October 24, iSSS.] 



Garden and Forest. 



415 



The g'lossy, dark evergreen foliage is always pleasing, and its 

 dense, prickly character is an excellent feature. Tiie fruit is 

 of a dull, rather deep red when mature, oval in shape, often 

 rather blunt at the ends, and an inch in length. A bush 

 loaded with the fruit is a tempting sight, but it is rather aggra- 

 vating to find the pulp scarcely an eighth of an inch tliiclc. 

 The stone forms the larger part of the fruit ; but it is 



Stiiarlia pentagyna, one of the most beautiful, when in 

 flower, of North American shrubs, is descril>ed, in works 

 upon American botany, as a native of the mountains of Geor- 

 gia and the Carolinas. It is nowhere very common in these 

 states, being confined principally to the banks of streams 

 running eastward from the Blue Ridge. Now it appears that 

 its real home is on the western foot-hills of the Big Smoky 



still worthy of notice, and finds its champions among our 

 country people, who calmly state that tliey prefer it to the 

 grape. A basketful may be cpu'ckly gathered at the proper 

 time if the season has been favorable, and .possibly were not 

 other fruits so abundant it might become of use for the table. 

 I think I have seen it stated that the experiment of grafting 

 cultivated Cherries on to this species has proved a success. 

 If true, it certainly is of great value for cultivation, where it 

 would be difficult to make other trees or shrubs grow success- 

 fully. Had we an agricultural experiment station in this section 

 of the state it would lie a proper subject to investigate. 



San DicRO, Cal. C. R. Oriult. 



scciis. — See )).'i,y;e 414- 



Mountains of Tennessee. Here this shrub literally lines the 

 banks of all the small streams tributary to Pigeon River (which 

 must not be confounded with the Big Pigeon, a more import- 

 ant stream further north), almost to the exclusion of other 

 plants, forming dense thickets, sometimes fifteen feet or more 



iiigli- 



Aralia spinosa, the so-called Hercules Club or Angelica 

 Tree, must be seen, too, on the western slopes of the Big 

 .Smokies, if its true beauty and character are to be under- 

 stood. It is very common between three and four thousand 

 feet elevation, growing in the richest soil in the neighborhood 

 of streams anil springing up freciuently along the fences ol 



