Jui.v 4, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



527 



the other by the Cordilleras, is the great basin of the Papi- 

 gochic, or upper Yaqiii. Fifty miles away in the north- 

 west, looking- across this plain and beyond a blue moun- 

 tain chain which it bears, we see a lofty crest of the Cor- 

 dilleras, whicli is the goal of our journey. 



C. G. Piingle. 



Correspondence. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I am a little surprised in reading the interesting notes 

 on the Ginkgo tree in your last number that no mention is 

 made of the specimen on Boston Common, which has a his- 

 torical interest worthy of record. It formerly stood in the 

 grounds of Gardiner Greene, Esq., on what was then Pember- 

 ton Hill, now Pemberton Square. After his death the estate 

 was sold, and a condition of the sale was that this tree should 

 be preserved, as there was then but one other in the country, 

 wliich was the one you allude to as planted by Dr. Hosack. I 

 remember perfectly seeing the tree on its way to the Common 

 in 1834, or perhaps 1833. It was then some thirty feet high, 

 and was transported on a low four-wheeled truck built for the 

 purpose, and was planted on the Beacon Street Mall, directly 

 opposite the house at the corner of Joy Street, to which Mrs. 

 Greene had removed from Pemberton Hill. 



Its removal was a subject of g^eneral interest at the time, as 

 the papers announced that it was a very rare tree from Japan, 

 a region almost as little known to us then as the moon. 



It still lives and thrives, and its site has been rendered classic 

 by the pen of the "Autocrat," as it is the starting point from 

 the Beacon Street Mall of the " Long Path," to which he makes 

 such touching allusion. 



There are some fine specimens of the Ginkgo in Providence; 

 but when I last saw them, five or si.x years since, they still pre- 

 served the stiff habit you describe, though they were some 

 fifty feet in height. 



Minneapolis, June Slh. H. IV. S. Cleveland. 



[The old Ginkgo on Boston Common is well known to 

 many of the older inhabitants of that city. It is now not 

 more than forty feet high, and is not a large or a tine tree 

 for its age, having perhaps never entirely recovered from 

 the effects of the removal ; it has for many years been 

 crowded and overshadowed by neighboring Elms, and 

 many of its branches are dead or dying. It has never 

 taken on the graceful habit which this tree assumes at 

 maturity when growing under favorable conditions. — Ed.] 



New York, June \%th, 1888. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — I have noted with interest the remarks of "Philo- 

 dendron," in your issue of June nth, on the conditions of the 

 Norway Spruces in Central Park. 



About a year ago the authorities of the park became alive 

 to the necessity of removing dying, deformed or crowded 

 trees, and since that time 6,215 trees of this objectionable 

 character have been cut down. Of this number 760 have been 

 Norway Spruces. 



The effects of this work may be seen along the west drive 

 of the park, and particularly on Fifth Avenue, between Sixty- 

 fifth Street and Seventy-second Street. In many places no 

 replanting has been found necessary, as the original growth 

 was sufficiently dense to allow a considerable margin for thin- 

 ning-out. In other places, such as the bank on Filth Avenue, 

 just referred to, a new plantation has been established, con- 

 sisting of shrubs and trees such as Spima opullfolia, Phila- 

 delphus grandiflorus, Lonicera fragrantissi)iia, Cornus san- 

 guinea, Viburnui?i dentatum, Betula alba, Pintis Strobus, Piiius 

 Mitgho, Picea orientalis, Pseudoisiiga Dmiglasii, etc. 



The park authorities have frequently been criticised for the 

 radical cutting-out thus undertaken, and it has been tliought 

 best to remove the least healthy crees first and cultivate 

 intelligent public sentiment in regard to this cuttino- by man- 

 aging it in sucli a way as to prevent a striking appearance 

 anywhere of denudation. 



Several large fjroups of diseased Norway Spruces are 

 marked for removal during this summer and autumn, and 

 by another spring 1 think there will be few of these objection- 

 able Spruces left in the park. 



Sam. Parsons, Jr., Superintendent of Parks. 



Periodical Literature. 



Harper's Magazine for July contains an article by Mr. F. H. 

