5H 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 514. 



of Sarracenias, and later are to be added halophytes and 

 alpines. The Experiment House (iS}4 by 33 feet) is chiefly 

 devoted to the practical study of plant physiology by the ad- 

 vanced students. Here a practicum is carried on in which 

 each student works through a series of experiments upon the 

 nutrition, growth, irritability and other vital operations of 

 plants. The laboratory is used by them in this work. A 

 Propagating House (5 by 66 feet) and the workroom, with the 

 boilers beneath, complete the series. This brief sketch does 

 but scant justice to the botanically and educationally interest- 

 ing contents of the houses. It is difficult to estimate the num- 

 ber of species in them, but it will give some idea to state that 

 they contain 28 species of Palms, 15 of Aroids, 16 of climbers, 

 15 of economic plants, 56 of Ferns, 8 of Sensitive plants, 78 of 

 Cactacese, 37 of Acacias, etc., 20 of Aquatics, 15 of Insectivora, 

 etc. It is not, however, accumulation, but selection, which is 

 the guiding principle here as throughout the Garden. 



In practice this arrangement of the houses in parallel series 

 has proved both economical in heat and labor, and conve- 

 nient for study, and can be strongly commended. There is 

 but one change needed, a larger cool greenhouse, for the 

 present one is too small. In time the Experiment House will 

 be taken for this purpose and a new house and laboratory built 

 on a space reserved along the north of the present range. 



The Propagating Garden contains the usual equipment of 

 frames, bulb houses, etc.; in it plants are grown on for winter- 

 flowering, and woody plants for the School of Trees and Shrubs. 

 A great element in all adaptation is size. This Garden is not 

 for the public, nor even for University work (which Smith 

 College only permits and does not encourage), but is in- 

 tended for the botanical education of a growing college of 

 about a thousand undergraduate students. This, and economy, 

 have made the Garden the size it is, and it is believed to be 

 ample for a long time to come. The relatively large size of 

 the greenhouses is made necessary by the nature of the Ameri- 

 can college year, with a winter session and no summer ses- 

 sion. Such houses as these, since they allow the study of 

 living plants to be carried on practically regardless of season, 

 both permit the arrangement of the botanical courses upon the 

 best educational principles, unhampered by the usual practical 

 difficulties, and also allow of constant improvement, through 

 experiment, in the providing of the most illustrative materials, 

 in the best condition, for the most thorough, vivid and 

 economical instruction of the different grades of students. It 

 is plain that efficiency in these respects presupposes a gardener 

 of special and unusual qualifications; such is our head-gar- 

 dener, Mr. E. J. Canning, to whom most of the success of the 

 Garden is due. 



Of great importance to any American college contemplating 

 such an equipment is the question of cost, which in this case 

 also has had to be considered with great care. Since the 

 grounds of a college must be kept in good order in any case, 

 and their improvement ought to go steadily on, the additional 

 cost of developing them on a botanical system is not great, 

 and the chief expense is in the care of the herbaceous garden 

 and greenhouses. The winter force in this Garden consists of 

 a head and second gardener, aided by about half of the time 

 of one laborer; the summer force consists of the two gar- 

 deners, with from three to four laborers. Materials for stock- 

 ing garden and greenhouse are, thanks to the generosity of 

 the older gardens of Harvard, Washington and St. Louis, 

 readily obtainable as gifts, or else may be chosen from the 

 exchange seed-lists of the gardens of Europe. Following their 

 example, this Garden issues an annual exchange list, which is 

 sent to all of the great gardens of the world, for which theirs 

 are received in return. During the past year we received 

 from other gardens 744 packets of seeds, all we could use, 

 selected from 23 seed-lists, and in return sent out 1,368 

 packets selected from our own by thirty gardens, nearly 

 all European. Another question of cost often raised is 

 as to the profit of maintaining a garden when college 

 is not in session at its best time. The answer is, first, 

 if a garden is wanted at all, its maintenance through the 

 summer must be reckoned as a part of its cost, and, 

 second, it is more useful in summer than it seems. The 

 blossom is not always the important part of the plant, nor is 

 the study of flowers all of botany ; it is possible within certain 

 limits to select forms which blossom early and late ; summer- 

 blooming materials may now be cheaply and well preserved in 

 formaline for winter use; and finally, summer schools may 

 fully utilize the summer condition of a garden. 



