September ig, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



357 



fruit fresh through the severe winters of the Northern States 

 is so small, that any addition to the number is welcome. 



Clematis Flammula, a native of southern Europe, is a well 

 known garden plant, having been cultivated for three cen- 

 turies at least. It is a vigorous grower, and its pure white, 

 fragrant flowers are not, perhaps, surpassed in beauty by those 

 of any of the small-Howered, summer-blooming Clematises. 

 A variety of this, a more vigorous and freer-blooming plant, 

 is known in nurseries as C. F/aiiiiiniht rohiisfa. It should find 

 a place in every garden in which there is room for a rampant 

 climber capable of covering in the course of a few years a 

 space twenty feet or more scjuare. The stems grow late in 

 the season, and so are often killed back in severe winters; but 

 this pruning only increases the vigor of the plant, and stimu- 

 lates it to a stronger growth, and more profuse, although 

 a later, blooming. Here the flowers are just opening, and will 

 continue to appear until destroyed by cold weather. Mr. 

 Dawson finds this plant slow and difficult to propagate either 

 by layers or cuttings. 



Clematis Pieroti is flowering in the Arboretum for the first 

 time. It is a pretty, delicate Japanese species, with small white 

 flowers and pinnate leaves, the pinna:' sharply and deeply ser- 

 rate, with prominent veins, covered with short, oppressed 

 hairs, which appear more sparingly on the upper surface. 

 This is an interesting and rather valuable addition to the 

 list of summer flowering, climbing plants, although in habit 

 and in flower it is not unlike our native C. Virginiana. It 

 blooms, however, several weeks later. C. Pieroti is appar- 

 ently perfectly hardy. 



Cissus Japoniea is one of some twenty-five Asiatic, 

 African and Australian species which constitute Planchon's 

 section Cayratia, distinguished by the inflated corolla, with 

 spreading petals, devaricately branched cyme, and by the 

 annual stems proceeding from large, tuberous roots, which, in 

 the case of C. Japoniea, are able to support the climate of 

 our Northern States. The stems are four or five feet high, 

 sharply angled, climbing by means of stout tendrils. The 

 leaves are three to five foliate, long petioled, dark green and lus- 

 trous. The sub-axillary cymes of flowers are long peduncled, 

 widely, dichotomously branched. The flowers are short pedi- 

 celed, the base of the corolla distinctly swollen, with ovate, 

 triangular, pale rose-colored petals. The fruit, which is hardly 

 as large as a pea, is crimson. This is a widely distributed 

 plant from Japan through many of the East Indian Islands and 

 New Caledonia to tropical Australia. It has little value as 

 an ornamental garden-plant, but much interest as represent- 

 . ing a curious form of the Grape Vine. 



September 3d. J • 



The Forest. 

 A New Forest Law in Russia. 



WHILE our own Government refuses to take any ju- 

 dicious action looking towards the preservation of 

 our forests, or, to state the case more correctly, while 

 public opinion here is not sufficiently educated on the 

 subject to command its expression in intelligent laws, or 

 to enforce such laws even if they were enacted, the other 

 nations of the world are making efforts to save themselves 

 from the disasters which follow unchecked and unregu- 

 lated tree cutting. The latest Government to adopt meas- 

 ures for saving its forests is Russia, where, for generations, 

 timber has been recklessly felled and forests plundered. 

 It has long been admitted that stripping the forest cover 

 from the sources of her streams has brought serious 

 changes in the physical and climatic conditions of the em- 

 pire, one of which is seen in shallower harbors and water- 

 courses. To restrain these evils and restore better condi- 

 tions so far as may be, a law has been enacted, which is 

 warmly commended by the best organs of public opinion, 

 so that the work of the Commission created by the law is 

 more likely to be carried on with spirit and energy and not 

 in a superficial or perfunctory way. Some of the features 

 of the law are outlined in the following letter from the St. 

 Petersburg correspondent of the London Times : 



"The new law just promulgated extends to all forests, 

 Government, communal and private, which are to be planned 

 out by a special commission appointed by the Ministry of 

 Imperial Domains, and are to be designated protected woods. 

