November 7, 18SS.] 



Garden and Forest. 



4oo 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



rUBLlSHEII WEEKI \ \\Y 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Oi- KiCE : 'I'RihUNE Building. Nhw York. 

 Comiiicted tjy Pi utessut C. S. S.vrgrnt. 



ENTERBD AS SRCOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, i5 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Fui'iOKiAl- Arhci.es: — Do Nt)t Spai-etlie Axe. — Piazzas. — EiUi-ance to the 



Temples at Nikko, Japan (witli illustration} 433 



The Pines in October Jilrs. Mayy Treat. 435 



Foreign Corresi>ondence ; — London Letter //'. Goldring. 435 



New ok Little Knuw.\ Plants : — A White-Klowered Cattleva Gigas 



(with illustration), 436 



Cultural IlErARrr.UiNT : — The Propagation uf Conifers Jackson Daii'son. 436 



The Vegetable Garden U'illittiii Falconer. 438 



Roses — Schizostvlis coccinea — Helianthus Ma.xiiniliani 430 



Notes t'runi the Arnold Arboretum y, 440 



'I'iiE Forest: — The Forest Vegetation uf North Me.xico. IX C G. Pringle. 441 



Cgkrespondence : — The Mountain Laurel — Gi.irse and Scotch Heather in New 



England — The Destruction of Ants 442 



Recent Publications.. . . 443 



Recent Plant Portraits 443 



Notes 443 



Illustrations: — A White-Flowered Cattleva Gigas, Fig. 6g 437 



F.n trance to the Temples at Nilvko, Japan 439 



Do Not Spare the Axe. 



WE have f)ften alhided, in these cokmins, to the im- 

 portance of thinniny; plantations, and more than 

 once called attention to the causes which prevent people, es- 

 pecially those who profess a deep and sincere fondness for 

 trees, from cutting them, when cutting is essential, if the 

 beauty and health of other and more important trees are 

 to be preserved. It is not easy, indeed it is practically 

 impossible, to lay down rules which should govern the 

 thinning of plantations made and maintained for orna- 

 ment. Thinning is an operation requiring judgment, and 

 judgment in such matters can only come with long experi- 

 ence, and a real knowledge of trees, their characters and 

 requirements. Each case, where it is a question of remov- 

 ing a tree from an ornamental plantation, must be studied 

 on its individual merits, and no rule can be formulated to 

 cover a number <>f cases. We speak now merel}^ of trees with 

 reference to their effect upon other trees, and not of trees 

 as forming a part or parts of a landscape. The cutting of 

 trees for the purpose of improving a landscape effect or for 

 purposes of mere convenience, as where a tree casts too 

 dense a shade over a dwelling house or other building, 

 presents different problems, which we shall not undertake 

 to consider at this time. What we want to insist upon is, 

 that it is impossible to have fine trees unless light and air and 

 space are provided for them, and that the right amount of 

 these can only be determined by persons familiar with 

 trees and their requirements from the hour of planting. If 

 a number of trees are huddled together no one of them can 

 ever develop into a handsome and symmetrical specimen, 

 and not only are those trees which have been allowed to 

 grow in youth with sufficient space about them the most 

 beautiful, but such trees are the most vigorous in old age 

 and the longest lived. Some trees require more space than 

 others for their best development from an ornamental 

 point of view. Some are most beautiful when they stand 

 entirely alone as isolated specimens ; there are others 

 which grow together into harmonious masses of foliage. 

 k Beech is a far more beautiful object when its lower 

 branches sweep the ground, than when it exposes a tall, 

 bare truidc, the result of overcrowding and insulficient 

 light, A White Oak standing alone upon a lawm is val- 



uable in proportion as it has retained its lower branches, 

 and as these rest upon the turf, while the naked trunk 

 of a White Oak in the midst of a large plantation is one of 

 the most beautiful objects which our forests afford. A sin- 

 gle White Pine or a group of these trees, without lower 

 branches and with tall and naked shafts, are handsome 

 and natural objects anywhere, while the moment the 

 lower branches of a Spruce or a Fir perish, the beauty of 

 these trees, as ornaments for the lawn, is destroyed for- 

 ever. No one, therefore, will be able to thin a planta- 

 tion with real success unless he is familiar with the 

 appearance of the trees with which he is to deal at all 

 stages of their growth and has a clear idea of the effects 

 they ai-e intended to produce as they approach maturity. 



There are other cases where cutting down trees requires 

 neither profound knowledge or great judgment, as when 

 a really fine tree — or what might in time, with a little care, 

 develop into a really fine tree — is ruined by the too close 

 proximity of a neighbor possessing neither beauty nor 

 value. How frequent such cases are, any one who looks 

 at trees with the least critical eyes must see. Certainly 

 there are few fine specimen trees to be seen in this country 

 in comparison with the immense number which have been 

 planted during the last fifty years. This is due to the 

 fact that people are unwilling to use the axe. Either 

 they refrain from cutting altogether, or they delay cutting 

 so long, that the damage is done, and the tree which ought 

 to have grown into a noble, widespreading specimen, is 

 left stunted and misshapen. Examples of this neglect of 

 the requirements essential to the growth of a fine tree can 

 be seen on every hand. It is not necessary to look beyond 

 the parks and squares of this city to find abundant evi- 

 dences that the axe is not often used freel}' or judiciously. 

 Of the thousands of trees planted on our public grounds, 

 l)ut few have been granted the opportunity for free develop- 

 ment, and but few have attained the dignity of stature and 

 expression which they might have reached. The popular 

 clamor is against cutting down a single tree, and year after 

 year starved and often half-dead specimens, destitute them- 

 selves of all beauty, present or prospective, are allowed to 

 encroach more and more upon others, which only need a 

 little space and a little light to become objects of the high- 

 est civic pride to future generations of New Yorkers. 



The lesson which every man \n\vo controls trees, whether 

 they be few or many, great or small, should learn, is that 

 whenever he sees a really beautiful, well developed and 

 s)'mmetrical tree, its perfection is due to the fact that it has 

 had, either by accident or by design, sulficient room in 

 which to grow and develop its beauty. This lesson can- 

 not be repeated too often, and until its force is fully appre- 

 ciated, and until a tree out of place is considered a weed, 

 and destro3^ed as promptly as other weeds should be 

 destroyed, fine trees will continue to be as rare as they 

 are at present. That they are rare, any of our readers 

 who will examine with critical eyes at this season of the 

 year, when the leaves have fallen, or are falling, their own 

 trees or those which grow upon any public highway or 

 pleasure ground in their neighborhood, will be able to see 

 for themselves. This is the season of the year to study 

 trees with the view of removing all those which are in- 

 juring their more valuable neighbors. 



Piazzas. 



NOTHING is more characteristic of American country 

 houses, as contrasted with those of other northern 

 lands, than their large covered piazzas. These have been 

 de\'eloped in answer to as distinct and imperative a 

 national need as ever determined the genesis of an archi- 

 tectural feature. Our early colonial ancestors did without 

 piazzas, for their habits of living and their architectural 

 schemes were alike imported from England and Holland, 

 and amid a strenuous people occupied with sterner prob- 

 lems than how to live most agreeably, it was naturally 

 some time before that gradual modification of habits 



