422 



Garden and Forest. 



[October 31, iS 



planters, who seem to take matters ver}' much as they find 

 them, and are satisfied to conduct tlieir business as it was 

 done a century ago, to the neglect of modern methods and 

 improved varieties. This is especially true of the Orange 

 business throughout the West Indies, which largely de- 

 pends for its supply of fruit upon "trees which have 

 grown up, in most cases accidentally, in gardens, in odd 

 corners of estates, and by the roadside." That West In- 

 dian Oranges are as good as they are is only an indication 

 of the fitness of the soil and climate of the Antilles for the 

 production of this fruit. If half the energy and intelligence 

 which have been directed to the improvement and cultiva- 

 tion of the Orange in Florida could be given to perfecting 

 this fruit in islands like Dominica or Jamaica, the result 

 would be astonishing, both in the quality of the fruit pro- 

 duced and in the profits of the business. The little island 

 of Montserrat, now the principal centre of the Lime-juice 

 industry, shows how profitable tropical fruit-growing can 

 be made when carried on under ordinarily good methods. 

 This business on the island is constantly increasing, and 

 has already assumed very important proportions, and 

 IMontserrat Lime-juice is now sent all over the world. 



a frame of the proper size and in the proper place, no mat- 

 ter what materials may be chosen for the purpose. Even 

 a rustic gateway may be so built as to serve this purpose, 

 and in the shaping and disposition of the windows of a 

 country house results of this sort should be more often 

 considered than they are. 



It may be added, in this connection, that the Lime-tree now 

 grows spontaneously on the south Florida Keys, producing 

 fruit of large size and the very best quality. The climate 

 of these islands is better adapted to the cultivation of this 

 fruit on an extensive scale than it is either for Pineapples — 

 which, although grown there in large quantities, suffer 

 during cold winters, and are very inferior in quality to 

 those raised in the West Indies — or for Cocoanuts, which 

 have lately been planted largely in south Florida. The 

 Cocoanut, it is true, bears fruit at several places on the 

 Florida coast, but the fruit is small and not of first-rate 

 quality, and can never compete with that brought to our 

 markets from Honduras and other Central American coun- 

 tries. Lime-juice factories on Key West or on the shores 

 of Bay Biscayne might be made profitable investments, 

 andwuuld do much to develop the resources and pros- 

 perity of southern Florida. 



The Charles River at Wellesley. 



THE Charles River, which pursues a very devious 

 course through the eastern part of Massachusetts 

 and empties into Boston Bay, is, of all the rivers of 

 New England, the one that is richest in poetical associa- 

 tions. The Hudson, with the grandeur of which it would 

 be foolish to compare the humbler loveliness of the 

 Charles, is more widely known through prose descrip- 

 tions, and has not failed of its meed of poetical praise 

 as well. But the Charles is so intimately associated with 

 the lives and writings of so many poets, that even the 

 Hudson hardly appeals as strongly to those who know 

 and love the literature of our country. Our illustration is 

 given to show the character of the stream at a point 

 considerably removed from that where it becomes the 

 broad estuary so well known to every one who has vis- 

 ited Boston — a point where it is truly the Charles of the 

 poets. And the picture should have a double interest, as 

 revealing how much a view of this sort may gain by be- 

 ing set, so to say, in a frame. This particular bridge, 

 which serves to carry the water which supplies the City 

 of Boston, is not especially to be commended for archi- 

 tectural beauty — its curve is somewhat too widely spread 

 and the size of its arch-stones is hardly sufficient to give 

 the desirable impression of sturdiness. But it serves the 

 purpose of a frame for the landscape well enough ; and it 

 need hardly be added that effects analogous to those pro- 

 duced by its arch can be produced, when openings of a 

 less diameter are in question, by the skillful planting or 

 cutting of trees. Take away this frame, and we have a 

 pretty bit of river, but scarcely a picture; and a picture 

 may be made of the simplest outlook which has any ele- 

 ments of beauty, either natural or artificial, by supplying 



California Woods in Autumn. 



