430 



Garden and Forest. 



[October 31, 1888. 



strohiforrnis , it furnishes nearly all the lumber now cut in 

 the region, the two mills of the vicinity drawing their sup- 

 ply from the plain. In the deeper soil of the plain, where 

 it attains fullest development, its diameter is from one and 

 a half to more than three feet, and its height from forty to 

 seventy feet. Never standing crowded on this plain, its 

 branches are ample. As these begin low on the trunk, 

 the majority of the trees afford but one or two saw-logs. 

 The character of its bark is equally variable with that of 

 P. Arizonica and P. ponderosa, and is undistinguishable 

 from that of these two species, in trees of middle age 

 being dark and more or less furrowed ; in mature speci- 

 mens reddish, smoother and reticulately cracked. Vigor- 

 ously growing trees in open situations, the symmetrical 

 outline of their broad heads closely filled out with dark 

 green foliage, to which its long leaves (ten or fifteen inches 

 long) give a massive look, its summit distinctively an ogee 

 arch rather than a dome, present an appearance of unusual 

 beauty. 



Here on the Cordilleras we seem to have reached the 

 centre of distribution of Pinus Arizonica, Engelm. In this 

 great Mexican forest this species seems to take the place, 

 in respect to abundance, wfde distribution and value as a 

 timber tree, held in the forests of the western United States 

 and British Columbia by the closely related P. ponderosa, 

 Doug/. It ranges through 3,000 feet of elevation from the 

 valleys and caiions of the base to the highest summits. 

 In the deep canons and fertile valleys it is unsurpassed in 

 size, showing lofty, clean stems three feet in diameter ; 

 on the summits it is still a noble tree, and, taking scarcely 

 disputed possession of these, it there forms close forests. 

 Its lumber seems to be prized by the Mexicans equally 

 with that from P. macrophylla ; but, because the trees are 

 mostly found at a greater elevation, it is far more difficult 

 to secure. 



Pinus sirobifonnis, Engelm., as far as I have observed it, 

 appears to grow scatteringly — a few trees scattered along 

 caiions, a lone specimen here and there on high, cool 

 slopes, or a few on the ledges of summits on the skirts of 

 belts of P. Arizonica. Such, also, is my recollection of its 

 habit (if we refer to this species, Engelmann's P. reflexa) 

 on the mountains of southern Arizona. Nowhere have I 

 yet seen a good grove of this Pine. Its short horizontal 

 branches and tall stems give it an appearance exception- 

 ally slender for a Pine. A diameter greater than two feet, 

 I think, I have never seen exceeded, while its height equals 

 that of any of its companions. As it is one of the White 

 Pines, vi'ith characters of bark and leaves closely resem- 

 bling those of P. Strobus, its lumber, if obtainable in any 

 amount, would doubtless be found of the best class. 



Pinus Chihtiahuana, Engelm., appeared scattered abun- 

 dantly over the lower benches and foot-hills, a small, 

 slowly-growing tree, as usual, and here safe from the 

 lumberer's axe. 



Only one other Pine, seen by me as yet on the Cordil- 

 leras, remains to be described, Pinus cembroides, Ziicc, the 

 Mexican Nut-Pine, which, like the related species, P. edulis, 

 of New Mexico; P. nionophylla, of Utah, and P. Parryana, 

 of Lower California, contributes largely to the sustenance 

 of the Indians by its large oily seeds. For any other pur- 

 pose this tree is comparatively worthless. Its habitat is 

 the warmest and most arid slopes and ledges with meagre 

 soil, where even P. Chihuahuana will seldom crowd upon it. 

 Occupying together with a few shrubs such open situa- 

 tions, it branches near its roots, and forms a rounded top, 

 whose breadth equals its height, which is from fifteen to 

 twenty feet. C. G. Pringle. 



The Forests of Europe. 



