December 12, 18 



■] 



Garden and Forest. 



503 



study of natural science is far from being a dry pursuit, dead- 

 ening to the lesthetic feelings — that it is, instead, a pursuit 

 wliich, rightly followed, will deejjen those feelings by giving 

 them more and finer noiu'ishment. 



In tlie same magazine for Noremlier is an article, called 

 "A November Chronicle," by a well-known naturalist, Mr. 

 Bradford Torrey, which should be read by evei'y one who 

 fancies that summer must be really over because the almanac 

 says it is. Wiio would believe, except >ipon evidence as good 

 as Mr. Torrey 's, that in the course of a Massachusetts No- 

 vember of average inclemency, seventy-three species of wild 

 plants, representing twenty-two orders, were found in bloom? 

 The list is given in full and is as varied as it is interesting. 

 The great family of the Composite is most prominent witli 

 several species of Asters and Golden-rods, with Dandelions, 

 Yarrow, Tansy, Cone-flower, Everlastings, Burdock and a 

 number of otliers. But the Pea family is also well repre- 

 sented ; the Pale Corydalis and even the Deptford Pinlc 

 appear, while the Witch Hazel brings a single shrub in among 

 the humbler plants. The places where most of the finds 

 were made are described for the benefit of others who may 

 wish to conduct autumn exploring e.xpeditions, and also the 

 relative profusion in which tlie various species appeared, 

 some being very common, and others, of course, only isolated 

 belated e.xamples. Naturally the sea-shore proved the best 

 hunting-ground. The list might have been increased, Mr. 

 Torrey adds, had it Ijeen made to include garden-Howers, like 

 the Pansy and the Larkspur, which he saw l)y tlie road-sides. 

 But it was only of the veritable wild-flowers that he took 

 account. 



In the Gentleman' s Magazine for November is an ex- 

 haustive, instructive and very interesting article called "Qui- 

 nine and its Romance," by Mr. Alexander H. Japp. The title is 

 not badly chosen, for the history of tlie Cinchona tree, as the 

 source of one of the wcirld's most valuable medicines, has cer- 

 tainly been a strange one. The precious powder was first 

 brought to Europe in 1639 '^Y ''i^ Countess of Chinchon, wife of 

 a viceroy of Peru. Her name is, of course, the origin of the bo- 

 tanical name by which the great genus is now known, while 

 quinine is derived from the native Peruvian term quina, 

 and " Jesuit's barlv " was long a familiar appellation, for the 

 reason that the drug was long procured through the hands of 

 Jesuit missionaries. It was a full century after the drug was 

 known before the tree itself was discovered by a European 

 — by Jussieu, in 1739. -A""^' \\\<it\ all the specimens which Jus- 

 sieu sent home having perished, it was another century before 

 growing trees were seen on European soil. These were 

 specimens of Cinchona Calisaya grown in the Jardin des 

 Plantes, at Paris, from seeds sent home in 1846 bv Dr. Wed- 

 dell. Attempts to cultivate Cinchona trees were made in 1852, 

 in the Botanical Garden of Calcutta, but were unsuccessful, 

 and the Indian government tlierefore sent the well-known 

 botanist, Clement Markham, to South America in i860, to 

 seek for seeds of the various species and learn how they 

 might best be grown. The history of the wandering's 

 of Markham and his companions is one of the most 

 interesting chapters in the history of botanical explora- 

 tions. The many species of Cinchona trees are con- 

 fined to the tropical regions of the Andes range, between 

 about nineteen degrees south latitude and ten degrees north 

 latitude, where they grow on the mountain slopes and in w ild 

 ravines, and their discovery was attended with the greatest 

 hardships and dangers. But it is impossible here to do more 

 than indicate the contents of Mr. Japp's paper, which, besides 

 much historical information, gives, also, an account of the 

 methods now employed in India, in growing Cinchona 

 trees, in gathering the crop of bark and in preparing it for 

 market. 



A recent nimiber of Petcrmanti s Mi/feilungen contains an 

 interesting account by Baron Eggers, the well known explorer 

 of the botany of St. Thomas, of a journey into the interior 

 of San Domingo, illustrated by a large map of the districts tra- 

 versed, from Puerto Plata on the northern coast southward to 

 Santiago and La Vegas, and thence over the mountain-range 

 south-eastward to Pico de Valle and south-westward to May- 

 dama. Although the first part of the journey was along the 

 chief route of communication between the seaport and the 

 interior, the roads are so bad as to be ]5assable only for pack- 

 horses even in the drier seasons, while in the rainy winter all 

 communication is often suspended for weeks togetl'ier. 



