May 26, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



39 



scene is changed. Looking over the unbroken, unbrowsed 

 prairies in June and July we see acres upon acres of 

 bloom. Here one can find a hundred solid acres of Phlox, 

 white, mauve, pink, carmine, crimson and red, and all this 

 dashed with the brilliant red of ten thousand flowers of Lilium 

 Philadelphicum. A tiny rivulet, rippling past banks fringed as 

 far as the eye can reach with the mingled scarlet and indigo 

 hues of our two brightest Lobelias ; a sweep of lowland one 

 solid sheet of azure-blue Houstonias, and a wooded hillside 

 thickly dotted with thousands upon thousands of the golden 

 bells of Erythronium Americanum ; these are other examples 

 of nature's floral wealth that might be multiplied indefi- 

 nitely, and why could they not be imitated in our large parks, 

 or on a smaller scale in our less spacious ones ? 



One tires of the artificiality of carpet-beds and formal par- 

 terres, and it is doubtful if these things ever gave a tired city 

 toiler a longing for the country. But a bit of nature that tells 

 of the wildwood and the river path is a standing invitation to 

 turn from noisy streets to the country's peace and quietude. If 

 the masses in our crowded cities cannot go to nature for enjoy- 

 ment, why not bring real nature to them — and nature in one 

 of her most inspiring moods? 



Pineville, Mo. Lord S. La JShltlce. 



Protecting Roses in Winter. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In Wisconsin we must protect in winter, climbers, 

 such as the Prairie Queen and all hybrid Perpetual Roses, or 

 they die. In the rural districts this is made difficult by the 

 field mice, which work into the litter, where bush or vine is 

 laid down, or up into the windings of those left erect, and 

 gnaw off the sterns to make room for their nests. Many lay 

 their choice Roses on the ground and cover with inverted sods 

 and then with litter. This plan succeeds, but is a great task, 

 and uncovering must be done early, or the plant is smothered. 

 The risk of a late frost must be taken. 



At my summer place in Lake Mills I have for four years 

 tried the experiment of a rough board housing or " lean-to," 

 otherwise tight, but wide open on the north side. A few dead 

 leaves are scattered around the roots, but nothing more. 

 Covers are kept on until after May 15th. The shoots start 

 late, and are somewhat pale, of course, but never have suf- 

 fered from the uncovering, and I have never lost wood or 

 failed of a luxuriant bloom. 



This plan beats the mice, retards spring starting, and does 

 away with the hurry to uncover. Perhaps the idea is new. 

 At any rate, it is not borrowed and is novel in that neigh- 

 borhood. . 



Chicago, in. David E. Bradley. 



Sprouting Pines. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — To the interesting notes on sprouting Pines, given in 

 No. 482 of Garden and Forest by Mr. Pinchot, I can add the 

 following : 



(1) The sprouting of Pinus echinata, which Mr. Pinchot sup- 

 poses to have observed for the first time, is, as I have often 

 had occasion to see, a common occurrence over its entire 

 field of distribution. Dr. Mohr, in his monograph on the 

 Timber Pines of the Southern States, on page 9S (Bulletin 

 No. 13 of Division of Forestry), writes as follows about this 

 capacity of the Long-leaf Pine : 



"During this season (the second year) adventitious buds 

 appear at the collar of the stem, which bring forth vigorous 

 sprouts, particularly if the stem has sustained the slightest 

 injury. They are apt to form strong branches before the tree 

 has reached its fourth or fifth year. Such branches, which are 

 produced profusely from the stumps of larger trees, scarcely 

 survive another season." 



(2) To the Pines which produce persistent sprouts one of the 

 southern species is to be added. Mr. Roth, of the Division of 

 Forestry, now traveling in the south, sends us a specimen of 

 the root of a Pinus serotina sapling with the signs of at least 

 two crops of sprouts and a number of living sprouts, the 

 largest of which is at least four or five years old, with a length 

 of nearly four feet and twenty millimeters diameter at the root- 

 collar. Mr. Roth states that hundreds of cases of such sprout- 

 ing can be observed on an acre, some of those seen being ten 

 years and more old. Logs as well as scrubby trees, much like 

 those of Pinus rigida, are clothed along the stem with short 

 sprouts. 