 The timber thus to be protected may be rouglily divided 

 under the following heads : (ci) Growing in shifting sand and 



obstructing its encroachment on seacoasts, navigable rivers, 

 channels and artificial water courses; {b) sheltering towns, set- 

 tlements, villages, railway's, high roads, post roads, cultivated 

 land, and equally such the removal of which might aid the 

 formation of shitting sands ; [c] protecting the sliores of navi- 

 gable rivers, channels and watercourses from landslips, over- 

 flows and damage from floating ice; and, lastly, timber and 

 underwood growing on hillsides, cliffs and slopes, if such be 

 found to avert landslips, detachment of rocks, the formation 

 of snow avalanches and rapid torrents. The measures for 

 carrying the foregoing into effect are intrusted to a commis- 

 sion, which elaborates plans not only for the preservation of 

 standing timber, but likewise for the planting of saplings and 

 the proper and regular thinning of forests. With regard to 

 private woods, the measures issued by the commisson are to 

 be applied with the consent and co-operation of the proprie- 

 tors, if possible. If, however, the latter are opposed to such 

 measure, the property is purchased by the State at a certain 

 valuation and the necessary plans carried out. The owners 

 have the right, within a certain period, of repurchasing the 

 property for the same price, but with the addition of the cost 

 of introducing the measures and six percent, per annum on 

 the capital. In other cases the necessary steps can be taken 

 without purchasing the property at the expense of the propri- 

 etor. To enforce the observance of the rules laid down by the 

 commission, new penalties have been promulgated against 

 transgressors, particularly as regards plunder of timber, 

 which is carried on throughout the country to an incredible 

 extent." 



Planting the Dunes. 



"pROM Calais to Hamburgh is a long stretch, but for nearly 

 -'- the whole distance the coast line consists of loose sand, 

 now forming flat "links," with a sparse but botanically very 

 interesting vegetation, now blown up into picturesque, irregu- 

 lar hillocks, held together, more or less, by creeping grasses 

 and other plants. In some parts of Kent, in Suffolk and Lin- 

 colnshire, the same conditions prevail, but on a smaller scale. 

 However pictorial, or however interesting to the naturalist, 

 such land is, agriculturally, mostly a sterile waste, and it is 

 therefore wilh no surprise that we learn that the King of the 

 Belgians has interested himself in the matter, and has ap- 

 pointed a commission to study the best means of planting the 

 dunes. We are the less surprised at His Majesty's interest in 

 the matter, as some years ago we were eye-witnesses to the 

 process of digging out His Majesty's villa at Ostend from the 

 sand which had accumulated during the winter above the 

 level of the ground floor windows. The plans for plant- 

 ing the sand hills between Ostend and Blankenberghe have 

 been executed by M. Van der Swaelmen, of Brussels. They 

 are so contrived as to insure protection from the prevailing 

 winds, and when carried out will ultimately form picturesque 

 woods with winding paths, good roads, and other conven- 

 iences, which will insure not only an increased agricultural 

 value to the land, but, what is nowadays the most paving of 

 all crops, a crop of villas fairing the sea. Those who remem- 

 ber the delightful wood which extends from the Hague to 

 Scheveningen will rejoice that there is now so good a chance 

 of the formation of a similar wood between Ostend and 

 Blankenberghe, a distance of 6 to 7 miles. So far as we 

 are able to judge, M. Van der Swaelmen's plans are admirably 

 adapted to the desired end. — Gardener' s Chroniele. 



Correspondence. 



Suggestions for Making a Tennis Lawn. 



To the Editor of G.A.RDEN .\nd Forest : 



Sir. — May I ask you for some instructions about laying down 

 a tennis ground ? Being a novice, I shoifld like explicit direc- 

 tions as to leveling^ seeding and other details. 



Petersville, Micliit^an. .S. X.. 



[Minute and explicit directions for making a tennis 

 lawn cannot well be given that will apply to every 

 case. The question of expense, to begin with, is often the 

 most important element of the problem; but even if this be 

 a minor consideration, there will, usually, be other limita- 

 tions to meet which good judgment and experience will be 

 required. The climate is the main difficulty that has to be 

 contended with in this country, and the mistake most com- 

 monly made is insufficient and superficial preparation of 

 the soil before seeding or sodding. This error not only 