The first Pines wliich he saw were at a height of 590 feet 

 above the sea level, and on the crest of the El Puerto range, 

 at a height of 1,700 feet, they formed a magnificent forest 



almost unmixed witli other trees. The species is the same 

 as that wliicli occurs in Cuba — Finns occidentalis ; it extends 

 up the slopes of the Sierra del Cil.)ao to the summit — al.iout 

 7,750 feet. Its range in altitude is, therefore, unusually great, 

 altliough it seems to reach its greatest development at a height 

 of about 4,600 feet. It is more particular, however, in regard 

 to soil than climate, ilourishing only where coarse chalk and 

 red loam mingle in the subsoil. When these conditions are 

 changed, the Pine disappears and deciduous trees take its 

 place. As the undergrowth consists only of sparse shrubs, 

 low-growing Ferns and Grasses, progress in the high mountain 

 districts was found less difficult than in most other unex- 

 plored tropical regions. The chief obstruction came from 

 frightfully heavy and prolonged thunder storms. In Jara- 

 bacoa, a village of 800 inlialjitants, the church ami the houses, 

 are built of small planks of Oreodoxa oleracea and thatched 

 with the leaves of tlie same Palm. The inlialjitants are chieHy 

 occupied with Tobacco culture. In this neighliorhood Baron 

 Eggers found the so-called Nogal-tree {Jtigtans Janiaiccnsis). 

 Further south and up to about 3,100 teet elevation the Pine 

 woods contained a tliick growth of Davillia aculeaia, while tlie 

 Manacle Palm {^Euterpe) looked strangely side by side with 

 Pines, and Bromeliads, with brilliant red leaves, grew 

 upon the stems of the Conifers. In high districts, where the 

 Oreodoxa does not grow, the houses are built of Euterpe 

 planks and thatched with grass, no attempt being made to use 

 the excellent wood of the Pines. The summits near Pico del 

 Valle are covered in greater part with grass growing in thick 

 bushy clumps, scattered through which are numberless small 

 stones and some large rocks. Here and there are low thickets 

 formed of shrub-like Composita:, Ericacem and of Garrya 

 Fayoii, while between the rocks grows a yellow-Howered 

 species of Scropliularici's, a half-creeping Andromeda, and a 

 multitude of plants which recall northern climates, such as 

 Hieraciuni, Alchemilla, Galium, Chimapliila, Pteris, and, 

 along the l>rooks, Ranunculacece and Carex. On the flints 

 which are strewn about here and there, a small-leaved Loran- 

 thus with rosy flowers is c'onspicuous. 



Few other botanical details are given in Baron Eggers' 

 paper, which is rather a geographical than a botanical treatise. 

 Nevertheless, it will interest all who care to learn about the 

 general aspect and the local peculiarities of a little known 

 country. 



Recent Plant Portraits. 



C.+:SALPINIA Japonic.^, Gardeners' Clironicle, Novemiicr 3d; 

 a Japanese shrub, with yellow flowers, introduced by the 

 Messrs. Veitch, and interesting as the only representative of a 

 generally tropical genus, likely to be hardy in northern gardens. 



Enki.\nthus Hlmalaicus, Revue Horticole, Novemlier i6th; 

 a representative of a small genus of plants of the Heath 

 familv, closely allied to Andromeda, and peculiar to the 

 Himalaya, southern China and Japan. 



The figure is from a plant whicli is described as hardy in 

 the neighborhood of Paris, and which had been received 

 from Japan, two facts which suggest the Japanese E. Japoni- 

 cus, rather than E. Hintalaicus, which is found in the hot and 

 humid valleys of the Sikkim Himalaya. 



AngR/ECUM Sanderianum, Revue Hortieole. November 

 i6th; one of the most graceful and attractive of the small- 

 flowered species of this genus, and a native of Madagascar. 



TOXICOPHL/EA .SPECTABILIS, Revue Horficole, Novemlier 

 1 6th ; fruit. 



VoCHVSIA GuATKiMALENSis, Botanical Gazette, xiii., t. 33. 



PiTCAIRNIA TUERCKHEIMEI, Botanical Gazette, xiii., /. 24. 



Crocosma aurea, var. m.'\cul.'\t.\. Gardeners' Chronicle, 

 November 17th ; a variety of a well-known plant, with 

 orange-colored flowers, the segments of the perianth 

 marked witli a purple-red spot, and declared "to be the 

 finest form of the variable Crocosma aurea that has yet ap- 

 peared." " It grows to a height of three to four feet, and 

 single stems cut with their gracefvil leaves and placed in 

 water, for in-door decoration, open their buds tor weeks in 

 succession." 



Maxh.larta FUSCATA, Gardeners' Chronicle, Novemlier 

 17th. 



Eucalvptus ViiMINAMS, Gardeners' Chronicle, November 

 24th; from a specimen grown on the Island of Arran, which 

 has grown from the seeij to a height of thirty feet since 1S72. 



Cai.andrinia opposi'riFOLlA, Gardeners' Chronicle, Novem- 

 ber 24th ; a native of the coast mountains ot norlliern Cali- 

 fornia. 



PlNUS PINEA, Gardeners' Chronicle, November 24th ; a por- 

 trait of the old species of the well known Italian Stone or 

 Parasol Pine of Italy in Kew Gardens. 



