October 27, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



421 



especially in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, in 

 the valley of the Columbia River and on Vancouver Island, 

 for it is, of course, possible, although hardly probable, that 

 the proposed Juniperus scopulorum may be confined to the 

 northern Rocky Mountains and that Juniperus Virginiana 

 really reaches the southern part of that range and even 

 the Pacific coast. 



So much has been said in the columns of this journal 

 about the value of Juniperus Virginiana as an ornamental 

 tree that it seems unnecessary to say more on the subject. 

 Certainly no other hardy conifer can be used here so suc- 

 cessfully to produce the effects which are obtained in coun- 

 tries of milder climates by the employment of the fastigiate 

 Cypress of southern Europe, and no other tree is more 

 formal in one of its forms and more picturesque in an 

 other. None of our trees are better suited to cover a 

 rocky knoll, or, mingled with trees of less formal outline, 

 to give interest and variety to the landscape. 



The Red Cedar, although usually regarded as a slow- 

 growing plant, increases rapidly with generous treatment ; 

 it is easily transplanted while young from upland pastures 

 or from the borders of fields and roadsides, where birds 

 industriously sow the seeds, and with care plants ten or 

 twelve feet high can be safely transplanted, although an 

 idea prevails in this country that the Red Cedar is difficult 

 to move and unsuited for cultivation. 



Many varieties of the Red Cedar are found in gardens, 

 nurserymen propagating them by means of cuttings. Most 

 of these, however, are hardly distinct enough to warrant 

 attention, the only conspicuous varieties being those with 

 glaucous foliage (var. glauca), one with pendulous branches 

 descending along the stem (var. pendula) and one of the 

 best of all the weeping conifers, a dwarf form (var. globosa), 

 and forms with leaves more or less disfigured by yellow or 

 white markings. Juniperus Virginiana gracilis, usually 

 known in English gardens as the Bedford Juniper, is dis- 

 tinguished by slender, somewhat pendulous branches and 

 bright green foliage ; it is a plant of somewhat doubtful 

 origin, and may have come from Florida, as it is tender 

 even in England. If it has been tried in our northern gar- 

 dens, it probably has not survived in them. 



Juniperus Chinensis, which is occasionally found in our 

 gardens and is perfectly hardy as far north as eastern Mas- 

 sachusetts, is in every way inferior as an ornamental plant 

 to the native Red Cedar which it somewhat resembles, and 

 at the end of a few years usually becomes ragged and 

 shabby in appearance. But this species is interesting, 

 however, in the difference of the foliage of the staminate 

 and pistillate plants, at least while young. On the male 

 plant, which has usually erect much-divided branches, the 

 leaves are usually in threes, acicular, rigid, spreading, and 

 bright green or glaucous, while on the female plant, which 

 has longer and often pendulous branches, the leaves are 

 scale-like, closely appressed, oppositein pairs, andglaucous- 

 green ; the two forms, however, are frequently found on 

 the same individual, and on old trees in Japan the leaves are 

 all scale-like and rather glaucous. Juniperus Chinensis is 

 widely distributed in eastern Asia, from the borders of Thibet 

 to Japan, where it does not appear to be generally scat- 

 tered, although it is common on the high volcanic ridges at the 

 base of Asama-yama in central Hondo ; here it becomes a 

 shrubby tree thirty or forty feet high, with straggling con- 

 torted branches and gray-green leaves. Two venerable 

 and picturesque specimens, seventy or eighty feet high, 

 with hollow trunks some six feet in diameter, before the 

 temple of Zenkogi, in Nagano, show that this Juniper some- 

 times attains a large size. In gardens there are forms of 

 Juniperus Chinensis with bright yellow and with white 

 marked foliage ; these are slow-growing and rather delicate 

 plants of no particular value or interest. Another form, 

 usually known in gardens as Juniperus Japonica, is in 

 early life a compact bushy plant with many erect branches 

 and acicular blue green leaves. This shrub, which is 

 probably a product of Japanese horticulture, as it is often 

 cultivated in Japanese gardens, is perfectly hardy and very 



distinct in appearance from other Junipers; retaining for 

 several years its peculiar compact juvenile habit, it too 

 often becomes thin and ragged before it is a dozen feet 

 high and loses its value as an ornamental plant. There 

 are varieties of this form in which the young branches with 

 their leaves are yellow or white. This is, perhaps, one of 

 the most difficult of all conifers to transplant. 