Although in this sketch the botanical or educational aspect 

 of the Garden has had first place, it is not to be inferred that 

 its aesthetic side is neglected. Plants for beauty as well as 

 plants for use stand in our beds and houses and are open to 



all. The Garden is yet too new, and in some respects too incom- 

 plete to have ripened to full beauty. But in time and with 

 constant growth, it may yet come to pass that there will gather 

 about the gardens of Smith College something of that charm 

 which makes the gardens of Oxford almost sacred ground, 

 where all that is dearest to vigorous and scholarly youth is 

 associated with all that is most beautiful in man's friendship 

 with Nature. 

 Northampton, Mass. William F. Ganong. 



Plant Notes. 



The Fruit of Sequoia. 



IN The Silva of North America the fruit of Sequoia is 

 described as maturing during the first season, although 

 both Engelmann, in The Botany of California, published in 

 1880, and Masters, in The Journal of the Linncsan Society 

 (xxx., 22), published in 1895, stated that it did not mature 

 until the second season. It is now evident, however, that 

 the statement in The Silva was based on the study of insuf- 

 ficient material, and that so far, at least, as Sequoia Wel- 

 lingtonia is concerned, the fruit does not ripen until the 

 second season. This fact has been pointed out to me by 

 Miss Alice Eastwood, the curator of the herbarium of the 

 Academy of Sciences of California, who has made a careful 

 investigation of the subject, and in a recent letter says : 

 " I think that this is what happens. The trees bloom early, 

 probably in February or March, and the cones grow during 

 the following summer and, perhaps, also during the win- 

 ter. The next spring they are of mature size and the seeds 

 are ready to germinate. The cones open during the fol- 

 lowing summer, in August or September, after the hot, dry 

 season." To Miss Eastwood, too, I am indebted for the 

 specimens which show the accuracy of her observations, 

 and which are reproduced in Mr. Faxon's drawing on page 

 515 of the present issue. 



So far as I have seen there is no reason to believe that 

 the second species, the type of the genus, Sequoia semper- 

 virens, does not mature its cones in one season. 



c. s. s. 



Notes on the Botany of some Southern Swamps. 



THE following notes were gathered the past summer 

 during a journey especially devoted to collecting and 

 studying the plants of swampy regions in the states of 

 Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and 

 Florida. 



Leaving St. Louis on the night of July 27th, I arrived at 

 Little Rock, Arkansas, early the next morning, and at sun- 

 rise heard the shrill cries of mocking-birds as they left the 

 trees where they had passed the night, announcing, as well 

 as the appearance of Cotton in the fields, the Crape Myrtle 

 and Pride of India trees in the yards, and the Paper Mulber- 

 ries in the streets, that I was entering the sunny south. The 

 principal indigenous plants observed near the banks of the 

 Arkansas River at this place were the Willow Oak, Spanish 

 Oak, Cow Oak, Catalpa, Sweet Gum, Cassia occidentalis, 

 C. Tora, Jussieea decurrens, Rhexia Mariana and Hibiscus 

 lasiocarpus. As my object was to study the swamp flora, 

 I did not attempt to make a collection here, but proceeded 

 to Alexandria, Louisiana, noting as good collecting points 

 Varner, Arkansas, and Mer Rouge, Louisiana, for the 

 return trip. 



On reaching Pine Bluff, Arkansas, I found that Albizzia 

 Julibrissin was common in cultivation, and that Sabal 

 Adansoni was abundant in low woods along the Arkansas 

 River. Big trees became common from Walnut Lake, 

 Arkansas, southward. Hicoria aquatica, Aralia spinosa, 

 Populus heterophylla and Sesbania macrocarpa are very 

 common beyond Pine Bluff, Arkansas, while the Long 

 Moss (Tillandsia) became conspicuous at Parkdale, Louisi- 

 ana. Passing through Alexandria and reaching Melville, 

 Louisiana, I found Fraxinus pubescens, var. lanceolata, 

 Brunnichia cirrhosa and Quercus lyrata common in the 

 swamps. Here I paid little attention to the upland flora, 



