37° 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 500. 



preserved for all time. Between the townships of Medfield 

 and Sherborn there is a place where the narrow stream 

 flows between a bank of woods and a high Hemlock knoll ; 

 behind this knoll lies a sunny meadow, bordered by more 

 high woods. " Locally," says therecent reportof the trustees, 

 " the little gorge is known as Rocky Narrows, and the little 

 meadow as the Dingle Hole ; but many canoe men from 

 the neighborhood of Boston know the place as the Gate of 

 the Charles. " The eastern bank of the river at this point 

 is the property of the commonwealth, being a part of the 

 grounds of the State Asylum at Medfield, and the area on 

 the western bank that has been conveyed to the trustees 

 comprises about twenty acres. 



The committee notes that much of the most charming 

 and most easily destroyed scenery of Massachusetts is 

 found along the banks of ponds and streams, and it is rep- 

 resented that it would be for public advantage if narrow 

 strips of such waterside lands could be secured by interested 

 and generous citizens and given into the charge of the 

 trustees. " Many such strips are found between country 

 roads and streams or ponds, and many other strips of simi- 

 larly useless but beautiful land are to be found bordering 

 roads in rocky or steep places. Nothing could more 

 directly help to keep the state a pleasant and beautiful 

 place to live in than such preserving of the local roadside 

 scenery. Such strips, as well as hilltops, ravines, bits of 

 seashore, and any remarkably beautiful spots will always 

 gladly be taken charge of by this Board, provided some little 

 money to form a maintenance fund comes with each gift.'' 



It is remarked that other worthy objects for enthusiastic 

 generosity are places of antiquarian, historic or literary in- 

 terest ; for example, visible traces of Indian villages and 

 earthworks of the Indian wars, and the Ironies of eminent 

 persons. There are also places of more strictly scientific 

 interest which ought to be permanently preserved ; a few 

 remarkable botanical localities, for instance, such as Rho- 

 dodendron or Holly thickets, and a few places of extraor- 

 dinary interest to geologists. In the matter of local 

 pleasure-grounds where it may be impracticable to estab- 

 lish regular park commissions — as in the case of Goodwill 

 Park, in Falmouth — the Trustees of Public Reservations 

 form a particularly desirable organization for their care. 



The Swamps of South-eastern Missouri. 



THE botanist familiar with the sphagnum bogs of 

 the Lake region and the east is sadly disappointed 

 in his first botanizing in the south-west at rinding nothing 

 comparable with them. In their place he finds muddy 

 sloughs in the river bottoms, and even more muddy ponds, 

 more or less dried out, representing the site of abandoned 

 brickyards in the clay regions Now and then, too, the 

 springy margin of an artificial fish pond comes in 

 for exploration. In such places, which at first seem quite 

 unpromising, and the exploration of which is far less 

 pleasant than that of the clean swamps of the north, are 

 found, nevertheless, many plants which affect the eastern 

 bogs ; and while Sarracenia and the swamp Ericaceee are 

 not meet with, they are replaced by plants which form 

 equally desirable additions to the herbarium, though they 

 may not afford equal pleasure in the collecting. 



But to the eastern botanist, few localities offer a charm 

 of novelty equal to that afforded by the deep swamps of 

 Missouri and Arkansas, lying in general along the region 

 of Crowley's Ridge. Remnants of the ancient delta of 

 the Mississippi River, these swamps are everywhere 

 traversed by streams, the sluggish flow of which has 

 seemingly more than once changed its directions, while 

 even today a flood period like that of last spring causes 

 the backwater of the Mississippi and its larger western 

 tributaries to more or less overcome their limits. This is 

 the land of cotton, and while corn is here king, no incon- 

 siderable amount of good fiber is shipped out each fall 

 and winter. 