THE French Ministry of Agriculture has issued some inter- 

 esting statistics respecting the distribution of forests in 

 Europe. Tlie total area of Europe laid out in forest — exclusive 

 of Turkey, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, omitted in the 

 official statement — is set down at 286,989 million hectares, or 

 about 708,862 million acres; that is, about 18.7 per cent, of the 



total area of Europe is forest land. In proportion to its total 

 area, Great Britain and Ireland has, of all countries in Europe, 

 the least extent of forest, amounting to only 4 per cent, of its 

 surface, and, in proportion to the number of its inhabitants, 

 enjoys, by far, the least allotment of forest, amounting to only 

 0.036 hectare, or 0,089 acre, i.e., considerably less than the 

 tenth of an acre to each inhabitant. The country in Europe 

 next lowest in the forest scale is Denmark, with 4.8 per cent, 

 of forest land, or 0.09 hectare to each inhabitant; that is to say, 

 in Denmark there is an average of between two and three 

 times the extent of forest land to each inhabitant that there is 

 in Great Britain and Ireland. The third of the countries of 

 Europe in the ascending forest scale is Portugal, with 5 per 

 cent, of forest land and o. 11 hectare to each inhabitant, i.e., an 

 average of three times the amount of forest land to each 

 inhabitant of Portugal that is allowed to each inhabitant of the 

 United Kingdom. Holland has 7 per cent, of forest land and 

 0.05 hectare to each inhabitant, or about one and a half times 

 as much as to each inhabitant of the United Kingdom. The 

 country in Europe possessing most forest is Russia in Europe, 

 with 200,000 million hectares — i.e., 37 per cent, of its whole 

 area and 3.37 hectares to each inhabitant — that is, each inhab- 

 itant of Russia in Europe has an average of nearly 94 times 

 the extent of forest land allotted to each inhabitant of the 

 United Kingdom. In its percentage of forest land and the 

 amount of forest to each inhabitant, Sweden, however, stands 

 still higher. With 17,569 million hectares of forest, Sweden 

 has 39 per cent, of its land in forest, and so 3.84 hectares of 

 forest to each of its inhabitants. Norway, with 24 per cent, of 

 its area in forest, allows each of its inhabitants an average of 

 4.32 hectares of forest, or 120 times as much as is allowed to 

 each inhabitant of the United Kingdom. Hungary has 29 per 

 cent, of its area in forest, or 0.58 hectare of forest to each 

 inhabitant. France possesses 9,888 million hectares of forest, 

 or 17.7 per cent, of its total area, and so allowing 0,25 hectare 

 ofL. forest to each of its inhabitants — nearly seven times as 

 much as is allotted to each inhabitant of the United Kingdom. 

 — The Garden. 



Correspondence. 



The Responsibilities of Florists. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — Your recent editorials on the responsibilities of our 

 florists seem to me a word spoken in season. It is true that 

 our florists have done much to improve the taste of the pub- 

 lic, but there is still much for them to do. Tt does not need 

 that one should be of a great age to remember when no taste 

 whatever was shown in the arrangement of our winter flow- 

 ers. Solid, flat or spherical or conical constructions of wired 

 flowers, massed together without foliage and with no regard 

 to the shape of individual blossoms, were the only bouquets 

 in use. The first novelty in the right direction came from 

 Boston in the shape of bunches of long-stemmed flowers, 

 chiefly Roses, which, even in other cities, were called "Bos- 

 ton bouquets." Eagerly accepted by the public, they soon 

 ousted the formal bouquet and their influence was quickly 

 perceptible in arrangements of all other kinds. To-day, as 

 yo\i say, one can buy flowers in no other part of the world so 

 beautifully arranged as we can buy them here, except, per- 

 haps, in Paris ; and even Paris is behind us in the matter of 

 variety. The Germans arrange their growing plants more 

 tastefully than we do, but of the artistic possibilities of cut 

 flowers they have duller perceptions, and the practice of wir- 

 ing is far more extensively practiced than in America. 



Nevertheless, it is only in a few of the best shops in the 

 larger cities that taste is displayed. Our best work is very 

 good, but our worst — and there is still a great deal of it — is 

 undeniably bad. A long list might be made of " floral designs " 

 recently produced and viewed with satisfaction by their 

 authors and the public, which would seem too bad to be true in 

 a community which calls itself civilized. Not long ago I saw 

 carried through the streets of New York on the wagon of a 

 florist a horse about half life-size, composed of white Immor- 

 telles, with the saddle and harness of colored flowers and a 

 flowing mane and tail of Pampas Grass. I am told that at the 

 funeral of an expressman in Boston there was, not long ago, 

 displayed a large trunk of white flowers bearing, in red, the 

 poetic legend "C. O. D." I know of a florist in Chicago who 

 wrought for a funeral a white pillow in the centre of which was 

 a purple horse-shoe, and who could not be brought to perceive 

 the grotesqueness of thus placing the symbol which means 

 "Good luck to you." And here is a quotation from a Boston 

 paper describing a device which was sent to the bier of General 

 Sheridan and called " one of the most beautiful " of its kind : 



