352 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 49S. 



and is a little taller, while a third of the same species 

 planted sixteen months later, when much smaller than the 

 others, overtops them both, though it has not so great 

 lateral extent. This goes to prove what the authorities 

 state, that in the long run small transplanted trees outgrow 

 large ones. The offset to this fact is that the latter give you 

 more shade immediately, while you are waiting for their 

 younger neighbors to attain their height. 



So far as our observation goes the larger the tree trans- 

 planted the more stationary it remains, if it remains at all, 

 which is most unlikely. A few years ago a man from the 

 west came to this town and offered for a large price, rang- 

 ing from forty to a hundred dollars each, to move trees of 

 any size and warrant them to live. A machine was used 

 to lift them after the roots had been cut off too near the 

 trunk. The great Oaks and Elms moved for some of our 

 neighbors, while ornamental for a couple of years then 

 began to die. In a few instances, where the trees were planted 

 in excellent soil and had continuous care in the way of 

 watering and top-dressing, the experiment was justified, 

 though these have merely held their own, and most of the 

 trees were lost. 



We planted a number of acorns of English Oaks eight 

 years ago, and the tallest trees from these are about twenty 

 feet high, and are vigorous and beautiful. They have not 

 had a very good chance to show what they could do, for 

 the swale in which they grow is sandy from the wash of 

 the road, and very tightly packed and grassy, as it has not 

 been disturbed for many years. Into the same dry, unfa- 

 vorable soil we transplanted six young Chestnuts in 188S, 

 but an insect dwarfs their early spring growth every year, 

 and they do not like the salt east winds to which they are 

 exposed. They are well rooted and healthy enough, but 

 make slow progress skyward, and are not yet twenty-five 

 feet high. Some Chestnut seedlings planted later promise 

 to do better than the saplings, and are fast overtaking 

 them, though rooted in the cold gravelly north side of the 

 hill. Here, too, young Walnuts and Oaks are beginning 

 to show among the Pines, and Gray Birches flourish in a 

 race with the evergreens. 



In one corner of the narrow front lawn which separates 

 us by about ninety feet from the village street, flourishes a 

 clump of five different kinds of Birches, and these, born to 

 live on little, content themselves cheerfully with the scanty 

 living sucked from the thin soil in which they grow. Of 

 these five the common European Birch, Betula alba, with 

 its white stem gleaming through the clustering curly 

 branches which closely encircle it, is the tallest and most 

 vigorous, and with its bright small leaves and numerous 

 tassels is a pleasing feature in the group. Near it a Cut- 

 leaved form of this Birch grows tall and spindling, with 

 sparse foliage, casting dancing shadows on the grass. Its 

 stem is of smooth and dazzling whiteness, and its pointed, 

 deeply indentated leaves make a delicate tracery against 

 the sky. In the foreground stands a Paper Birch, B. papy- 

 rifera, from Maine, with large shining leaves. Its bark 

 has a warmer tone than that of the European Birches, and 

 is flecked with dark spots. It grows more slowly, too, 

 probably because it is only a scion which came up from 

 the root of an apparently dead sapling that did not survive 

 its first winter, and therefore has not the vigor of an 

 original stem. It is dear to us, for it brings with it a sug- 

 gestion of the northern woods where it grew, where its 

 stately ancestors still furnish canoes to the i'assamaquoddy 

 Indians, and we watch with interest the changing hues of 

 its rolling bark, and enjoy its gradual alteration from a 

 dark sapling to a white trunk with the familiar dark gray 

 diversifications. A young Yellow Birch, B. lutea, stands 

 in the neighborhood, but whether from poor soil or its own 

 habit has never advanced. Behind the group, and nearest 

 the street, is a good-sized native Gray Birch, B. populifolia, 

 which was a wayside bush preserved when we graded the 

 knoll. This and a tiny White Ash, Fraxinus Americana, 

 were the only green things upon the lawn when we began, 

 and now the latter has grown into a stout, wide-spreading 



tree which robs everything in its neighborhood. While not 

 so rapid a grower as some of the other trees, it bids fair to 

 survive and overtop them all before many years. It strug- 

 gles now with a transplanted Black Oak for mastery of the 

 situation. 



The greatest surprise of all on this small, crowded lawn 

 is Catalpa speciosa, whose tropical foliage and great spires 

 of enchanting bloom would seem to require far more sus- 

 taining food than it can possibly find on this slope. In a 

 dry season it has a trick of dropping many of its first leaves 

 when the second growth begins, but this year it has shed 

 but few, owing to frequent rains. It spreads its wide arms 

 and flutters its huge leaves, and is altogether the most foreign 

 looking tree in the collection. Its top blew off in a gale three 

 years ago, and this seemed to add to its spread. If it would 

 only not wait until the middle of June to develop its leaves 

 and begin to drop them early in September, no tree would be 

 a more splendid inheritor of the earth. It is really a joy to 

 behold in its perfection, it is so luxuriant and brave in its 

 golden-green array. A photograph of the house taken in 

 1888 shows it standing up hard and bare against the sky. 

 No vines nor shrubs link the foundations to the grassy 

 terrace. Little sticks with plumy tops stand about at what 

 seem wide and hopeless intervals, a few stems indicate 

 the presence of future creepeis, and the gravelled driveways 

 look enormously out of proportion to the turfed spaces. 

 The whole aspect was then hopelessly dreary and bleak 

 but for the fine stretch of picturesque meadow. 



A photograph taken in 1891 shows a pretty little group of 

 trees already well started about the dwelling,and one made for 

 me by a friend this month from the same point of view, only 

 reveals the north gable end of the building which has been 

 left unshaded for the sake of the prospect from its win- 

 dows. All the rest of the house is hidden by foliage, 

 draped in vines, or buried in shrubbery, so that only the 

 chimneys are seen peering up amid the nodding tops of a 

 grove of well-grown trees, which by another year will con- 

 ceal even these altogether. 



All this is the result of only nine years' growth, and goes 

 to prove how well the careful planter is recompensed for 

 his efforts. ., „ D , , . 



Hingham, Mass. Mary C RobbmS. 



Plant Notes. 

 Romneya Coulteri. 



F'EW California plants are better known by repute to 

 growers of hardy plants than Romneya Coulteri. 

 Unfortunately, few in the east have had the opportunity to 

 establish'it, owing to the scarcity of proper material. The 

 seeds offered by the dealers will hardly germinate in less 

 than a year, and there are many contingencies from the 

 planting of such seeds until their growth into plants strong 

 enough to produce flowers. Roots have been only occa- 

 sionally offered, mostly weak bits which have soon joined 

 the majority, and the desire to grow this Poppy wort has prob- 

 ably mostly abated. This is unfortunate, for it is a plant of 

 most distinct habit, with beautiful flowers, and in my expe- 

 rience not difficult to establish and grow in the open in this 

 latitude. Mr. Sturtevant kindly sent me some strong roots 

 four years ago which were planted in a warm border at 

 the south side of the house. During the three winters to 

 which they have been exposed they have been protected 

 simply by a mound of earth about a foot high and topped 

 with ashes. This unsightly device is a very useful one for 

 plants of which one is doubtful, or which it is desired to 

 protect from quick thawing and freezing, the bane of hardy- 

 plant culture in this changeable climate. A strong root has 

 produced during these seasons a varying number of stems, 

 this year twenty, although this number has been exceeded 

 previously. The plants would spread by creeping roots if 

 allowed to do so. The growth of the stems is about five 

 feet, and they reach this length in May. They are always 

 somewhat prostrate, the strongest growing only partly erect. 

 As the smooth, pithy stems are brittle, the olant should 



