392 



Garden and Forest. 



[October io, i8 



embellishment of the flovver'garden to the taller forms of tree 

 and shrub life. They will also be found very useful when 

 grown as specimens in pots for conservatory decoration, and, 

 by reason of the hardiness and texture of the foliage, their 

 beauty and freshness last a long time. We owe all the best 

 ofourCannas to the French, and it is to be lioped they will 

 continue in their good work of improvement, and give us 

 some varieties that, for beauty of tlower, will eclipse anything 

 previously seen. The varieties above referred to amply show 

 the capability of improvement." 



Plant Notes. 



The Weeping Pimis ponderosa. 



THE illustration upon page 391 represents one of the 

 most interesting coniferous trees which can be found 

 in the Eastern States. It is a specimen, and the only speci- 

 men which is known, of the well known Yellow Pine of the 

 Pacific forests {Pinus ponderosa), in which all the branches 

 have assumed a decided and permanent weeping- habit, 

 giving to this individual a grace of outline quite unknown 

 to the Yellow Pine in its normal form. This tree, with a 

 number of others, was imported from the Knaji Hill 

 Nurseries in England in 1851, when only a few inches 

 high, and planted by JNIr. Henry Winthrop Sargent in his 

 garden at Wodenethe, in Fishkill-on-Hudson, in this State. 

 It is now fifty-nine feet in height, with a trunk diameter, 

 three feet from the ground, of twenty-one and a half 

 inches, and it is still growing rapidl}'. The origin of the 

 seed from which this tree was raised is unknown, although 

 it no doubt came from Oregon or California, as the seeds of 

 trees were not collected on the mountains of Colorado until 

 several years after this Pine had been planted on the banks 

 of the Hudson. Its perfect hardiness, therefore, must be 

 taken as an exception to the now generally acknowledged 

 fact that the Conifers of the Pacific-coast region are unable 

 to support, for any length of time, the climate of the north- 

 ern Atlantic States. 



But the real interest in this tree is not found in its grace- 

 ful and unusual habit, or in its hardiness, but in the 

 fact that it was planted and beloved by the man to whom, 

 more than to any other, Americans owe their knowledge 

 of cultivated trees, and who, for nearl}^ half a century, de- 

 voted himself, with an energy and enthusiasm which no 

 disappointment ever dulled, to experiments in tree culture. 

 The friend and pupil of Downing, he extended the fame of 

 his master, and by his example, his precepts and advice 

 inspired what is best in American gardening of to-day. 

 This pine may well serve to keep green the memory of 

 Henry Winthrop Sargent, and to remind the present gener- 

 ation how much it owes to his disinterested labors in their 

 behalf. 



A picture of this tree was ])ul)lished in the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, oi London, August 24th, 1878, from a photograph 

 taken in that year. Our illustration is from a recent 

 photograph by Mrs. Winthrop Sargent, to whom we are 

 indebted for its use. C. S. S. 



Origin of the Le Conte Pear. 



A'r page 268 of the Report of the United States Agricultural 

 Department for 1886 Mr. John L. Harden, of Walthour- 

 ville, Ga., makes the following statement in regard to the 

 origin of this Pear : 



" Major John Le Conte, of New York City (and afterwards of 

 Philadelphia), in the year 1850 had a number of fruit trees and 

 other plants put up for his niece (Mrs. J. L. C. Harden, my 

 mother), of Liberty County, Ga., at a nursery in New York or 

 Philadelphia (most probably Ncav York), and among them was 

 a rooted cutting of what was marked 'Chinese Sand Pear.' 

 Major Le Conte was informed by the proprietor of tlie nurserv 

 that the Pear was only fit for preserving, as it never matured 

 in this country. Contrary, however, to expectation, it matured 

 in Liberty County, and proved to be a fine, productive Pear. 

 The original tree is now owned by my mother's heirs, and is 

 still vigorous, although notcultivated inany wav.and produces 

 from ten to twenty bushels each year." 



