394 



Garden and Forest. 



[October io, i8 



in the report of the Connecticut State Board of Agriculture 

 for 1877-78; the large plantations of foreign trees princi- 

 pally Larches, Norway Spruces, Scotch Pines, Oaks and 

 Birches, made by the late Richard S. Fay, near L)'nn, and 

 by Mr. Joseph S. Fay, at Wood's Holl. There is also an 

 instructive plantation of Euro]3ean Larches on Mr. J. D. W. 

 French's farm in North Andover, which was described in 

 the first issue of this journal ; and in East Greenwich, 

 Rhode Island, large plantations of Larch and White Pine 

 have been made during the last ten years upon the farm of 

 Mr. H. G. Russell, where these trees have made a satis- 

 factory growth upon sterile and apparently barren land. 

 Land which is strong enough to grow good white ash is 

 too good for pine, which will grow to a large size on dry, 

 gravelly ridges. The land which our correspondent de- 

 scribes would probably grow either chestnut or hickory, 

 both valuable woods, for which there is an active and 

 increasing demand. Chestnut and Hickory trees can be 

 raised by planting the seed where the trees are to remain, 

 and are, therefore, more cheaply raised than Ash or White 

 Pine, which must be transplanted from the nursery. If 

 the land in question is fenced, so that animals can be kept 

 off of it, and planted in the spring with chestnuts and 

 hickory nuts, it will be covered in a few years with 

 these trees, and many others, which will spring up spon- 

 taneously in great variety, as soon as cattle are kept out. 

 The nuts for planting should be gathered as soon as ripe 

 and at once mixed with sand to prevent them from drying, 

 as drying destroys their power to germinate, and stored 

 in a cellar from which the frost is excluded. In the spring, 

 when the frost is out of the ground, a man can plant the 

 nuts ver)^ rapidly by making a hole about an inch deep, 

 or alittle deeper for large nuts, with an ordinary walking- 

 stick, dropping a nut into the hole and then pressing 

 down the soil over it with his foot. The nuts should be 

 planted three or four feet apart, but when the ground is 

 very rough and rocky, they will have to be put in with- 

 out regard to e.xact distances and wherever the best soil 

 can be found. 



There is no man in the United States who has had a 

 longer and more varied experience in tree planting than 

 Mr. Robert Douglas, of Waukegan, Illinois, and his advice 

 in such matters can be adopted in perfect confidence. — 

 Ed.] 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest ; 



Sir. — Black Walnut is not native north of Niagara, but has 

 been raised and produces nuts as far as Quebec. Will the 

 wood of this or any other tree be likely to prove sufficiently 

 sound for manufacturing purposes when grown north of its 

 proper habitat ? Tliere is no experience in Canada to 

 show this. 



Norwood, Canatl.T. T. M. hfOVCr. 



[Trees can generally be induced to grow in cultivation 

 much further north — that is, in a colder climate — than that 

 in which they are found growing spontaneously, and 

 when the change is not too great they may produce 

 sound timber. The continental distribution of plants be- 

 ing regulated, to a large extent, by temperature and moist- 

 ure, the fact that any tree, like the Black Walnut, for 

 example, is not found growing spontaneously north of a 

 certain latitude, shows that this is the limit where, unaided 

 by man, this particular tree has been al)le to maintain 

 itself in the struggle for existence, which is constantly going 

 on between all organized beings ; and that if moved be- 

 yond that limit and deprived of man's constant assistance, 

 it will be in great danger of being compelled to succumb, 

 sooner or later, to unfavorable conditions. For this reason 

 it is wise to select the native trees of any region to plant 

 for timber in that region. It is impossible to predict that 

 any others will reach maturity and produce valuable ma- 

 terial. — Ed.] 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — It gives me pleasure to note that Garden and Forest 

 constantly advocates the use of more natural forms in the ar- 



rangement of plants for the embellishment of public and pri- 

 vate grounds. Such articles as that on the planting of hardy 

 bulbs in the grass cannot fail to bear good fruit. How many 

 barren spots tliere are that need such a brightening up at 

 s|)ring-fime as only a few Daffodils can give them. And why 

 should not some of our native hardy plants be used in such 

 places; for instance, the Blood-root, Dicentra or He])atica, and 

 for later blooming the CoUuTibine, Mandrake, Meadow Lilies, 

 Golden-rod and Asters. 1 have found that these wild beauties 

 easily adapt themselves to a place seemingly most unfavora- 

 ble for their life and growth, so I can easily imagine what 

 might be accomplished were they distributed over larger 

 grounds. The woods are not always easy of access, but we 

 can bring a bit of them close to our homes. 