By many recent authors the so-called Juniperus Japonica, 

 which does not appear to be known in a wild state, has 

 been confounded with the prostrate littoral Juniper of 

 Japan and Corea (Juniperus procumbens, Siebold. — Juni- 

 perus Chinensis procumbens, Endlicher), now usually con- 

 sidered a variety of Juniperus Chinensis, although perhaps 

 it will, when better known, be found distinct enough to be 

 given a specific position. This seashore plant forms dense 

 mats on low grassy bluffs fully exposed to ocean gales, 

 sending out for long distances its prostrate creeping 

 stems clothed with bright green scale-like leaves. From 

 seeds gathered near the Aino village of Horobetsu, on the 

 coast of Yezo, a number of plants have been raised in the 

 Arnold Arboretum, but it is too soon to speak of their 

 hardiness. 



Another prostrate Juniper (Juniperus Sabina, var. procum- 

 bens) is an excellent garden plant with wide-spreading 

 stems which hug the ground and are clothed with bright 

 green foliage. This is now usually considered an Ameri- 

 can variety of Juniperus Sabina, which is an erect shrub or 

 small bushy tree, occasionally twelve or fifteen feet tall, and 

 is widely scattered through central and southern Europe and 

 Siberia. If it has ever been properly tried in our gardens 

 it has probably not proved hardy. The American plant is 

 distributed from southern Maine to the shores of Hudson 

 Bay, and westward in British America from Newfoundland 

 to the Rocky Mountains of southern Alberta, and through 

 northern New England and New York along the shores of 

 the Great Lakes to northern Minnesota and over the moun- 

 tain ranges as far as the eastern slopes of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains in Montana. This is the hardiest and most beautiful 

 of all the prostrate Junipers which can be grown in our gar- 

 dens, where it might well be seen much more frequently 

 than it is. 



The prostrate form of the Himalayan Juniperus recurva 

 (var. squamata) is a favorite garden plant in Europe, and 

 has frequently been planted in this country. In Massachu- 

 setts it is not very hardy, although it can be made to grow 

 in sheltered shady positions ; near New York and south- 

 ward it is, however, perfectly hardy. Juniperus recurva, 

 which is widely distributed from Afghanistan to Sikkim 

 and Bootan, is sometimes tree-like, but at high elevations 

 remains shrubby and covers large areas with long decum- 

 bent stems running on or just below the surface of the 

 ground and sending up numerous short erect branches. 



Considering the number of species and forms of Juniperus 

 and the attention which has been given in other countries 

 to preserving all its abnormal forms, the genus has con- 

 tributed comparatively little to our gardens, and as an 

 ornamental tree for eastern America no other species or 

 variety compares with our native Juniperus Virginiana. 



c. s. s. 



The St. Croix River. — I. 



MAINE AND NEW BRUNSWICK. 



IT is a far cry from the western St. Croix River to the St. 

 Croix River on the eastern boundary of the United 

 States, but there is a kindred beauty in the forests which 

 border them.* The same flowers bloom near them, the 

 dancing foliage of Birches and Rowan, the stern symmetry 

 of Fir and Spruce are similar in both. Hut there is a quieter 

 stateliness about the Maine river as it opens out into the 

 broad bay of Passamaquoddy, with its myriad islands, and 

 a more majestic flow in its tide, which rises to unusual 

 height from the influence of the Bay of Fundy. There is, 



* Sic Dalles of the St. Croix, Wisconsin an.! Minnesota (Garden and Fo i r, 

 vol. x., page 33-). 



