September 5, 18S8.] 



Garden and Forest. 



333 



it becomes a slender tree, often fifty feet high. It lias decidu- 

 ous, membranaceous, lanceolate leaves, four to six inches 

 long, and an inflorescence consisting- of a spreading panicle of 

 one-sided, drooping, many-flowered racemes, terminating the 

 leafy branches of the season. The pure white, bell-sliapei.1 

 flowers are a quarter of an inch long. It is surprising that 

 this beautiful plant is now so rarely found in gardens. Its 

 handsome, white flowers open at a season when few trees are 

 in bloom, while the brilliant colors, unsurpassed, perhaps, by 

 those of anv other American plant, which its leaves take on 

 in autumn, make its cultivation doubly desirable. The name 

 O.xydendrum is derived from two Greek words, signifying 

 sour and tree, and relate to the acid flavor of the leaves. 



Another plant peculiar to the mountain forests of the 

 Southern States, and' too seldom seen in gardens, CUthra 

 acuminata, is now in bloom. It is a tall shrub, sometimes 

 eighteen or twenty feet high in the high southern valleys, 

 but at the north rarely attaining half that size. It has large 

 leaves, four to seven inches long, and nodding, solitary 

 racemes of yellow- white flowers, shorter than the caducous 

 bracts. This plant is perfectly hardv here. It is less beauti- 

 ful, however, than the northern representatives of this genus, 

 the familiar Sweet Pepperbush, which just now is the chief 

 ornament of northern swamps, which it enlivens with its lus- 

 trous, dark green foliage and handsome, upright racemes 

 of pure wdiite, spicily-fragrant flowers. This is one of the 

 handsomest shrubs found in North America ; it is easily cul- 

 tivated, and thrives in any good garden soil. Some attention, 

 of late years, has been directed to the value of the Clethra as 

 ■ a garden plant, and it is now found occasionally in commer- 

 cial nurseries. 



CalUcarpa purpurea, a member of the Verbena family, is now 

 in flower. It is a shrub three or four feet high, with erect 

 and rather rigid branches, opposite, ovate-acuminate leaves, 

 and a.xillary cymes of small, inconspicuous purple flowers, 

 which would hardly entitle this plant to a place in the garden. 

 The inconspicuous flowers, however, are followed in the au- 

 tumn by numerous bright purple glossy fruit which quite 

 cover the branches, making this plant and tlie other species 

 of the genus exceedingly beautiful and attractive objects. 

 CalUcarpa purpurea is a widely distributed plant from Japan 

 to India, and is practically hardy here. The stems are some- 

 times killed back in severe winters nearly to the ground, Ijut 

 they always spring up again in time to produce the late flow- 

 ers which do not appear until the early weeks of August. 

 There is an American species of this genus (C Americana) 

 found from Virginia to the Keys of Southern Florida, generally 

 near the coast, Texas and the West Indies, which unfortunate- 

 ly is not hardv at the north, as it is in fruit a more showy 

 plant even than its Asiatic congener. CalUcarpa is de- 

 rived from two Greek^words, meaning' beautiful and fruit; 

 and these plants are sometimes called French Mulber- 

 ries, for no very apparent reason. The Japanese species is 

 easily cultivated, requiring no special soil or treatment ; and it 

 can be easily raised from seed, which are produced in abun- 

 dance and germinate freely. 



Rosa Beggcriana, var. genuina, is a wild Rose of central 

 Asia which has the merit of keeping in bloom here all sum- 

 mer long. Its introduction into cultivation is due to Dr. Aitch- 

 ison, botanist of the late Afghan Boundary Survey who found 

 it " a common shruli at the western extremity of the Kuram 

 district and throughout the Hariab, in vicinity of streams and 

 watercourses; it is also very common near cultivation, where it 

 forms natural hedges along the various channels of irrigation, 

 at an altitude of from 4,000 to 9.000 feet. It forms a bush of from 

 four to six feet in height, the latter in more favored localities. 

 When in Ijloom it is covered with a mass of pure wdiite small 

 flowers. The fruit is little larger than an ordinary iiea, at first 

 orange-red, when fully ripe of a deep purple-black. The 

 shrub is briar-scented. This species is employed, as well as 

 R. Eglanteria and R. Ecce, the Gooseberry, and Hippophae, in 

 forming hedges in the Hariab district ; ;nid is much browsed 

 by cattle, especially goats."* 



This Afghan Rose forms here a stout, tall bush, five or six 

 feet high, with slender and rather flexible branches, without 

 prickles, and sparingly armed with slender, slightly recurved 

 spines. The leaves, which are composed of three or four pairs 

 of small, oval, sharply serrate leaflets, are pale gray-green. 