I have noticed at Kew what might be termed a perpetual 

 garden, which your readers might easily imitate, or even im- 

 prove upon, by making a still bolder departure from the con- 

 ventional. There is a serpentine walk, lined on either side by 

 banks of rock-work four or five feet high. These are planted 

 with English hardy plants as well as Lilies and other bulbs, 

 and many of those that come under the general head of alpine 

 plants. They are scattered about quite naturally, and are so 

 arranged that there is an abimdance of bloom throughout the 

 season. To tliose possessing rocky grounds this suggests un- 

 limited possibilities in the formation of a natural garden of 

 great beauty, and one that offers a large return for a very little 



Drooklyn, N. Y. n. b. A. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — In an interesting article on "Cultivation of Native 

 Ferns," by Robert T. Jackson, in your journal of the 5th inst., 

 some examples are given of "the extreme hardiness and 

 vitality of Ferns," to which 1 can add a perhaps still more 

 remarkafile illustration. 



About ten years ago a lady living in New Zealand sent me, 

 by mail, covered with a piece of brown wrapping-paper and 

 tied with a string, six roots of New Zealand Ferns. When I 

 received them here in California they were, of course, abso- 

 lutely dry and apparently absolutely dead ; but wishing to test 

 the matter, I poured some tincture of gum camphor into 

 warm water and sprinkled the Ferns with the mixture, leaving 

 them lying upon wet moss for twenty-tour hours, after which 

 I planted them in pots. One plant of Pellcea falcata 

 commenced to throw up new fronds in a few days after its 

 receipt, and is still growing in my conservatory.' I do not 

 remember how much time was occupied inthe transit, but I 

 think It was about three months, as the facilities for rapid 

 communication bv mail in those days were greatly inferior to 

 those of the present time. 



Santa Barbara, California, Se|.teniljer, iS8S. 



Lo7-cnzo G. Yates. 



Periodical Literature. 



The leading article in Tlie CosmopoUtiDi for August is Mrs. 

 S. B. Herrick's on "The Romance of Roses." The author's 

 aim has been to trace the continuance and explain the strength 

 lit that preference for the Rose above all other flowers which 

 has distinguished every people to wliom it has been well 

 known ; and, together with a great deal of romance, she gives 

 us many interesfing facts. The most interesting are perhaps 

 those which reveal the use the Romans of the Empire made 

 of Roses — a use which makes our utmost extravagance seem 

 positive parsimony. When we read of floors carpeted with 

 fresh Roses a foot deep, covered with a fine netting that the 

 guests might walk upon without disturbing them ; of a single 

 feast given by Nero, when a sum equivalent to $100,000 was 

 spent lor the' Roses alone ; of water parties at Baiie, where 

 "the whole lake of Lucina was covered with Roses, which 

 parted before the moving boats and closed after them as they 

 passed ; " of Lucius Verus sleeping upon cushions of net 

 stuffed with freshly-gathered Rose-leaves, and of Heliogabalus 

 demanding that his couches, beds, floors, and even porticoes, 

 should be kept perpetually covered with them — how can we 

 think that we are extravagant in our use of Roses ? At first 

 the Roses required in Rome were imported from Egypt, but 

 later on a sufficient supply seems to have been grown in Italy, 

 where, according to Ovid, they were made to bloom twice a 

 year by means of hot water, carried, as other writers explain, 

 in pipes, much after the manner of to-day. The love of me- 

 diaeval ages for the Rose has become proverbial, and it 

 expressed itself in many court as well as popular customs. 

 For centuries before the reign of Louis XIII. the peers and 

 dukes of France, and even the King of Navarre, were obliged 

 to present Roses, in their season, to the Parliament of France 



