November 3, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



43 ' 



are merely monstrosities that have been cherished and 

 propagated, perhaps, for centuries by the Japanese. 



Cupressus obtusa, the Hi-no-ki of Japan, is a native of 

 the southern mountain provinces and the most valuable 

 timber-tree of the empire. Sacred to the disciples of the 

 Shinto faith, it is planted in the neighborhood of all Shinto 

 temples, which are built of its wood. It is also cultivated 

 for its timber in the mountain forests of central Japan, 

 where it often attains the height of 100 feet, with a tall 

 straight trunk three feet in diameter near the ground and 

 free of branches for fifty or sixty feet. The wood is light, 

 strong, tough and very durable in contact with the soil, 

 pleasantly fragrant like that of the other species of this sec- 

 tion, and white, straw-color or pink. The palaces of the 

 Mikado in Kioto were made from the wood of this tree, 

 which also serves for the frames of Buddhist temples and 

 the interior finish of expensive houses. In Japan Cupressus 

 obtusa is one of the favorite subjects for dwarfing, and is 

 often cut into eccentric shapes, and several abnormal varie- 

 ties or juvenile forms are cultivated. Cupressus obtusa 

 aurea gracilis is a free-growing and beautiful form of 

 this tree introduced into our gardens a few years ago 

 by the Veitchs ; and there are dwarf bushy forms in 

 cultivation in this country and Europe, some with leaves of 

 normal color and others with yellow foliage. These are 

 highly prized in Japan, and can be seen in almost every 

 Japanese garden. A distinct form known as Retinospora 

 lycopodioides has stout erect branchlets densely clothed 

 with bluntly awl-shaped, very dark green leaves, and 

 another, Retinospora fihcoides, is peculiar in its long, 

 slender, spreading branches covered with short, broad, 

 light green sprays of quadrangular branchlets. 



Cupressus picifera, the Sawara of the Japanese, is planted 

 in their forests and temple-grounds with Cupressus obtusa, 

 and produces redder, coarser-grained and less valuable 

 wood. The common Golden Retinospora, Retinospora 

 picifera aurea, is a form of this tree, and is here, perhaps, 

 the most frequently cultivated of the Japanese Retinosporas. 

 A more remarkable form is the so-called Retinospora 

 squarrosa, in which all the leaves are disposed in decus- 

 sate pairs and are short, acicular, pale blue-green and 

 spreading or slightly bend toward the branchlets. This is 

 a low, broad, dense bush or small tree with large divided 

 and forked stems. Almost as remarkable is Retinospora 

 filifera, another form of this tree with long, slender, pendu- 

 lous, thread-iike branchlets clothed with subulate, acute, 

 dark green leaves arranged in remote alternate pairs ; there 

 is a yellow-colored form of this plant. This is certainly 

 one of the most remarkable of all pendulous-branched con- 

 ifers, but, unfortunately, it is very capricious, sometimes 

 flourishing with great luxuriance, as in Mr. Hunnewell's 

 pinetum at Wellesley, Massachusetts, but more often perish- 

 ing from the cold of severe winters. 



For the north-eastern states, at least, the introduction of 

 the Japanese Retinosporas has proved a doubtful blessing. 

 The most beautiful and valuable of them, Cupressus obtusa, 

 appears quite hardy, and in its early years makes a hand- 

 some plant here, but it soon develops a tendency to grow 

 thin, and well-furnished specimens more than twenty feet 

 high are not common. Cupressus picifera is a more rapid- 

 growing, and perhaps a hardier, plant here, but with its 

 loose narrow crown of more upright branches it is less 

 ornamental than the Hi-no-ki. Some of the varieties are 

 morphologically interesting and some of them are hand- 

 some ; they are uncertain, however, sometimes flourishing 

 for years, and then dying suddenly or gradually becoming 

 thin in foliage and shabby in appearance ; and where they 

 do flourish, unless used with caution, they bring too many 

 strange forms and unnatural colors to our plantations. 