 The hardiness of this plant and its habit of blooming continu- 

 ously throughout the season, make it a useful, as well as an 

 interesting, addition to single Roses. 



There is no genus of plants hardy here which contains so 

 many shrubs, with handsome flowers appearing in August, as 

 Hypericum or St. John's Wort. There are a number of Ameri- 



•Aitchison, Jour. Linn. Soc, .xix, i6i. 



can species in flower in the collection now; but as drawings of 

 several of these have been made, and will be published in 

 future issues of Garden and Forest, they need not be 

 named even at this time. A few foreign species, however, are 

 worthy of mention. The handsomest of these is H. calycinum, 

 a native of south-eastern Europe, and popularly known as 

 Aaron's Beard or the Rose of Sharon. It is a dwarf plant, 

 spreading rapidly by creeping, woody root-stalks, with simple 

 stems, barely a foot high, and large, crowded, ovate or oblong, 

 obtuse, tlark green leaves, covered with small pellucid dots. 

 The flowers are brightyellow, three orfourinches in diameter, 

 two or three together, upon the summits of the branches, or 

 sometimes in corymjis of five or six. In England this plant is 

 often used to cover the ground in shrubbery beds, for which 

 purpose its compact habit, almost evergreen foliage, and 

 power to spread rapidly, admirably adapt it. But, unfortu- 

 nately, here it is not entirely hardy ; and the stems, in spite 

 of winter protection, are often killed back to the ground. The 

 roots, however, survive the most severe winters, and the an- 

 nual killing back, while it prevents the plants from spreading 

 and so largely destroys their usefulness for clothing wide- 

 stretches of naked ground, does not prevent them from 

 blooming every year, or destroy their beauty for the herba- 

 ceous border or the margin of the shrubbery. Tlie onlv 

 Japanese shrubby species of Hypericum is H. patulum [H. 

 Euralum of some collections). It is a hardy plant here, with 

 slender, smooth, spreading purple branches, not more than 

 two feet high, ovate-acute, entire, revolute leaves, and usually 

 solitary, pale yellow, somewhat cup-shaped flowers. Althougli 

 less showy than some of the American species, H. patulum 

 is one of the most delicate and graceful of all the Hypericums, 

 and one of the best of summer-blooming slirubs for the 

 rock-garden. 



Androscemuni hircinum (Hypericum hircinum), the Goat- 

 scented St. John's Wort, is a very showy plant in flower, \vith 

 erect stems, two or three feet high, winged branches, ovate- 

 lanceolate leaves, somewhat emarginate at the base, their 

 margins glandular, and very large, pale flowers, with nar- 

 rowly acuminate petals and long styles. The strong and dis- 

 agreeable odor of the flowers, to which this plant owes its 

 common name, makes this species, in spite of their profusion 

 and individual beauty, less attractive than many of the other 

 St. John's Worts. There is in the collection a dwarf varietv 

 (var. nn?ior), a compact and handsome little plant identical 

 with the species, except that it is smaller in all its parts. 

 Androscemum hircinum is a native of southern Europe from 

 northern Spain to the Grecian Islands, and, in spite of its 

 southern origin, is perfectly hardy here. 



August I3tli. J . 



The Forest. 



The Care uf Woodlands. 

 To the Etlitor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — I read a great deal of the importance of planting forest 

 trees and of maintaining forests, but I can find no definite in- 

 struction for the care of woodlands. I have two hundred acres 

 of fine wood, but it yields nie nothing. How is this property 

 to be made increasingly productive ? Can you give me some 

 practical advice or tell me where I can find it ? 

 Baltiinore, Md. Stewart Brouni. 



[No question is more often asked the editors of this 

 journal than how natural woods should be treated in order 

 to make them yield the greatest profit. It is, of course, 

 impossible to do more than explain a few of the general 

 rules which can be universally applied in the manage- 

 ment of woods, with the understanding that each par- 

 ticular piece of woodland or forest requires special study 

 and special treatment, dependent upon its character and 

 condition, the nature of the soil upon which it stands, 

 and the crop which it is desired to obtain from it. A 

 forest of deciduous trees — especially in this country, where 

 a large nuinber of different species are almost universally 

 associated together — is more difficult to manage than one 

 composed of Conifers, which usually grow gregariously, 

 and are, moreover, little dependent upon artificial thin- 

 ning and pruning. The operations of scientific forestry 

 are all directed to the perpetuation of the forest. They 

 are based on the principle that trees can be grown on 

 certain land more profitably than an)' other crop, and that 

 this fact being establisheil, rural economy demands that 

 the forest should be a permanent fixture on such land. 