This Pine, by the way, known to the loggers as " Marsh Pine," 

 forms a considerable proportion of the lumber cut along the 

 seacoast of North Carolina, where, with Pinus palustris, it 



covers extensive flats, or, with P. Tosda, goes into the m. lies, 

 often replacing P. Taeda and becoming the only occupant. 



It develops nearly as well as the latter, averaging about one 

 foot in height per year, and in six years making a diameter of 

 thirty inches, with forty feet of log-length. It bleeds freely, 

 and is bled for turpentine, as it seems all the southern Pines 

 now are, with the exception of Pinus glabra. 



While this capacity for sprouting is interesting physio- 

 logically, it can hardly be of economic value, except where, as 

 in the Jersey plains, to keep a vegetable cover in spite of the 

 recurring fires, may be of future benefit. 



Washington, D. C. B. E. Femow. 



Recent Publications. 



Die Nadelholzer des Cilicischen Taunts. By Walter Siehe. 

 Gartenflora, March and April, 1897. 



In these short papers an interesting and vivid account is 

 given of the coniferous trees indigenous to the long moun- 

 tain range on the south coast of Asia Minor. The 

 northern slopes of the mountains have been entirely laid 

 waste by the wanton destruction of the forests for the use 

 of silver smelters, and the trees referred to occur on the 

 southern slopes, and in many cases have been preserved 

 owing to the inaccessibility of the regions where they are 

 at home. The Turk is not the best forester in the world, 

 and of forest management there is none at all. A piaster 

 (five cents) will purchase a tree, and any wandering shep- 

 herd is liable, for an evening's entertainment, to set fire to 

 a Cedar of Lebanon, which, if properly hewn and trans- 

 ported a three days' journey to the coast, would realize a 

 small fortune. 



Among the trees noted, the Lebanon Pine, Pinus Brutia, 

 Ten., is the most widespread of the Cilician conifers, and 

 forms vast forests at an altitude of from 400 to 1,500 meters. 

 It is a magnificent tree, much resembling P. Strobus, L., in 

 its habit. The forests are very dense, and many of the 

 trees reach a height of thirty meters, of which twenty 

 meters show an absolutely erect, branchless trunk. Higher 

 in the range, from 1,500 meters up to the Cedar zone, the 

 Black Pine, P. Laricio, Poir., var., is encountered in 

 quantities ; a fine tree, with smaller cones than those of the 

 type. Abies Cilicica, Ant. & Ky., is abundant, and more 

 famed for its stately beauty than for the usefulness of its 

 wood. In the forest near Namrun it attains a height of more 

 than thirty-five meters, with a diameter of three-fourths of a 

 meter, and preserves its branches down to the ground. 

 In some parts of the range it forms dense forests, to the 

 exclusion of other species, and thrives up to an altitude of 

 2,000 meters. The highest forest region is the most inter- 

 esting in the mountain chain, for there, in company of Pinus 

 Laricio and Abies Cilicica, is found that most magnificent 

 of all trees, the Cedar of Lebanon, Cedrus Libani. On the 

 mountains from which it takes its name it is all but extinct ; 

 in the Taurus, however, it thrives in great luxuriance, and 

 has been preserved owing to the remote and almost inap- 

 proachable crags where it thrives. It is rather widespread, 

 and extends from the Lycian Mountains to the Euphrates, 

 rarely descending below the 1,200 meter level. It grows 

 in open forests, each tree standing alone in stately grandeur, 

 the straight, slender trunks not rarely one meter in diame- 

 ter and forty meters in height. The cedar-wood is very 

 valuable and twice as costly as that of the Pines. It is 

 yellowish, very close and deliciously fragrant. Its dura- 

 bility was appreciated even when the Temple was built at 

 Jerusalem, and to-day, cut into the panels whereon 

 "icons" are painted, it is in great demand in the Greek 

 Church. Taxus baccata, L., is occasionally encountered, 

 usually only solitary and scattered specimens, some of 

 which attain the considerable diameter of half a meter. 

 Curiously enough, the principal factor in their preservation 

 has been the fear of a certain legendary and revengeful 

 nymph, and it would be very difficult to give their age. 

 The Oriental Cypress, Cupressus sempervirens, L. , is rare in 

 the range, and it is noted that the pyramidal form of the tree, 

 so frequent in eastern cemeteries and elsewhere in orna- 

 mental planting, was only seen a few times in the wild state. 



