March 17, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



103 



nicus. As it stood, unhampered by other shrubs, it was a 

 perfect specimen, well worth an honored place in our 

 arboreta. I have not found it since, and could not pro- 

 cure any seed at the time. 



As we climb upward in our exploration after Ceanothus 

 in the Sierra, and follow the road of the stockmen, who 

 drive thousands of cattle and sheep to the tender grass of 

 the highest altitudes, we notice a low shrub in the way 

 which has apparently survived the trampling of the herds. 

 It is also a Ceanothus, rather two of them, and both lying 

 close to the ground, spreading like a trailing vine, slow of 

 growth, and reaching but about three inches in height at 

 the centre of growth. I never saw either in flower, their 

 blooming season being early in April, when the roads at 

 this height of 4,500 feet are impassable for wagons and too 

 distant to reach on horseback. One species, C. prostratus, 

 Benth. , is an exact counterfeit of C. cuneatus, of the same 

 pale green, twisted in wood and thorny to the touch. The 

 other, C. diversifolius, Kell., is the counterpart to C. tomen- 

 tosus, its foliage soft and its limbs green like those of C. 

 Californicus. They trail along and cover the ground where 

 neither grass nor flower appears on mountain-ridges, and 

 make room only for the all-covering Mountain Misery, 

 Chamsebatia foliolosa, on lower ridges, where more 

 moisture and thicker shelter favors the growth of the 

 latter. 



The last Ceanothus, C. cordulatus, Kell., we find just as 

 we leave the region of the Sugar Pine. The herder thinks 

 about snow at the time he sets out with his herd for climb- 

 ing the mountains in early June and sees it over yonder, 

 where he is aiming. He looks close at hand upon low, 

 spreading shrubs all white with bloom, set in a thicket of 

 spines, clothed with pale green leaves, and this Ceanothus 

 he naturally calls Snow-brush. These shrubs, the bark of 

 which remains Nile-green almost all the year, develop in 

 a very regular bell-shaped form where they have any 

 chance, but they are usually pressed down by the heavy 

 snowfall for many months in the year. They resemble C. 

 cuneatus in their make-up, and like it they will cover every 

 inch of a hillside if open spots with fairly good soil are 

 reached, decaying lava giving them a favored ground. I 

 well remember the trial I once had when struggling through 

 their matted thorns in search of Lilium Washingtonianum, 

 which grows among them, standing like the candles on an 

 altar above the green cover spread for them. This Snow- 

 brush grows at an altitude of from 5,000 to 6,000 feet, just 

 where the cattlemen reach a ridge which offers them no feed 

 at all. The sheep ruin everything in the way of growth, 

 and this thorny, impenetrable Snow-brush protects the only 

 flowers we find in that region. The white Lily is rivaled 

 by the beautiful spike of Epilobium angustifolium, and in 

 well-defended shelters we gather the bright Erysimum 

 asperum, and the only grass which escapes the ravaging 

 sheep, the pretty Sporobolus gracillimus. 

 Berkeley. Calif. George Hansen. 



Conifers on the Grounds of the Kansas Agricultural 

 College.— IV. 



THE SPRUCES. 



THE Douglas Spruce, Pseudotsuga taxifolia, has not 

 been planted in great numbers, but specimens are to 

 be found in many different locations about the grounds, 

 and it seems to thrive in all. The starting of the trees is 

 attended with some little difficulty, but, once established, it 

 has uniformly done well, and I doubt if, on the whole, it is 

 much more tender than some of the Pines which have the 

 name of exceeding it in hardiness. Certain it is that three 

 Douglas Spruces, moved in January, 1896, leaving a large 

 ball of earth attached to the roots, and set near Science 

 Hall, have all lived and are growing well, while out of six 

 Scotch Pines moved at the same time to the same location 

 and treated in the same way, two have died. Similar good 

 results have attended the moving of the Douglas Spruce to 

 other parts of the grounds in other years, though care has 



always been exercised that the trees should be set in the 

 best manure possible and that the roots should not become 

 iry, a thing which seems to be more prejudicial to conifers 

 than deciduous trees. 



