January 17, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



23 



ness as when the land was first trod by white men, so 

 thoroughly do the trees veil the habitations and clearing's 

 of man. Here the surfaces of several beautiful lakes glis- 

 ten in the sunlight. One of these, Hoosicwhisic Pond, is 

 directly at the southern base of the range, and is included 

 in the reservation. Two other larger ones, Ponkapoag and 

 Massapoag, are not far away. 



The reservation lies in the towns of Milton and Canton, 

 and the city or Quincy. It is within eleven miles of the 

 state-house in Boston, and three miles of the city boun- 

 dary. The Blue Hills have a great historic interest in the 

 fact that they gave the name to the state of Massachusetts, 

 which, meaning "the place of the great hills," was told 

 to Captain John Smith by the Indians when he explored 

 the coast of New England in 1614. He therefore called 

 the Biue Hills "Massachusetts Mount" on his map. 

 When this map was shown to Prince Charles, the royal boy 

 changed the name to Chevyot Hills. But the more com- 

 mon-place name of " Blue Hills " obtained. The name of 

 "Massachusetts Mount" should at least be restored to the 

 Great Blue. 



The metropolitan commission has in contemplation the 

 taking of the Middlesex Fells region to the northward of 

 Boston, and a beautiful tract of wild wood-land in the West 

 Roxbury district of Boston and the town of Hyde Park, 

 including the highest elevation in the city limits, known as 

 Bellevue hill, and a tarn locally known by the unattractive 

 name of Moddy Pond. The city of Boston proposes to 

 build a fine parkway connecting the Arnold Arboretum with 

 this spot, and the highway known as Blue Hill Avenue is 

 to be changed into a boulevard from Franklin Park south- 

 ward. 



Together with the Lynn Woods, these three features of 

 the Boston Metropolitan park system will have a total 

 area of something near io,oco acres. The taking of the 

 shore-front of Revere Beach, with a length of something 

 like two miles of curving sands, and within twenty min- 

 utes of the business centre of Boston, is also in contem- 

 plation for the near future. _, , _ 



Sylvester Baxler. 



Botanical Notes from Texas. — XV. 



"DEEVILLE is a little town about one hundred miles south of 

 *-* San Antonio and fifty miles from the Gulf of Mexico. The 

 soil in this vicinity is generally sandy, and there are some 

 rocky points along the arroya, which extends through the 

 town. A few interesting and rare plants grow in Bee County. 



Liatris elegans, found in the more eastern Gulf states, has 

 immigrated to south-western Texas, and is becoming well dis- 

 tributed. This variety is by far the handsomest of our species 

 of Liatris, and is worthy of a place in any garden. The large 

 involucres of the flower-clusters are petaloid, and they are 

 here colored blue, or rarely rose-colored. The flowers them- 

 selves, so far as seen, are whitish. The strict stalks are flo- 

 riferous almost their entire length of two to three feet. The 

 short rigid leaves are usually reflexed. I have not seen the 

 species elsewhere in the state. 



Pterocaulon virgatum, a strict-growing and singular-looking 

 composite, abounds in southern Texas in sandy sterile places 

 from Bee County eastward to Harris County, as a recent trip 

 over the intervening country has shown. The species may 

 readily be recognized by its narrowly oblong, sharply pointed 

 leaves, which are whitened on the under face, and by its alate 

 stems, which gave the plant its generic name, Winged-stem. 

 The yellowish flowers are disposed in remote, spike-like 

 clusters. 



I met at Beeville, for the first time, the beautiful little Poly- 

 gala Lindheimen. It is a slight species, growing here from 

 six to ten inches tall. It has purple flowers and oblong trun- 

 cated fruit. It is well suited for living in a dry country, having 

 a deep-growing woody root of a red color. The species is rare. 



Galactia marginalis, like its congener, G. heterophylla, has 

 deviated from the generally trifoliate form of leaves which the 

 genus possesses, but in a different direction, it having sup- 

 pressed two of its leaflets, and become unifoliate. The leaflets 

 are an inch or two long and lanceolate in form. On its lower 

 face the leaflet is circumscribed by a strong nerve, a peculiarity 

 which led Bentham to give the plant its specific name. It is 

 enabled to live through times of drought and of hard fare gen- 



erally, having a deeply planted oblong tuber. Its flowers, 

 which are large for the genus, are dark purple in color. 



