232 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 486. 



character of its site that it looks as thoroughly at home as 

 though it had stood for thirty years ; and the peculiar 

 charm of its surroundings springs from their peculiarly 

 local character. Nowhere else but -just here on the shore 

 of Lake Michigan could they wear the aspect they wear 

 to-day ; and only a very ignorant eye would be willing to 

 change their individual beauty for that of a more garden- 

 esque or more conventional kind. 



Another instance of the intelligent treatment of a pecu- 

 liar site is found near Graceland, in the Saddle and Cycle 

 Clubhouse and its grounds. The low sandy bluffs over- 

 hanging the beach have not been leveled or changed for 

 the support of this house. It stretches itself picturesquely 

 along the verge of two of them, the little break between 

 being spanned by a graceful arch, which carries a con- 

 nectjng piazza. A natural grove of Oaks comfortably 

 overshadows its roofs, and the native vegetation has not 

 been disturbed by uprootings or by the addition of inhar- 

 monious plants. This house also looks as though it had 

 grown where it stands, and its effect is both beautiful and 

 individual, because nature's scheme has been understood 

 and respected. But not far away runs a straight road 

 bordered on both sides by villas, one row of them immedi- 

 ately facing the lake. Here we see very clearly the effects 

 of the evil art of doing too much. The process by which 

 many of the little places have been given an empty, 

 conventional, unindividual, unattractive aspect is re- 

 vealed by the many lots upon which no houses yet 

 stand. Those which have not yet been "improved'' 

 are diversified in surface — not boldly, but to a degree 

 which would afford an intelligent artist a chance to 

 individualize each lot by the placing of the house and its 

 paths and outbuildings. They are covered with picturesque 

 groves of trees, wind-blown and rugged, yet for this very 

 reason harmonizing admirably with the outlook over the 

 beach and the wind-swept lake. And they are furthermore 

 adorned by rich undergrowths of large shrubs and luxuriant 

 vines. Adjacent lots, however, show the process of "im- 

 provement " which will rapidly sweep all these features 

 away. The lots which are called ready for purchaser and 

 builder have been carefully reduced to an absolute level ; 

 all the trees, except, perhaps, one or two of the largest, 

 have been removed, and every trace of shrubs, flowers and 

 natural turf has been wiped away. These lots resemble 

 huge garden-beds prepared for the work of "bedding out." 

 They are utterly ruined as characteristic sites in a locality 

 to which nature had given a peculiar sort of beauty ; and, 

 swept by the cold breath of Lake Michigan, they are unfit 

 for the production of conventional gardenesque effects. 

 The only thing that an artist could wish to do with them 

 would be to restore such irregularities of surface as they 

 once displayed and to reproduce the sort of vegetation 

 with which they once were clothed. This, of course, 

 would be a difficult, if not an impossible, process, and 

 would demand many years for its fulfillment Practically, 

 the sites are destroyed for all artistic purposes. 



There are many places in this section where similar 

 offenses against good taste are evident, and many persons 

 who are considered intelligent and cultivated seem to think 

 that all trees are ugly and intrusive, and all shrubs and flowers 

 offensive weeds, unless they are counted in the gardener's 

 list of ornamental plants. If these ideas and their ex- 

 pression in practice were confined to one district it would 

 be hardly worth while to criticise them. Unfortunately, 

 however, in one or another form they are revealed to the 

 traveler in almost every part of our land. Many planters 

 have never learned that to produce artistic results upon 

 nature's canvas one must follow her suggestions and use 

 her local materials. The evil art of doing too much afflicts 

 the mind and eye both in indiscreet additions to nature's 

 work and indiscreet preparatory eliminations of this work. 



Pinus muricata. 



FOUR species of the Pine-trees of the United States grow 

 by the sea on the Pacific coast, maintaining a foot- 

 hold in the most exposed situations and tossing their sturdy 

 branches to the gale. The first of these, Pinus contorta, 

 stretches along the coast from Alaska to Mendocino County, 

 California. This is a small tree, rarely more than thirty 

 feet high, and on the while clay barrens of Mendocino^ 

 ripening miniature cones when only a few inches in 

 height. This tree, however, is not confined to the imme- 

 diate neighborhood of the coast, but spreads inland through 

 Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, and, 

 assuming various forms, ultimately passes into the Lodge 

 Pole Pine of both slopes of the Rocky Mountains and of the 

 high California Sierras. 



From a point just north of the southern limits of the 

 range of Pinus contorta, the second of these maritime Pines, 

 Pinus muricata, stretches southward along the California 

 coast, leaving several gaps, however, as far south at least as 

 San Luis Obispo County, and reappears on the coast of 

 Lower California. 



Pinus muricata is one of the Pines which produce their 

 leaves in pairs and is a tree usually from twenty-five to 

 fifty feet in height, although much larger individuals may 

 sometimes be seen, especially toward the northern limits 

 of its range, where it grows apparently much larger than 

 farther south. This Pine has little value economically, as 

 the wood is too resinous and coarse-grained for any use 

 except as fuel, and as an ornamental tree in cultivation it 

 has little to recommend it, although on the inland side of 

 low hills back from Tomalis Point, north of San Francisco 

 Bay, it becomes sometimes a handsome round-topped, 

 symmetrical tree with a dense head of dark foliage. It is 

 chiefly interesting from the remarkable thickness of the 

 bark, which on comparatively small trunks is sometimes 

 five or six inches thick, a peculiarity which is well shown 

 in our illustration on page 235 of this issue, made from a 

 photograph for which we are indebted to Mr. J. G. Lemmon, 

 the enthusiastic and successful student of the conifers of 

 western North America. It is also remarkable for the per- 

 sistence of its ovate oblique cones, armed with short, 

 stout, recurved prickles, which are produced in whorls 

 and remain on the trunk and branches sometimes for thirty 

 or forty years, often becoming imbedded in the bark. 



The third of these trees, Pinus radiata, or, as it is more 

 generally known, Pinus insignis, is more restricted in its 

 distribution, being confined to the region immediately adja- 

 cent to the Bay of Monterey, where it forms a narrow forest 

 a few miles long back of the grove of Monterey Cypresses 

 on Point Pinos. It is this Pine that surrounds and shelters 

 the hotel Del Monte at Monterey. 



The fourth of these Pines, Pinus Torreyana, is found only 

 on the border of the high bluff and on the sides of the 

 ravines extending from it to the sea, north and south of 

 Del Mar, in San Diego County, where it stretches along the 

 coast for a distance of nearly eight miles, but nowhere 

 penetrates inland more than a mile and a half. A single 

 grove of this tree also grows on the east end of Santa Rosa 

 Island, off the California coast. 



There is harmony in planting as there is in music. Variety 

 and even wildness may be admitted, but discord cannot be 

 allowed. — Planting and Rural Ornament. iyg6. 



Private Forestry and State Forestry. — I. 



F v OR years both Congress and the state legislatures 

 throughout the country have anticipated the disas- 

 trous effects of the disappearance of the forests. But, 

 unfortunately, as soon as the question, What is to be done ? 

 is raised, we find among the legislators as many opinions 

 as there are members, because on account of lack of expe- 

 rience it is impossible to decide in advance what is the best 

 scheme. Inaction on the ground of ignorance of the best 

 method shows poor statesmanship. Von Moltke used to 

 say, "To act unwisely is wiser than not to act at all," and 

 this certainly holds good with forestry. Whatever the 

 beginning in forestry may be — if there is only a decided 