All the plants of this group can be readily propagated 

 from cuttings, which root easily and grow rapidly ; and to 

 bring out all their beauties they require rich well-drained 

 soil, and in this climate partially shaded situations pro- 

 tected from the drying winds of early spring. 



In the next numbers of these notes we shall discuss the 



horticultural value of the remaining genera of Cupressineae, 

 Thuya, Thuyopsis and Libocedrus and the Taxodineae, 

 which give to our gardens Sciadopitys, Sequoia, Cryptomeria 

 and Taxodium. C. S. S. 



The St. Croix River. — II. 



MAINE AND NEW BRUNSWICK. 



NO Oaks are visible near the St. Croix River, though 

 the name Oak Bay indicates that they were once 

 found here; but a few miles inland a rare specimen is now 

 and then seen beside a lonely lake, afar from its kindred 

 and having quite the air of an exotic. They apparently do 

 not sow themselves, for two trees on Boyden's Lake are 

 the only ones I ever saw anywhere near the shores of the 

 river. The fierce winds and driving storms render tree- 

 moving a thankless task, and without great care trans- 

 planted Maples and Elms do not thrive, even though 

 natives of the locality, owing to the short summers. 

 Elms planted fifty years ago in the towns of the region are 

 only half as large as they should be after the same length 

 of time in southern Massachusetts. On the other hand, 

 Evergreens flourish, and the White Spruce, which finds 

 lower New England quite too warm for it, grows to majes- 

 tic proportions, making a good show from the seed in 

 twenty years. 



Fields that were quite bare in 1865 are now impenetrable 

 woods in great need of skillful foresting. It is impossible to 

 seethe wealth of timber that is likely to go to waste with- 

 out wishing that there could be some intelligent manage- 

 ment of the resources of the country, so that good, well- 

 grown, handsome trees might replace the spindling growths 

 which result from overcrowding. Both the White and 

 Norway Pine abound in this locality, and their commercial 

 value is likely to increase immensely even in a decade, so 

 that if these trees were helped to good smooth growth they 

 might prove of value to their owner more than sufficient 

 to pay the expense of taking suitable care of them. Every- 

 where, however, one recognizes the danger of fire in the 

 dead underbranches, and in the brushwood rudely cut 

 down along the waysides, and left to dry and ignite from 

 the first cigar stump thrown away by a careless passer-by ; 

 for there is no vigilant village improvement society, such 

 as exists at Mount Desert, to use proper preventive meas- 

 ures to avert disasters of this kind. 



A lovely feature of the woods along the St. Croix is the 

 prevalence of that exquisite flower, Linnsea borealis, whose 

 twin bells greet one with their aromatic fragrance through- 

 out the month of June. This favorite of the great botanist, 

 to which he has given his name, loves the moist mossy 

 shade of the sparse growth along the water's edge, and 

 carpets the ground with its small leaves and perfumed pink 

 flowers. A little later in the season the sheer precipices are 

 hung with Ferns and delicate Harebells, blue and white, 

 which find a secure foothold in clefts and on ledges just 

 out of reach from a boat. Still another ornament of these 

 woods is the Low Cranberry, Vaccinium Vitis-Idaea, which 

 makes a foot cloth fit for the dance of Dryads, with its 

 shining dark green leaves rising from a creeping tufted 

 stem, all jeweled with the little red-cheeked berries which 

 nestle among them. In groves that I remember along these 

 salt, wind-swept shores I have often picked up the empty 

 shells of sea urchins, dropped by gulls that fly over the 

 evergreens, which shows how near the trees grow to the 

 home of fishes, and what hard conditions of wind and 

 weather are theirs to struggle with. 



The aspect of the St. Croix region is still that of the border 

 settlement. Its navigable length is about thirty miles, and 

 but little of it is occupied. After leaving Eastport, which 

 is a compact little town with houses closely grouped 

 together upon one of the islands of the bay, no village on 

 the American side is visible for eighteen miles. Up the 

 river such dwellings as appear are far apart. St. Andrews, 

 New Brunswick, forms a sort of half-way station, and is the 

 sleepiest of provincial towns, feebly galvanized by summer 



