March 3, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



B 3 



IN an act which has just passed berth Houses of Congress 

 it is provided that any person who shall willfully set fire 

 to any timber, brush or grass on the public domain, or shall 

 allow such fire to burn unattended near inflammable ma- 

 terial, shall be guilty of misdemeanor under the laws of 

 the United States, for which he can be fined not more than 

 $5,000 or be imprisoned for not more than two years, upon 

 conviction in the local district court of the United States. 

 Section 2 provides that all persons who build camp-fires or 

 any other fires near timber or other inflammable material 

 on the public domain shall totally extinguish them before 

 they break camp, and the failure to do this will also be a 

 misdemeanor subject to fine or imprisonment, or both, 

 upon conviction in a court of the United States. With a 

 view to encourage prosecution under this act it is pro- 

 vided that the fines collected shall be paid into the Public 

 School Fund of the county where the offense is com- 

 mitted. It is not probable that this law will at once be 

 enforced with any great rigor or vigor, but it is an ad- 

 mirable thing to have on the statute book, for as public 

 opinion becomes educated, and especially as the people in 

 the neighborhood of our great western forests begin to 

 appreciate their value as they ought, this law will have 

 behind it an energy of popular approval which will effectu- 

 ally enforce it. When the great Teak forests of India first 

 came under the control of the British Government every 

 one felt at liberty to despoil and burn them, but now the 

 people who live in these forests are their stanchest defend- 

 ers, and there is no doubt that a few years hence the people 

 who visit our great western forests as tourists for pleasure, 

 and the people who spend their lives near them, will all 

 unite in cherishing them as among the most useful and 

 beautiful of our national possessions. 



The Chemise World. — II. 



MANY northerly slopes in the Chemise region would 

 be in open woods but for the recurring brush fires. 

 It is a repetition of the conditions in the prairie states, 

 where the grass fires kept trees from getting out of the scrub 

 state. Nearly all the bushes in the Chemise region have 

 great vitality and sprout vigorously after each burning. 

 Sometimes a longer period than usual elapses between 

 fires, and the heavy brush on the north hillsides has time 

 to go through the thinning process. First, the Chemise, 

 then the Ceanothus die out, and the weaker sprouts give 

 up the battle. The next fire finds an open wood of low 

 trees with insufficient fuel to make a fire to scald the bark 

 of the vigorous saplings, but it clears the debris and makes 

 them safe for the future. Douglas Spruce may come in, 

 and Maples. The soil is strong, and moisture enough is 

 present, and the trees attain a good size. On ranges where 

 fires are kept out, this procession from chapparal to small 

 timber is going on rapidly. Conifers are not so fortunate 

 in the battle. Douglas Spruce is found throughout the 

 Chemise region in scattering trees or small groves, usually 

 on rugged hillsides close to watercourses. The thin bark 

 of young trees of the Douglas Spruce makes it as susceptible 

 to fire as the Pines, and the few now living are survivors. 

 On large trees the bark is thick. These sometimes with- 

 stand many conflagrations, but at last succumb to an unu- 

 sually hot fire, and, falling, expose their neighbors, until the 

 little grove is wiped out. Nature has always kept these 

 great slopes well clothed with a variety of trees. In 

 twenty years, with a moderate chance, much of the 

 brush land would be covered with timber of constantly 

 increasing value. The white man is not the only of- 

 fender, and the Indian for many years had fired the brush 

 periodically. 



The problem of the future forester is simple here ; he 

 need only keep out the fires, and a forest would soon be 

 established. The soil is richer, in many places covered 

 with heavy brush, than in the present woodland. The 

 thinner growth on poor lands was spared by fire, while the 

 rank growth on rich lands invited the flames. Species 



which in some localities develop into grand trees, in others 

 are found in the form of low brush. This is accounted for 

 in some instances by poverty of soil ; in others, aridity or 

 altitudes are the causes. But, in nine cases out of ten, the 

 dense copse is formed of sprouts from great charred 

 stumps. These have ample vitality, if left alone, to send 

 the sprouts up into trees, and with nature's thinning they 

 would make stately specimens. The young trees, not so 

 slender as when growing in a dense forest, reach upward 

 for the light, and are well clothed and symmetrical. 



Castanopsis chrysophylla, the Chestnut Oak or Western 

 Chinquapin, is often found in dense copses in the higher 

 portion of the range east of Ukiah. In the Chemise region 

 it is seldom over five feet in height and fruits at that size. 

 The burr is not unlike that of the eastern Chestnut, the nut 

 small and thick-shelled. Just across the valley to the west it 

 again occurs in the dense chapparal growth, and between 

 the periodical brush fires reaches a height of from twenty to 

 forty feet. It is, however, in the Redwood region that it 

 is to be seen at its best. On the high ridges in the Red- 

 woods it often grows from eighty to one hundred and 

 twenty-five feet high, straight as a Pine, and branchless for 

 two-thirds its height, with a magnificent full head. Such 

 a monarch of the woods stands near the public road a few 

 miles above Willets, in this county, and was visited and 

 described by that pioneer botanist, the late Dr. Kellogg, 

 who considered it the king of its kind. The name chryso- 

 phylla is due to the yellow powder underneath the leaves. 

 In a breeze the leaves alternately present a dark green and 

 golden side with a beautiful effect. The Chestnut Oak 

 follows the Coast Range from Monterey into Oregon. 



Another tree which is common in a shrubby form in the 

 high Chemise region is the California Live Oak, Quercus 

 chrysolepis. I will reserve for a future time a description 

 of it as it grows at its best. It is common as a large bush 

 or low tree on the north hillsides, while on some gravelly 

 hill-slopes it forms a dense low growth. All of these 

 shrubby or low-growing forms have leaves as green and 

 prickly as an English Holly, while on old trees the leaves 

 are entire. 



Quercus Douglasii is common in the Chemise region 



in the drier places. The California Black Oak, Q. Cali- 



fornica, is, however, the most widely distributed tree 



in this region. Little clumps' of it are seen everywhere, 



and on all shaded hillsides its beautiful green foliage 



is conspicuous ; many groves of it have reached the size 



where they are in less danger from fire. The common 



Scrub Oak here is Q. dumosa, var. bullata, which seldom 



exceeds twenty feet in height. Madrofia, too, is common, 



but does not often reach the fruiting stage. Madrofia, 



Arbutus Menziezii, has a very smooth, glossy brown bark, 



which is shed annually. This tree grows rapidly and 



sprouts freely, but naturally suffers more from fire than 



almost any other tree. „ , „ , 



Ukiah, Caiit. Carl Purdy. 



T 



The Arrangement of Flowers. — I. 



SHORT-STEMMED FLOWERS. 



HE many short-stemmed flowers in our gardens are 

 difficult to arrange satisfactorily for decoration. After 

 many efforts I began to use small and shallow dishes, 

 and flower arrangements became a new pleasure and 

 delight. In six small crescent-shaped glass dishes known 

 years ago as "bone" plates, a layer of wet spongy moss 

 is placed, and they are filled with water. In an early 

 morning visit to the garden 1 gather into a large, round, 

 flat basket, that probably was originally some Japanese 

 farmer's shade, great velvety pansies that need to be picked 

 to keep the plants blooming through the summer. The 

 plants in one bed of Sweet Allyssum, Alyssum maritimum, 

 flower so low that the little, thick, white heads are hardly 

 three inches high, and these I cut off close to the ground. 

 These little stemless flowers have an unpromising look, 

 but the saucers and moss provide a suitable setting. If the 

 dining-table is long the dishes are placed end to end the 



