July 21, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



289 



necessarily works injustice, and those owners likely to suffer 

 loss will make a more vigorous fight against improvement 

 than its friends will in its favor. For instance, it can be readily 

 seen that while residential properties adjoining a new park 

 might increase in rent- yielding value to the full measure of 

 their assessments, properties devoted to business could derive 

 no advantage. On the contrary, because of the increased 

 capital charge, business in the improved locality would have 

 to be conducted on a less profitable basis or move away. 

 Cases of hardship cannot be altogether avoided under any 

 scheme of municipal improvement, but substantial justice can 

 be done under a fair system of assessment. Park improve- 

 ments will radiate value over a much greater area than the 

 immediately adjoining properties. For example, Central Park 

 undoubtedly diffuses a value throughout the whole of Man- 

 hattan Island, though, of course, in greater degree as the 

 properties affected lie in its near vicinity. 



Assuming, therefore, that park property is a paying invest- 

 ment, it remains to be seen what class of property ought to 

 bear the cost. In this connection it may be pointed out that 

 real estate reaps the whole benefit in a financial way, but, it 

 may be observed, improvements on real estate do not reap a 

 corresponding benefit, although these serve as a vehicle to 

 convey the accruing increase in value to the owners in the 

 tangible form of rent. Nothing of the kind can increase the 

 value of improvements beyond the cost of duplication. 



It would seem to follow, therefore, that the scientific method 

 of charging the cost of parks is by a general tax on values of 

 real estate, without respect to the improvements thereon. 

 Such a method would obviate the greatest difficulties attend- 

 ing the opening of new parks, and, because distributed among 

 all the taxpayers in the exact ratio of benefits received, would 

 provide for their maintenance on a liberal scale without un- 

 necessary friction. 

 New York Arthur Ugacn Lrlees. 



Recent Publications. 



Another part of the Synoptical Flora of Nortli America, 

 being vol. i., part i., fascicle ii., embracing the orders of 

 Polypetaloe from Caryophyllaceae to Polygalacece, has re- 

 cently appeared, having been issued on June 10th last. 

 The first part of this work, upon which Asa Gray labored 

 assiduously for many years, appeared in 1878, being 

 devoted to the Gamopetalae after Compositse. In 1884 

 Professor Gray produced another part, including Caprifo- 

 liacea? to Composite? inclusive, the elaboration of the last 

 family being his most important contribution to descriptive 

 Jjotany. After his death the work was taken up by his 

 successor, Mr. Sereno Watson, who died, however, without 

 adding to it. In October, 1895, Dr. B. L. Robinson, curator 

 of the Gray Herbarium, issued vol. i., part i., fascicle i., 

 including the families beginning with the Ranunculaceae 

 and ending at Frankeniacese, and he now issues another 

 part which is a substantial addition to this important work. 



The great Pink family, occupying nearly fifty pages, has 

 been elaborated by Dr. Robinson himself, who also con- 

 tributes monographs on the Ficoideee, and has also arranged 

 and extended Dr.Gray's preliminary studies on Portulacacete, 

 Elatinacea;, Malvaceae, Tilliaceae, Zygophyllaceae, Rutaceae, 

 Burseraceas, Anacardiaceas, Cyrillaceoe, Olacineas. The ac- 

 count of the Sapindaceas and Polygalacete is also from 

 Dr. Robinson's pen, while Professor Trelease describes the 

 Linacea?, Geraniacese, Celastraceae and Rhamnacere, Pro- 

 fessor Bailey the Vitaceae, and Professor Coulter the 

 Hypericaceae. 



The form of the work is similar to that adopted by Pro- 

 fessor Gray, and the nomenclature and arrangement of the 

 families and genera are as they were when he died. This 

 part contains, we believe, the last of Professor Gray's 

 manuscript, so that the succeeding parts will be entirely 

 the work of his successors. It is most desirable that they 

 appear as rapidly as possible, for a complete Flora of North 

 America is sadly needed everywhere by the students of 

 botany. 