A little further to the north and west, in the hill country, 



the short-leaved Yellow Pine (Pinus echinata) is abundant, 

 and one lone tree far down on the lowlands of Dunklin 

 county suggests speculation concerning the earlier range 

 of the species ; but the lumber cut here is Cypress 

 (Taxodium), Black Gum (Nyssa sylvatica), Cottonwood 

 (Populus deltoidea), now coming into considerable use for 

 cheap boxes, and the various White Oaks, chiefly for 

 railroad ties. Of the latter, the true White Oak (Quercus 

 alba) is perhaps the most abundant on the higher ground, , 

 but in the lowlands the Cow Oak (Q. Michauxii) is abun- 

 dant, and often of very large size, and — a surprise to one 

 who knows the Post-Oak barrens of the Ozarks — the 

 Post-Oak (Q. minor) is almost equally common. Perhaps 

 nowhere else in the United States is there to-day so large 

 a supply of White Hickory (Hicoria ovata) as in this 

 region ; and in the rich damp woods below Delta from one 

 hundred to one hundred and fifty feet represents the pre- 

 vailing height of this species, the Texan Oak (Q. Texana), 

 Sweet or White Gum (Liquidambar), and their associates. 

 Here, too, Salix nigra, the Water Oak (Quercus nigra), 

 and the Turkey Oak (Q. digitata) reach a great size. 



The deep Cypress swamps lying along the streams, 

 however, are the most remarkable in their interest. Except 

 in seasons of great flood, the water of these sunken 

 lands varies little in its general level, and the Cypress 

 knees correspond approximately in height with this level 

 for many miles, rising so close together between the trees 

 that only a native can find passageway between them for 

 a dug-out canoe. In such a canoe, with an experienced 

 guide, barring the discomf >rt of the tailor's seat which 

 must -often be affected, one can pass with pleasure for 

 hours silently between the trees, now startling a great 

 turtle into a quick plunge from its sunning place on an 

 emergent log, or in turn be startled by the quick call and 

 splashing flight of a pair of mallards, and again recoiling 

 as one's elbow almost brushes against a large water 

 snake — a water moccasin, as it is here called — lying afloat 

 on a snag ; drinkable the water scarcely is, but it lacks 

 the turbidity of the larger streams, and, stellate with 

 Cabomba and Tussiaea, and often for miles carpeted with 

 a dense layer of beautiful Azolla with intermingled Lemna, 

 Spirodela, Wolffia and Wolffiella, it presents a delightful 

 appearance not soon to be forgotten. But the novice who 

 dips into it, or the botanist whose zeal leads him to gather 

 its choice surface coating with incautious hand, is quite 

 likely to learn that in the latter are certain small hemiptera, 

 whose pungent thrust is no less painful than the sting of a 

 hornet, though happily not so serious or lasting in its effects. 



Here the Nelumbium is at home, and in season its great 

 dew-studded leaves, with the curious bronzed lens of their 

 lower surface conspicuous in the slanting light, and 

 charming creamy flowers, form an almost impenetrable 

 jungle in the waterway. But most marvelous of all are 

 the masses of Polygonum, which, rooted perhaps ten or 

 fifteen feet below the surface, finally emerge making a 

 tangle on which, in hip-boots, one may wade with as great 

 security as on the more solid land. 



The trees of the deeper water are chiefly Cypress 

 (Taxodium) and Tupelo (Nyssa aquatica), the greatly 

 dilated bases of which rival anything of the kind that I 

 have ever seen. Not infrequently within the hollow trunk 

 of some old tree may be seen a perfect forest of young 

 knees from its younger neighbors or even from its own 

 roots, providing the aeration which these would otherwise 

 never get in this region of perpetual water. Now and 

 then old Cypress stubs, with gray bark and large branches 

 emerging from the giant trunks close to the water level, 

 stand in marked contrast with the tall, clean stems of a 

 later generation, suggesting the doubtful hypothesis that 

 the strip of land on which they grew has sunken locally 

 below the general level of the stream. 



Elsewhere, one finds Amorpha fruticosa and Itea Vir- 

 ginica as terrestrial plants, and indeed they are so found 

 here in places ; but out in the channels they are to be seen 

 in numbers, accompanied by Wistaria, Rosa Carolina, and 



