old friend and fellow- 

 townsman, in causing this volume to be made, than any statue 

 of bronze or of marble could have been. 



Dr. Engelmann's botanical writings cover a period of about 

 fifty years ; they relate chiefly to the plants of North America, 

 jjcnerally to the most difficult families and genera, tor which Dr. 

 Engelmann had a special predilection ; and often to plants of 

 the highest horticultural importance and interest, such as the 

 Oaks. Pines, Firs, Grapes, Agaves, Cactuses and Yuccas. In 

 these and in other families he was long the leading authority, 

 and his writings mustalways be referred to. They were widely 

 scattered through government reports, the proceedings of 

 learned societies, and the columns of periodicals, and quite in- 

 accessible to the general student, who will now welcome this 

 handsome and substantial addition to l>otanical literature. The 

 different papers are grouped by subjects under fourteen chap- 

 ters. 



No. 1. Contains Engelmann's inaugural thesis De Antholysi 

 Prodroiims,a. remarkable morphological paper which attracted 

 the attention and won the approval of Goethe. 



No. 2. Contains the sketch of the Botany of Dr. .'\. Wislizenus's 

 expedition nito northern Mexico. 



