March 24, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



1 1 1 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



riU'.I.ISHEI) WEEKLY I1Y 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST-OFFICE AT NEW YORK. N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 1897. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Article" — Roadside Trees m 



Sculpture in Gardens William Robinson. 112 



Pinus palustris in France. (With figure.) Maurice L de Vilmorin. 112 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter IV. Watson. 113 



Plant Notes P. B. Kennedy. 114 



Cultural Department : — American Trees for Ornamental Planting E. J. 114 



Cymbidiums E. O. Orpet. 116 



Notes from the Botanic Garden of Smith College ...Edward J. Canning. 117 



Cypripedium spectabile Lora S. La Mance. 117 



Cypripedium insigne, var. Mutchianum, Cypripedium Leeanum, var. 



Zenobia .'/. Dim mock. 1 17 



Removal of Greenhouse Shading ill. G. Kains. 117 



Cokkespondence : — Notes from Gardens in Brookline, Massachusetts. 



T. D. Hatfield. 1.7 

 The Rotation of Species of Trees Under Forest Conditions, 



Fro/cssor L. C. Corbet t. 118 



Bibliographical Notes on American Trees. — I Edward L. Greene. 119 



Recent Publications ng 



Notes. 120 



Illustration : — Pinus palustris, near Bordeaux, France, Fig. 14 115 



Roadside Trees. 



WE have often spoken of the beauty of our country 

 highways and byways, especially in hilly and 

 rugged sections, when nature is allowed to furnish beauty 

 and shade in her own way with shrubbery and trees by 

 the roadside. Every one can recall some example of a 

 particular stretch of road which has come to be a personal 

 delight, and then has been made desolate by the wanton 

 work of some pathmaster or property-owner whose land 

 abutted on the highway. In most states it is the privilege 

 of landowners to do what they will with the plants by 

 the roadside in front of their fields, and noble trees have 

 too often in this way been sacrificed to the greed of private 

 owners. Where a venerable tree stands by the wayside it 

 becomes a part of the scenery, and as it has from time 

 immemorial given pleasure to the entire community, 

 every one who passes it feels that he has in some sense 

 a right of property in it. We can recall one instance 

 where three White Oaks had stood for nearly two centu- 

 ries on a roadside in northern New Jersey. Men well 

 advanced in life had heard their grandfathers speak of 

 them as large trees when they were boys, and in the course 

 of their long existence they had never harmed any one, but 

 had been a source of delight to thousands. One day the 

 owner of the property abutting the road was offered a 

 few dollars for each of the trees by the operator of a 

 sawmill, and in a few hours the trunks of these venerable 

 landmarks were made into sawlogs, and the landscape 

 lost an ornament which could not be replaced in a hundred 

 years. 



In most cities the owners of building lots are not per- 

 mitted to do as they will with the street trees. These 

 cannot be removed without a permit from some municipal 

 authority, and why should not this rule be extended to the 

 country? Certainly, trees are as beautiful and useful along 

 a rural road as in a city street. Indeed, if the landowners 

 in a farm region knew that the beauty of any countryside 

 was a real factor in its money value they would be more 

 careful how they defaced or mutilated the scenery by fell- 

 ing trees and disturbing wayside shrubbery. Many coun- 

 try places receive the largest part of their annual income 

 from sojourners in the summer who leave the city for a 



season of rest, and the general appearance of the country 

 very often determines the tide of travel. It is, therefore, 

 destructive of their own interests when the inhabitants of 

 any section use the axe to obliterate natural beauty and 

 rob their roads of all shady attractiveness. 



Massachusetts began some years ago to enact laws for 

 the protection of wayside trees, and Mr. Christopher 

 Clarke, Trustee of Public Reservations, writes to the 

 Springfield Republican to protest against cutting down 

 these adornments of roadways. He asserts that if the 

 destruction continues at the present rate it will not be long 

 before every beautiful wooded drive or shaded road will 

 be stripped bare and have nothing left but a hot and 

 barren road, so that the principal attraction of many 

 Massachusetts towns for former residents or summer 

 visitors will be lost forever. He quotes one law in partic- 

 ular which gives the selectmen of a town, as well as 

 certain city officials, an opportunity to mark roadside trees 

 to be saved whenever a wood lot is to be cut, or when for 

 any cause a tree is in danger, and such designation makes 

 the preservation of this tree permanent. When such a tree 

 is selected for preservation a spike is driven into it with the 

 letter " M " at its head, and these spikes are furnished free 

 by the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture. Among 

 the provisions of the various laws quoted are these : ( i ) No 

 person shall cut down or injure any tree on any street or 

 public road in the state; (2) no such tree can be legally 

 cut down by any one except after due notice has been 

 given or made to the selectmen of the town ©r the munici- 

 pal authorities and proper consent given ; (3) the penalty 

 for cutting down a roadside tree is a fine of not less than 

 $5.00, or more than a hundred, one-half of which goes to 

 the complainant, and the other to the use of the person 

 upon whose property the trespass was committed; (4) a 

 like fine is enforced if a marked tree or any other tree out- 

 side the fence or the line of the wood lot or homestead is 

 cut down without authority, one-half going to the com- 

 plainant and one-half to the city or town ; (5) these laws 

 apply to trees before any citizen's residence, farm or wood 

 lot, bordering on any public road or street, and no road- 

 master, forester or highway surveyor can cut down a tree 

 without leave specifically granted by the city or town 

 after a proper hearing. 



We do not know how many other states have laws of 

 this character, but certainly there ought to be enactments 

 of this nature in every commonwealth. It is not generally 

 known, even in Massachusetts, that some of these laws 

 now exist, and Mr. Clarke asks every editor in that state to 

 copy his letter, so that the people can take advantage of a 

 protection that has been secured for them in the shape of legis- 

 lation which will, if properly enforced, stop the wholesale 

 destruction of beautiful trees still standing. It is especially 

 urged that city and village improvement societies and rural 

 clubs throughout the state unite in enforcing these laws, 

 and we have no doubt that the conviction of a few offenders 

 will do much to save trees in the future. Another sugges- 

 tion made by Mr. Clarke is an admirable one : where large 

 and beautiful trees are standing just outside of the line of 

 streets or roads and on private grounds the trees might be 

 purchased and allowed to remain and be marked for pro- 

 tection, so that at a nominal cost a continuous and effective 

 shade could often be secured. 



Certainly it has been too long the prevalent opinion that 

 a tree has no value. Telegraph linemen, trolley-road 

 layers and their employers generally have thought noth- 

 ing of chopping down any tree which chanced to stand in 

 the way of their work. These offenders have sometimes 

 been brought to justice in courts of law, but they too often 

 escape when the trial comes before a jury because these 

 men cannot be convinced that the cutting of a tree indicts 

 any damage that a grown man can feci. Organization will 

 do much to save the refreshing beauty of our country road- 

 sides. This has already found expression in Massachu- 

 setts law, and if the same organization will strive to 

 enforce the law the conviction of a lew vandals will inspire 



