Skptkmber 8, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



351 



and so widely distributed as to furnish the well-known 

 cultivated varieties mentioned above. The varieties in 

 question differ from Scheeles description in having singje 

 straight trunks, in being from fifteen to twenty feet high, 

 instead of from three to six feet, and in having often three 

 flowers to each fascicle, instead of one or two. The dis- 

 tribution of the species is given by Coulter* as "not 

 uncommon on the Colorado and its tributaries, and extend- 

 ing to the upper Guadalupe and the Leona," and the 

 specimens referred to above give no important evidence 

 of its occurrence this side of western Texas. In comparison 

 with this distribution the origin of the cultivated varieties 

 should be carefully considered. As far as known their 

 sources are as follows : Cumberland, Tennessee; Garfield, 

 Ohio; Golden Beauty, south-west Texas ; Kanawha, Fair- 

 view, Kentucky; Leptune, Arkansas; Missouri Apricot, 

 Missouri; Moreman, Kentucky; Sucker State, Illinois; 

 Wayland, Cadiz, Kentucky. 



The evidence of this list is quite contrary to the supposi- 

 tion of a Prunus rivularis parentage for the varieties 

 named ; but, on the other hand, must be regarded as de- 

 cidedly favorable to theirclassification in thepseudo-species, 

 P. hortulana. 



It seems to me important that this group of Plums should 

 be understood separately, and that its relationships should 

 be worked out as speedily and as accurately as possible ; 

 and while the evidence here reviewed leads me to reject the 

 hypothesis of their derivation from Prunus rivularis, that 

 species seems to be a promising one, and we would do 

 well not to lose sight of it too soon. 



University of Vprmunt. F. A. Waitgrl, 



What Can be Dune in Nine Years. 



MANY persons think it is useless to plant trees 

 because so many years will be required for their 

 growth that the planter will not live to sit under their 

 shade, and can never enjoy the fruit of his labors. This 

 is clearly a mistake. From personal experience on a 

 most unpromising piece of ground, I am prepared to say 

 that three years' work will produce an encouraging effect 

 almost anywhere if one goes about it in the right way ; 

 that in five years trees will be well enough along to be 

 ornamental, while in ten years one may have a really 

 beautiful place if it is properly planted to begin with. 



An account of our inexperienced beginnings at Overlea 

 was published in Garden and Forest six years ago (see 

 vol. iv. ), and to those who were interested in that story 

 this account will not be without a certain value, as it will 

 show how a little place can be rescued from total neglect and 

 desolation and turned from an eyesore into an ornament of 

 the village in a few short years. One decade counts for little 

 in a life, and it must be remembered that not half of that time 

 was required here to produce valuable and effective results, 

 even with imperfect knowledge and very moderate expense. 

 We began on our abandoned farm by planting a screen of 

 Willows along the straight street which separates it from 

 the salt marsh of which it was originally a part. These 

 Willows, it may be remembered, were driven down as 

 stakes, without a leaf or branch, along the boundary, and 

 set as closely as possible in a row. Some of these have 

 now reached the height of forty-five feet, and a large one 

 within the line, in a particularly propitious situation where 

 it had room to spread, left, when it was felled last year, a 

 butt considerably over two feet in diameter. All have not 

 grown equally fast, for some of them had to be moved, 

 and others, being set along the street made by filling in 

 across the salt-marshes, had a very stony foundation as 

 well as an occasional dose of salt-water from a high tide, 

 and grew feebly. These, however, exist just where we 

 desire to have them as a hedge, and their tops are kept 

 down that we may view the meadow on the other side, so 

 that their lack of vigor is an advantage. By vigorous 

 pruning they have assumed a round bushy form, thick at 



* Botany 0/ Western Texas, Call.: U. S.Nat. Herb., vol. ii.,p. 



the base, and the road outside is completely hidden from 

 sight. 



A White Willow, already of good size when set out in 

 18SS near the house for immediate shade, has spread 

 widely from having been polled in the beginning, but is 

 ten feet shorter than the trees which have grown from 

 stakes. A Golden Osier carried in my hand from a neigh- 

 bor's house in 1889, and transplanted twice, now measures 

 thirty-nine feet in height, having run up a long leader, 

 always much bent over by the prevailing south-west winds 

 of this region. Both these trees are set upon a sandy 

 knoll with no moisture, whereas lhe fine specimen which 

 was cut down had its roots in the fresh meadow, where it 

 was always well watered and supplied with good soil. 



The Willow at the south-west corner of the house we 

 always intended to remove after a few years, to leave 

 room for a Maple beyond it. But though the branches of 

 the two now touch, it is so pleasant and important a neigh- 

 bor that we have not yet found resolution to take it away. 

 The fact is that the planting of nurses for trees results in 

 subsequent pangs, for by the time the nurse ought to come 

 down it has grown dear and necessary, and though it is 

 injuring its charge, the charge is still incompetent to take 

 its place. Then one is sure to weakly succumb and tem- 

 porize after our feeble human fashion, preferring, as we do, 

 present comfort to future good. Nobody but the born 

 philosopher has the courage " de se tourmenter pendant la 

 vie pour qu'on parle de lui quand il soit mort " Strive as 

 we may, our philosophy is ever tempered with weak- 

 hearted relenting toward those branches which have first 

 shaded our bare walls, even though we have sense enough 

 to be ashamed of it. To cut down a tree and sit in the sun 

 for two or three years until another grows large enough to 

 take its place, is more than we can do yet, but no doubt 

 we shall come to it. 



Next to the Willows the Maples are our tallest trees, and 

 the crowning glory of the front of thegrounds is a symmet- 

 rical White Cut-leaved Maple, which, but an eight-foot 

 feather-duster in the summer of |88S, is now more than 

 thirty-five feet high, with a spread of nearly thirty feet. 

 This tree grows on the gravelly knoll on which the house 

 stands, its only advantage being that it had a wide, deep 

 hole dug for it, into which seven loads of loam were 

 dumped when it was planted. Such a tree set out in con- 

 genial soil would probably be much larger, but my object 

 is not to show what can be done with favorable conditions, 

 but with those which at the outset seemed most unpromis- 

 ing. The result goes to prove that if a good bed is made 

 for a tree at the start, and plenty of water and top-dressing 

 are supplied for two or three years, it will afterward be in 

 condition to get its own living, even from such poor pick- 

 ings as a gravel bank affords; and that no one should 

 hesitate on account of seemingly impossible soil to give a 

 tree a chance by a slight expenditure in the first place, to 

 show its powers of growth and endurance. The White 

 Maple flourishes here, in glacial debris, with a number of 

 other trees within thirty feet of it, and is quick of growth 

 and particularly agreeable in outline. Its lower branches 

 have a graceful downward sweep to the ground, with the 

 tips mounting up again in a curve ; the foliage is a cheerful 

 light green of very open and airy character, so that the sun- 

 light is not excluded from the turf below. The one Ispeak 

 of was eighteen inches in circumference two feet from the 

 ground at the time it was transplanted, and now measures 

 three feet around in the same place. 



Two good-sized Norway Maples, transplanted in |anuarv, 

 1S88, are now as tall as the ridge-pole of the house. They 

 were too severely cut back at first, our knowledge of a 

 tree's necessities being at that time very limited, ami con- 

 sequently they made too many branches and have to be 

 thinned out every June, the best month for pruning 

 Maples. The largest of these trees is about three feet in 

 circumference at the base, with a shock head, very thick and 

 round, but not particularly graceful, and is about twenty- 

 five feet high. Its neighbor is much more beautiful in form 