All the Douglas Spruces on the grounds are from two lots 

 set in nursery rows in the springs of 1887 and 1888, being 

 then about 16 inches in height. Since then most of them 

 have been moved to different parts of the grounds, but 

 eleven trees still stand in the old nursery rows, and these 

 average as follows : Height, 9 feet ; diameter at the ground, 

 3.92 inches; at 1 foot, 3.3 inches, and at 2 feet, 2. 8 inches. 

 The largest tree of the lot is 11J2 feet tall, with a diameter 

 of 5§4 inches at the ground. It will be remembered that 

 the tallest Scotch Pine of the lot planted in 1891 measured 

 1 1 feet in height, so that, counting the trees the same age 

 at setting, the Scotch Pine has made practically the same 

 growth in five years that the Douglas Spruce has in seven 

 years. When we remember that the Scotch Pine is one of 

 the most rapid-growing of the conifers, this is not a bad 

 showing for the Douglas Spruce, and certainly it ought to 

 be planted if only for its beauty. 



As beautiful as the last-named tree, almost more beautiful, 

 is the Colorado Blue Spruce, Picea pungens. It has been 

 planted to about the same extent in the grounds, and is 

 rather more hardy, though of slower growth. Specimens 

 with foliage of the pronounced glaucous shade form only a 

 small percentage of the seedlings, but the trees are always 

 handsome, and some persons prefer the darker shades 

 ordinarily considered less desirable. The characteristic 

 beauty of the tree is but little affected by drought or winter, 

 and, once established, it seems to thrive in the worst sea- 

 sons of this section of the state. Twelve trees set in the 

 nursery rows in 1888, being then about 12 inches high, and 

 allowed to remain there, now average 5^ feet in height, 

 3j<3 inches in diameter at the ground and 1.96 inches at 2 

 feet. The tallest tree is 7 feet. A single tree set in 1887 

 in a similar location now measures S}4 feet high, with a 

 diameter at the ground of 3?s inches, and at 1 foot about 

 3/8 inches. 



The White and Norway Spruces, though not very gener- 

 ally planted, have shown many desirable qualities. The 

 White especially has done very well, transplanting easily 

 and thriving in almost any location about the grounds. 

 The tendency which the Norway has to become ragged as 

 it gets older, especially if crowded in the least, is rather a 

 serious objection to it, and it is not so handsome a tree as 

 the White, even when well grown, though they are similar 

 in many respects. The Norway, moreover, is much more 

 susceptible to unfavorable climatic conditions. It is the 

 more rapid grower of the two, a growth of twelve to eigh- 

 teen inches from the terminal shoot not being uncommon 

 in favorable locations and among trees that are well estab- 

 lished, while in the White the terminal growth will range 

 from six to ten or twelve inches under similar condi- 

 tions. Most of the specimens on the grounds are too 

 young for their measurements to be of interest, but a sin- 

 gle specimen of the White Spruce, now about twenty years 

 old, measures as follows : Height, 27^ feet ; diameter at the 

 ground, 10 inches ; at 2 feet, 8 ^ inches, and at 6 feet, 7j4 

 inches. 



Agricultural College, Manhattan, Kansas. 



F. C. Sears. 



The Arrangement of Flowers. — III. 



THOSE SUITABLE FOR BOWLS. 



ONE of the principal ways of arranging flowers is in 

 bowls, and this is particularly suitable for many 

 garden and wild flowers, such as azalea, scarlet sage, 

 sweet clover and daisies. It is the easiest arrangement, 

 and the only one in which it is possible to use hand- 

 fuls of flowers at once. But this lazy method has its 

 limitations. In a mass of Azalea nudiflora, for instance, it 

 is better that one section should be of the darkest blossoms. 

 They grow in this way, one bush all of deep pink flowers, 

 while the next is covered with those of lighter color. Dis- 