Cassia procumbens, a diminutive prostrate plant, grows about 

 Beeville. Thespecies is not common in Texas. Itsyellow flow- 

 ers are large, and the leaflets of this species, likethoseof many 

 of its congeners, are sensitive, closing at the slightest touch. 

 C. chamsecrista is the commonest Cassia in the state, and 

 covers fields of unoccupied land everywhere. Its leaves also 

 are very sensitive. 



The city of Leyden, in Holland, built a monument to the 

 memory of Boerhaave, their great botanist and physician. 

 His pupil and protege", Linna?us, dedicated to his preceptor 

 and patron a more lasting monument, in the genus Boer- 

 haavia, of which there are at least two Texas species, B. 

 erecta and B. viscosa. B. erecta is common in Texas and 

 eastward and westward of this state. Its stems are ascending 

 or erect, bearing on their lower portion numerous fleshy ovate 

 leaves, green above and whitened below, and becoming above 

 nearly naked, spreading panicles of light purple flowers, suc- 

 ceeded by slender club-shaped fruits. B. viscosa is prostrate 

 unless it is helped to rise by other plants. It is a strong and 

 vigorous plant. On the sands of the coast it sometimes throws 

 out prone branches four to six feet long. Its habit is very like 

 that of B. erecta, except in its general viscidness and its small 

 dense heads of dark purple flowers. 



Indigofera leptosepala is one of the handsomest pea-flower- 

 ing plants in Texas. This species is abundant over most of 

 Texas, and eastward through the other Gulf states, and north- 

 ward through the Indian territory to Kansas, through the 

 southern tier of counties from near the ninety-eighth meridian 

 westward. It is a prostrate species and readily recognizable 

 by its small scarlet flowers. Crusea allococca, formerly called 

 a Diodia, a southern species, is often to be seen in this vicinity, 

 forming small masses of vegetation in open fields and along 

 railways. The handsome bright yellow flowers of Xanthisma 

 Texana adorn the prairies of central Texas from the Gulf to 

 Red River. It extends northward through the Indian terri- 

 tory. This composite is abundant near Beeville. Tephrosia 

 Lindheimeri, a conspicuous and handsome Pea, with prostrate 

 stems, obovate hoary leaves, and large purple flowers borne 

 in erect racemes, can hardly be mistaken for any other 

 plant. It grows abundantly throughout central Texas. Our 

 silver-leaved Sunflower, Helianthus argophyllus, grows rarely 

 in Bee County. It is very abundant near the gulf at Aransas 

 Pass, where it is taking possession of all abandoned fields. 

 The disk flowers of this species are purplish. What appears 

 to be a Calliandea, though out of its reported range, is some- 

 times met with near Beeville. I have seen it only "in fruit. 



Kansas City, Kansas. E. A. PUlllk. 



The Red Mulberry-tree. 



THE genus Moras, to which this tree belongs, is not a 

 large one. One species inhabits the eastern United 

 States ; another, finding its most northern home in south- 

 western Texas, is common on the Mexican table-lands : 

 and a third has been found on the mountains of New 

 Granada. In the Old World Morus nigra, now a well- 

 known fruit-tree, cultivated in all temperate countries 

 of the world, is supposed to be a native of Persia; the 

 home of Morus alba is in northern China and on the island 

 of Yezo ; and on the high mountains of the islands of the 

 Indian Archipelago are two or three other Mulberries, 

 which botanists have sometimes considered species. Of 

 them all, the most important and interesting is Morus alba. 

 as upon its leaves the silk- worm finds its most palatable 

 and productive food. For a period of time that cannot be 

 even guessed at this tree has been cultivated in China : 

 long before the Christian era it was carried into India, 

 and in the twelfth century was introduced into Europe, 

 where its cultivation rapidly spread, especially in !•'; 

 and Italy. No other tree, perhaps, gives employment, 

 directly or indirectly, to so many members of the human 

 race. Few other trees produce a product of greater \ alue : 

 and certainly no other has been the subject of such vo- 

 luminous and exhaustive literature. As might have been 

 expected in the case of a plant which has been carefully 

 cultivated for centuries under widely different conditio 

 climate and soil, the White Mulberry has produced many 

 varieties now recognized as races, and valued tor special 

 characteristics. 