 Spearman called "The Great American Desert," describ- 

 ing those districts, formerly known by this name, which are 

 now largely under cultivation and furnish support to a rapidly 

 growing and prosperous population. It differs from many 

 articles on the newer regions of the Great West we have read 

 in being sensible as well as emphatic — in being neither a pes- 

 simistic tourist's chronicle, nor a panegyric concocted in the 

 interests of land schemers, railroads, or the " boomers " of 

 embryo cities. One paragraph we are glad to quote as rein- 

 forcing opinions already voiced in the editorial columns of 

 Garden and Forest. After speaking of the way in whicli the 

 great vexed question of the raintall has been discussetl by 

 " experts who know aljsolutely nothing about the actual facts 

 in the case," and by residents who are eager to explain the 

 increase in rainfall, they assume, by all sorts of ridiculous rea- 

 sons, Mr. Spearman shows how no perceptible increase in 

 the amount of rainfall need be assumed to account for the 

 increased humidity of the soil. " It is certain," he says, " that 

 . the buffalo grass sod which has covered these plains for cen- 

 turies has become as impervious to water as a cowlioy's 

 slicker. Hence the rain never penetrates it, but rushes off the 

 'divides' in a fury to reach the rivers. Any one who has 

 seen it rain on the plains can understand something of the 

 deluge which covers the entire prairie to the depth of twelve 

 to twenty-four inches during summer showers. It is easy to 

 comprehend then how the numerous cafions in Kansas and 

 Nebraska are cut by the eagerness of the flood to roll east- 

 ward. But when the prairie sod has once been plowed, the 

 soil absorbs water like a sponge. After a day's heavy rain 

 there is no mud visible in a plowed field ; the moisture soaks 

 downward to great depths, and the soil retains it through 

 weeks of dry weather afterward, sustaining its crops without 

 additional rain for a wonderful length of time. It is at least 

 reasonable to siqspose that under this changed condition of 

 large portions of the soil, which now absorbs rain instead of 

 shedding it like a rubber coat, the climate retains its atmos- 

 pheric moisture better, and the rainfall becomes more regtdar, 

 less falling at a time, but falling oftener. This change may 

 account, too, for the heavy dews which of late years have been 

 remarked in this country — a thing absolutely unknown ten 

 years ago. The iqjturned soil parting with but a little of its 

 moisture every day, it returns to it at night, well nigh as re- 

 freshing as a shower." 



One of the illustrations which accompany Mr. Spearman's 

 article shows a rude rustic bridge, liuilt of logs, and, apparently, 

 ropes, which is most interesting in the way it reproduces the 

 construction of the vast bridge of stone and iron that stretches 

 between New York and Brooklyn. 



In Mr. Chas. Dudley Warner's " Studies of the Great West," 

 in the same number of Harper, he speaks of the Central Hos- 

 pital for the Insane of the State of Illinois as having " a large 

 conservatory of plants and flowers," which is " rightly re- 

 g-arded as a remedial agency in the treatment of the patients." 

 Misdescription of the plan of Indianapolis, which its inhabi- 

 tants are fond of calling the " Park City," is interesting. 



A third noteworthy article in this magazine is one by I\Ir. 

 Peter Henderson on t'lie "Street Ti'ees of Washington." 



Recent Plant Portraits. 



Botanical Magazine, May. — Dendrobiu.M CLAVatUM, /. 

 6993 ; a magnificent species withp large, orange colored 

 flowers nearly three inches in diameter across the se- 

 pals, which, as well as the much larger orbiciilar petals, 

 are spreading ; the uniform or almost circular limb of the 

 lip deep purple, margined with golden yellow. It has 

 tufted, pendulous stems, two or three feet long, and short, 

 broad, elliptical leaves. Although long known to botanists 

 and one of the earliest discovered of the golden flowered In- 

 dian Dendrobes, this plant is here first figured in all its great 

 l>eauty. It must not be confounded with Roxburgh's plant of 

 the same name— the D. sulcatum of Lindley, a much more 

 common species. 



Allium Suworowi, /. 6994, a tall, handsome species from 

 central Asia, where it was discovered by Dr. Albert Kegel on the 

 Kirghis desert and near Bokhara. The tall, stout scape spring- 

 ing from a basaf rosette of glaucous-green leaves, bears a 

 large, long handsome, dense umbel of dark mauve-colored 

 flowers. 



Alpenia officinarum, /. 6995; "the subject of this plate, the 

 •lesser or Chinese Galangal,' was formerly in great repute as 



