June 23, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



243 



sufficiently stocked might form another inducement toward 

 forest preservation. Here, again, if the state benefits by 

 the existence of woods, it should reward the men who pre- 

 serve them by refunding or reducing taxes. Such laws will 

 constitute the most important step possible against further 

 decrease of the timbered area. The maintenance of the 

 forest-clad area, in consequence of forest fire and tax legis- 

 lation, will not, however, do away with the evils already 

 existing. It will not restore the millions of acres which are 

 not only unproductive, but a constant and increasing 

 danger to the lowlands, having lost their capacity of 

 storing up the precipitations, of mitigating atmospheric 

 extremes and conferring health on the neighboring popula- 

 tion. There are also vast districts, now more or less 

 heavily timbered, whose mere existence is so beneficial 

 that neither the lumberman nor the forester should be 

 allowed to cut them, as young seedling growth does not 

 act as beneficially on climate, water-supply, etc., as mature 

 woods do. With such forests, found at the headwaters of 

 streams or near large cities, the principles of economic 

 forestry do not hold good, because their value in the 

 economy of mankind is less than their value in the 

 economy of nature. Such forests must be withdrawn from 

 a merely financial treatment, for the sake of the common- 

 wealth. Withdrawal from the usual economic treatment 

 being identical with the withdrawal from ownership by 

 private individuals, their acquisition by the public becomes 

 a necessity. 



It would, of course, be absurd to dispense entirely and 

 invariably with the economic use of areas called forest 

 reserves or reservations in America. But, while financial 

 forestry manages the forests with the exclusive view of 

 securing the greatest money return, reservations are 

 meant, in the first instance, to furnish prosperity to the 

 commonwealth or to parts of it, and only such financial 

 profits are expected to be derived from them as are con- 

 sistent with their main purpose of existence — health-supply, 

 water-supply, protection of lowlands from destruction or 

 deterioration. The value of health, water and protection 

 secured to the commonwealth by forest reservations cannot 

 be exactly measured and expressed in dollars and cents. 

 We may estimate it, however, by calculating what loss the 

 community would incur if it were less healthy, more sub- 

 ject to sudden changes of temperature, possessed of fewer 

 opportunities of refreshment from outdoor life ; or, again, 

 what loss the community would suffer from an inadequate 

 supply of water for domestic use, irrigation and naviga- 

 tion ; from the destruction of bridges and roads and rail- 

 roads, farm-lands, houses and human lives by inundations 

 and floods. The principal return from forest reservations 

 is not shown in money gained, but in losses avoided. If 

 the sum of the losses which a given community would 

 annually undergo in consequence of the ruin of a reserva- 

 tion is estimated at $4,000,000, then the value of the reserva- 

 tion is about $100,000,000. 



Every reservation, apart from its value as a barrier 

 against possible losses, has a value as a source of money 

 returns from the sale of timber, etc. True forest manage- 

 ment, in the case of reservations, is that which renders the 

 value of the "barrier against losses" plus the value of the 

 "source of revenue" a maximum. The more a tract of 

 woodland has the quality of a reservation the less will 

 forest management regard strict economic principles in its 

 treatment, and the more necessary becomes its acquisition 

 by the community interested in it. 



BUtmore, N. C. C. A. Sclietick. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Crinum Schimperi.— This plant is thriving out-of-doors at 

 Kew under the same conditions as Crinum Mooreanum, 

 C. longiflorum and the hybrid C. Powelli. It may, there- 

 fore, be looked upon as another addition to hardy Crinums, 

 and as it is a well-marked species with glaucous subdis- 



tichous leaves and tall scapes of handsome white flowers, 

 it is likely to become a popular garden plant. It was 

 introduced about ten years ago from the mountains of 

 Abyssinia, where it was first gathered by Schimper, who 

 also found C. Abyssinicum, with which C. Schimperi was 

 confounded. It is figured in The Botanical Magazine, t. 

 7417. Another species of Crinum which has been tested 

 for its hardiness at Kew is C. Americanum, a native of the 

 southern United States, but it is too tender for our climate, 

 even when planted in a sheltered position against the south 

 wall of a greenhouse. 



Lathyrus splendens. — We are delighted with this, the 

 " Pride of California," which has been a beautiful picture of 

 flowers for the last two months and promises to continue in 

 bloom well into the summer. It is as beautiful as any Pea 

 I know, as floriferous as a Scarlet-runner and as easy to 

 manage when once its requirements are understood. We 

 have it planted in a bed of loam in a sunny, airy green- 

 house, with its shoots at first trained on strings within a 

 foot of the roof. The training has, however, ceased and 

 the new luxuriant growth straggles and festoons in all direc- 

 tions, while from every leaf-axil springs an elegant raceme 

 of from four to eight deep crimson flowers. A peculiarity of 

 this species is the production of one or a pair of flowers at 

 the base of the stalk of the raceme, and almost sessile in 

 the axils of the leaves. It is likely to become a popular 

 greenhouse climber now that its merits have been revealed 

 here and its requirements have been hit upon. For the last 

 five years we have tried to grow it in the open air, and 

 have always failed. 



Rhododendron, Madame Moser. — I omitted this new 

 plant from my notes of last week. It is a double-flowered 

 variety of the Caucasicum x arboreum group, and is 

 apparently dwarf and floriferous. The color of the flowers 

 is deep crimson. This variety is interesting mainly on 

 account of its being the second double-flowered variety of 

 this class of Rhododendron, the other being fastigiata flore- 

 plena, which is a seedling form of R. Ponticum. It is ques- 

 tionable if doubling the flowers of Rhododendron would 

 be an improvement, although the double varieties of Indian 

 Azaleas are beautiful as Carnations. At any rate, the dou- 

 bling has started, and, no doubt, before long we shall see 

 more of it. The variety under notice has been raised by 

 Monsieur Moser, of Versailles, and it has been awarded a 

 certificate by the Royal Horticultural Society. 



Olearia macrodonta. — While the majority of the New Zea- 

 land Daisy-bushes are too tender to bear our severest frosts, 

 several are useful shrubs for outdoor cultivation, Olearia 

 Haastii being the most familiar. One of the most distinct 

 and handsome is O. macrodonta, which forms a robust 

 shrub in the open and also grows well against a wall. It 

 has woody striate brown stems, freely branched and clothed 

 with evergreen oblong gray-green leaves, silvery on the 

 under side, the margins broken into large irregular teeth ; 

 in size and outline they are very similar to those of the 

 common Holly. The flowers are borne on short branches 

 in crowded terminal heads six inches in diameter, each 

 flower being half an inch across, pure white, with purplish 

 disk. The Kew plant is now flowering freely. It used to 

 be called O. dentata. A figure of it was published in The 

 Botanical Magazine, t. 7065. 



Philadejlphus Mexicanus. — Although introduced into 

 English gardens more than fifty years ago, this plant has 

 found little favor, probably because of its tenderness com- 

 pared with the other and more commonly grown species. 

 At Kew it is perfectly happy against the south wall of a 

 greenhouse, and for the past month it has been flowering 

 freely, its fragrant, creamy white, saucer-shaped flowers, 

 nearly two inches across, occurring singly at the ends of 

 the short lateral branchlets, while the leaves are dark 

 green and shining, ovate lanceolate, two inches long, the 

 three principal nerves very conspicuous and the margins 

 dentate. The plant is first-rate in every sense when 

 grown as here described, and I have no doubt that it 

 would prove useful for cultivation in cool houses in the 