This statement enables me to clear up the mystery of its 



origin. Some six or seven years previous to 1850 my brother, 

 Mr. Thomas Hogg, olitained from Messrs. Potter Bros., of 

 Providence, R. 1., a plant of Pyriis sinensis, the Chinese Sand 

 Pear, or Snow Pear, as it is called by some. This plant was 

 grafted on a stock of Pyrus communis, our common Pear. It 

 was planted out in the nursery at Yorkville in a plot of ground 

 devoted to testing new varieties of fruit trees, and was sur- 

 rounded Ijy a number of Pear trees of different varieties. In 

 due course of time the tree fruited, and from tlie seeds thus 

 obtained young trees were grown, one of which was given to 

 Major Le Conte, and is no doubt the tree noticed by Mr. Harden. 

 It is doubtless a hybrid, produced by tlie pollenation of a 

 flower of the Sand Pear with the pollen of some one of the 

 surrounding Pear trees. I remember that there was one tree 

 near by with fruitvery much the shape andsizeof theLeConte, 

 but I cannot recall its name. The Sand Pear tree we had bore 

 large, apple-shaped fruit, the stalk being deeply inserted, of a 

 deep orange color, somewhat russeted 

 and thickly studded with raised brown 

 dots. The skin felt as though sanded 

 over by these dots. Otherwise the fruit 

 was very handsome to look at. Dorr 

 and Dr. Lindley descrilie the fruit of 

 tlie -Sand Pear as warted, bony and gritty, 

 I'ut the fruit of our tree was in no wise 

 warty or bony, being only gritty. It was 

 not cdil>Ie, but made a fairly good pre- 

 serve, and always ripened its fruit. Mr. 

 Harden is mistaken in saying that 

 Major Le Conte was told that it would 

 not ri]icn its fruit. 



My opinion is that our climate, or 

 its being grafted on a common Pear 

 stock, had something to do with ame- 

 liorating the character of the tree we 

 liad, and rendered it more susceptible 

 of hybridization. It is a very unusual 

 instance of the effects of hybridization, 

 as the product is so very unlike the 

 mother tree, that if the latter were not 

 known tliere would be great doubts as 

 to its being one of tlie parents, judging 

 by the fruits. 



I may add tliat the Sand Pearls quite 

 an ornamental tree. It has long shoots 

 of a greenish, changing to purple, color, 

 thickly dotted with white spots ; large, 

 lucid, almost evergreen leaves; andlarge 

 white flowers slightly tinged with pink. 

 New ^-oi-ii. James Hogg. 



^^K- ^l- — Malformed 

 Cabbage Leaf. 



Tubular Cabbage Leaves. 



'T'HE interesting monstrosity of Cabbage leaf described and 

 -'■ illustrated in Garden and Forest, p. 296, is essentially 

 the same, evidently, as the Brassica oleraiea, costata Nepen- 

 tliiformis described and figured by the elder De Candolle in 

 Trans. Lond. Hort. Soc, v. 12. A monstrosity of similar char- 

 acter, but involving the whole first true leaf of a Cauliflower 

 plant, was observed by the writer this year, It is here figured. 

 ____^_ L. H.Bailey. 



The r'orest. 



Forestry in California. — IIL 



FOREST economy is slow in its returns, a new growth for 

 timber requiring, many years, which is discouraging to 

 short-lived man; consequently, men cut forests for commer- 

 cial purposes, l.iut it is rare, indeed, that a forest is ever 

 planted. So also much of forested land in new countries 

 must be cleared as population increases, irrespective of the 

 demands of commerce and whether the result be health or 

 sickness. 



But there is a point, variable according to the climate and 

 topography, beyond which the destruction of forests dimin- 

 ishes the capacity of the country to support population, and, 

 while at first increasing the arable area, in the end diminishes 

 this through the action of torrents in washing the soil from 

 some places and covering others with sand and bowlders, 

 while at the same time the whole country becomes more 

 exposed to extremes of flood and drouglit and the climate 

 more variable and unfavorable to agriculture, the winds 

 stronger and the springs less reliable and often extmguished. 



It is by educating the people in these truths oi the efl'ects of 

 excessive and unwise forest destruction that we must hope to 