We notice that especial attention is now given in this 

 work to the correct citation of bibliographical references 

 and figures, although the plates of different species of 

 Hypericum which have appeared from time to time in the 

 columns of this journal have been overlooked, while in 



other families, as far as we have observed, the figures of 

 Garden and Forest have been cited. As must invariably 

 happen where work of this sort is done by different authors, 

 there is a certain unevenness of treatment, although Dr. 

 Robinson's careful editing has largely remedied this incon- 

 venience. 



It is not our purpose here to criticise the system of 

 nomenclature adopted in the Flora of North America or to 

 discuss questions of the limitation of species, but simply 

 to call attention to the appearance of this important con- 

 tribution to the knowledge of American plants and to 

 congratulate the editor and his associates upon the comple- 

 tion of a thoroughly conscientious, conservative and able 

 piece of work, which we hope soon to see followed by the 

 concluding parts of this work, the best and greatest monu- 

 ment of Asa Gray. 



No. 2 of vol. v. of the Contributions to the United Stales 

 National Herbarium is devoted to a most interesting account 

 of the plants used by the Klamath Indians of Oregon, by 

 Dr. Frederick V. Coville, the principal botanist of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture. Nearly all the trees of the region 

 were used by the Indians in one form or another. The bark 

 of the White Fir, Abies concolor, to dye and tan their buck- 

 skin ; the wood of Juniperus occidentalis for boys' bows ; 

 the wood of Libocedrus, which is rare in the region west 

 of the Cascade summits, in former times for fire blocks and 

 occasionally in basket-making, the branches and twigs of 

 this tree being frequently employed in administering sweat 

 baths to the sick. The seeds of the Sugar Pine were used 

 for food, while from the Lodge Pole Pine, Pinus contorta, 

 var. Murrayana, sections of the bark are cut for baskets for 

 gathering berries, particularly huckleberries, which, placed 

 in such receptacles and covered with leaves, retain their 

 freshness for a long time. The pitch from this tree is used 

 as a remedy for sore eyes, a small fragment being placed 

 inside the lid. The young stems, stripped of their bark, are 

 used to push dug-outs through shallow water. The cam- 

 bium layer was scraped off and eaten in time of famine 

 just as the bark of the Yellow Pine was used, a fact which 

 was noticed long ago by Dr. Lyall, the naturalist of the 

 Oregon Boundary Commission. 



The chief timber used by the Klamaths is derived from 

 the Yellow Pine, Pinus ponderosa, the common tree in all 

 the region east of the Cascades. Their dug-outs are made 

 from single logs of this tree hollowed out by fire, and its 

 twigs were used as kindling-sticks in producing fire by 

 friction. From the Yew, Taxus brevifolia, which is pretty 

 widely distributed over all the mountain ranges of the 

 north-west, was derived the favorite bow wood of all the 

 Indian tribes of that part of the country. Hats were made 

 from the bark of Populus tremuloides, and cloth from that 

 of Populus balsamifera. The frames of the Indian snow- 

 shoes are commonly made from Willow wood, and the 

 young shoots of the different Willows which abound in the 

 region are used as material for packing-baskets. The bark 

 of the Alder, Alnus tenuifolia, boiled in water, formerly 

 served as a dye. 



It is curious to note that the Indians who were forced to 

 eat the roots, fruit and seeds of almost every plant, made 

 no use of the berries of Berberis repens, which certainly 

 are less disagreeable to the taste than many of the things 

 they seemed to relish. Philadelphus Lewisii, the common 

 Syringa of the north-west, it appears, has obtained the 

 name of arrow-wood because the Indians used the stems 

 in the manufacture of large arrows for war purposes or the 

 killing of big game. 



This is one of the most important and interesting con- 

 tributions to economic botany which has appeared for a 

 long time, and it will be followed, we trust, by similar 

 studies of the plants of other regions. 



Notes. 



A correspondent of an English paper speaks of the La Mance 

 Iris as the best garden Iris among the North American spe- 

 cies. The flowers are large and of a singularly rich color, the 



