January 17, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



21 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1894. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial Articles:— Street Trees 



The Supply of White Pine Diminishing 



Boston's New Metropolitan Parlis Syr-lester Baxter. 



Botanical Notes from Texas.— XV E. N. Plank. 



The Red Mulberry-tree. (With figure.) 



Plant Noths :— Hybrid Nymphseas M. Latour-Marliac. 



Cultural Department: — Spraying Apple Orchards E. G. Lodeiiiaii. 



Vegetables in the Greenhouse T- D. Hatfield. 



Forcing-houses in Dark Climates -Damping Off. . .Professor L. H. Bailey. 



Ipomcea Lea-d IV. E. Endicott. 



The Otaheite Orange E. P. Powell. 



Hardy Andromedas J. Mechan. 



Begonia Gloire de Lorraine, Calochortus Kennedyi J. N. Gerard. 



Correspondence : — Horticultural Progress in France X. 



Local Climates in California Carl Purdy. 



Recent Publications 



Notes. 



Illustration : — A Red Mulberry-tree, Morus rubra, in Alabama, Fig. 3 



Street Trees. 



LAST September Air. L. Collins, Secretary of the Tree- 

 j planting- and Fountain Society of Brooklyn, wrote a 

 circular letter to several nurserymen and other experts, 

 asking- them to name what they considered the best trees 

 of different sizes to use as shade-trees in the streets of 

 Brooklyn, and the answers which this letter called forth 

 have recently been published in the newspapers of that 

 city. 



The trees recommended are, for the most part, suitable 

 for the purpose, although it is curious that only one writer 

 recommends the Ailanthus, which is probably the best 

 street tree that has ever been used in northern cities, in 

 spite of the prejudice which exists against it, and which, 

 as is explained in the letters alluded to, can be overcome 

 by planting only pistillate trees. Some of the trees recom- 

 mended, however, are hardly suitable for street-planting. 

 One writer recommends the European Ash, which is notori- 

 ously a short-lived and unhealthy tree here, like the 

 European Sycamore Maple, which is also recommended. 

 The American Chestnut is recommended, but, in common 

 with other nut trees, it has the disadvantage of being too 

 attractive to boys, who climb into the branches or mutilate 

 the trees with sticks and stones in their pursuit of the nuts. 

 Nor should we consider the Ash-leaved Maple, although a 

 rapid-growing tree, a desirable inhabitant of our streets ; it 

 branches too low, and the branches are too brittle to make 

 it desirable in such situations. Nor is the Canoe Birch, 

 which is recommended a good street tree, as all the 

 Birches need their lower branches to balance the narrow 

 pyramidal heads, and street trees, of course, cannot be 

 allowed to branch low. Catalpa speciosa is also recom- 

 mended, but, although a hardy and fast-growing tree, it has 

 the disadvantage of producing such showy flowers that 

 the trees in public places rarely escape mutilation. Nor do 

 we agree with the assertion of one of the writers that " for 

 village streets or country roadsides there is nothing finer 

 than the European Beech." A Beech to be really beautiful 

 must rise in a solid dome of foliage from the grass, and 

 specimens from which the lowerbranches have been removed 



are not attractive. One writer recommends the Lombardy 

 Poplar and the variety of the Silver Poplar, known as 

 Populus Bolleana, both fastigiate trees of rapid growth, 

 but, unfortunately, now practically worthless in this coun- 

 try, owing to the attacks of borers, which riddle the trunks. 

 The Mountain Ash, too, is recommended, but the beauty 

 of the too attractive fruit would prove a serious objection 

 to this tree. The Yellow Wood, or Cladrastis, is suggested ; 

 it is one of the most charming of our native trees, but 

 hardly suitable for a street tree, as it usually branches low, 

 and has one serious drawback in its brittle branches which 

 are often broken by gales. Nor should we have thought 

 of Magnolia conspicua, or Cornus florida, as desirable 

 street trees, for both produce such showy flowers that 

 it would be impossible to save them from mutilation. 



Several of the writers recommend the weeping cut-leaved 

 European Birch, but to this there is the same objection as 

 there is to the Canoe Birch ; these trees are beautiful when 

 they grow from the ground as pyramids ; they become un- 

 sightly and unattractive as soon as the lower branches are 

 removed. The Locust, Robinia Pseudacacia. is suggested, 

 but, like the Lombardy Poplar, it is unavailable through 

 the injuries inflicted on it by borers. Most of the writers 

 agree in recommending the Tulip-tree, the Red Oak, the 

 Sugar Maple, the Norway Maple, the Pin Oak — ail excel- 

 lent trees, and, on the whole, perhaps the best large-sized 

 trees available for our streets. The Oriental Plane, which 

 promises to be a valuable tree here, and to surpass in utility 

 the American species, which serious fungal diseases dis- 

 figure, is recommended. The Three-thorned Acacia, or 

 Gleditschia, and the Kentucky Coffee-tree are both recom- 

 mended, and both are tough and handsome trees, which 

 have the advantage of leafing out late in the spring, and 

 thus allowing the sun to reach the ground beneath them at 

 a season when it is agreeable. 



The selection of trees of the right kind is necessary if a 

 plantation, whether it be in a street or elsewhere, is to be 

 permanently successful, but, after all, a wise selection of 

 material is not the only thing that is needed. It is equally 

 important that an abundant supply of proper soil should 

 be furnished to each tree, that the trees should be carefully 

 grown in nurseries, frequently transplanted and properly 

 pruned until they attain a proper height for permanent 

 planting. They should be carefully staked as soon as 

 planted and protected against the teeth of horses by some 

 efficient trunk-guard. If street trees are planted as they 

 are in Paris — in such a way that it is possible to supply 

 them freely with water in periods of drought — the success 

 of the plantations will be greater and the life of the trees 

 prolonged. In a city of the size of Brooklyn tree-planting 

 can only be properly and economically carried out with 

 the assistance of a municipal nursery, in which trees are 

 specially grown and prepared for the purpose. This plan 

 has been successfully adopted in Paris and in Washington, 

 which pass for the two best-planted cities in the world, and 

 should always prevail where planting on a large scale is 

 to be undertaken. 



When the earlier bulletins of the Tenth Census called 

 attention to the fact that the supply of white pine in 

 the country was rapidly diminishing, the statements were 

 at first denied with a good deal of energy. Since that 

 time, however, the scarcity of good pine has become 

 evident, and of late years other woods have been em- 

 ployed more and more in place of this lumber. An ar- 

 ticle in a recent number of the Norlliwes/eni Lumberman 

 on " Lumber for House-finishing, " begins with the asser- 

 tion that as a material for doors, windows and interior 

 trimming of the medium and cheaper class of houses the 

 use of white pine will henceforth constantly diminish. 

 is not because this wood is less esteemed, but because the 

 supply is becoming more and more inadequate to the re- 

 quirements. If good white pine were now, as in the 

 past, the main dependence for finishing-wood, there would 

 not be nearly enough to meet the demand. As long as any 