ALTHOUGH California lies wholly within latitudes which, 

 in other lands, give marked changes of the seasons, 

 yet here neither spring nor autumn is very definitely charac- 

 terized ; autumn less so than spring, if that may be called a 

 vernal season which begins in November or December, 

 comes to a halt in January, thence gradually advancing to 

 its perfection in April, a half year after it begins. 



Between July and November the face of nature undergoes 

 but little change ; and only the eye of the artist or naturalist 

 will perceive the transition to autumn. The Dahlias, the 

 China Asters and the late Chrysanthemums are in the gar- 

 dens, blooming at the right season, too, and these give a little 

 of the autumnal aspect to village and home, especially where 

 late autumn fruits are ripening on the trees, and eastern Elms 

 and Maples, planted along the streets, are shedding the yel- 

 low or brown leaf. But out among the hills it is scarcely so. 

 The native trees, even to the Oaks, are chiefly evergreen ; 

 and even such Oaks as are really deciduous retain their foli- 

 age in full color until the dark rainy days of December, bar- 

 ing their gray trunks and branches not until the ground be- 

 neath and around them is bright green with fresh growing 

 grass like that of spring. 



There are, nevertheless, some autumnal wild flowers in 

 California ; and even a few trees whose altered foliage im- 

 parts, in September, an autuninal aspect to the tree-clad 

 slopes of all mountainous and hilly districts. Wherever, in 

 the near or distant landscape, a patch of deep yellow comes 

 out in contrast with the dark but vivid green of Oaks and 

 Bays, one knows it must be a clump of the native Maple {Acer 

 macrophylluin) ; a tree distinguished from all others of its 

 genus by the uncommon size of its leaves, which, in Califor- 

 nia, are half a foot broad on thrifty trees, in Oregon even 

 larger. It nowhere makes up a forest, or even a small grove, 

 by itself ; only two or three in a place, or, at most, an inter- 

 rupted succession of them, ranging up and down the course 

 of a ravine or brook, are what one sees of this species in its 

 native wilds. The foliage ripens and turns to yellow long in 

 advance of the earliest frosts, so that before the equino.x it is 

 in its richest and decidedly autumnal garb. 



In the higher Sierra only, and chiefly toward the northern 

 Ijoundaries of the State, occurs a smaller Maple {Acer gla- 

 brum), the leaves of which acquire an almost crimson hue as 

 the autumn days advance ; but this species is never met with 

 in the more settled, western regions of California, with which 

 we are concerned. The only red leaves here are those of 

 the Wild Grape ( Vitis Californica) and of the everywhere too 

 prevalent Poison Oak {Rhus divcrsiloba). This last is alto- 

 tjether distinct from its east American analogue, having 

 foliage of firmer texture and more rounded outline. In its 

 autumnal dress it is truly beautiful, but this is taken on, at 

 least in some parts of the country, as early as August, before 

 we begin to think of the fall of the year. The same is true 

 of another small deciduous tree, the native Horse Chestnut 

 {^■Esciihis Californica), whose fading leaves of yellow and red- 

 lirown are sufficiently autumn-like, in whatever more elevated 

 districts they do not fall before the end of summer. 



With Asters and Golden Rods, Pacific North America is not 

 well furnished. . In the western parts of California we have 

 but two or three species of each ; and the most common 

 of the Golden Rods {Solidago Californica) is almost gone be- 

 fore the autumnal days begin. One of the Asters {A. radn- 

 liniis), a white-flowered, low species, with a simple flat-topped 

 corymb crowning" the leafy stalk, is met with along the bor- 

 ders of roads and thickets, but scarcely elsewhere. This also 

 comes near being a summer flower ; but it is in pretty con- 

 dition in the early part of September. The blue-flowered 

 species {A. Chilensis) is taller and more showy, quite like some 

 of the eastern Asters, and it flowers quite late, growingchiefly 

 in low, half marshy grounds, not far back from the sea. 



The characteristic autumnal wild flowers of California are 

 the various species of Madia and Hemizonia, known in every- 

 day life by the not very promising appellation of Tar Weeds. 

 With an abundant resinous hairiness, such as most of the 

 kinds are invested with, they are not pleasant plants to handle 

 or to walk among; but they grow in masses, on open hill-sides. 



