Garden and Forest. 



[Number 306. 



are hallowed by deeds of patriotic sacrifice ; and with 

 a denser population there is greater need there than 

 there is here of free spaces for public enjoyment and 

 a stronger motive for protecting beautiful natural ob- 

 jects from being vulgarized or destroyed. And yet a little 

 more than a month ago it was found advisable in England 

 to organize a movement to establish a "National Trust for 

 Places of Historic Interest and Natural Beauty." The orig- 

 inators of this movement state that the nation is in danger 

 of losing many of its most valuable possessions through 

 the want of some custodian to whom they may be trans- 

 ferred and by whom they may be guarded. Districts cele- 

 brated for natural beauty are being marred and disfigured; 

 houses and ruins of unique interest are destroyed because, 

 as they pass from hand to hand, they sooner or later come into 

 the ownership of persons who cannot appreciate them or 

 who are forced to realize any money value they may have. 

 Such noteworthy spots as the summit of Snowdon, the 

 island in the middle of Grassmere Lake and the Ladore 

 Falls have all come into market within the last two years, 

 and they could have been secured for public enjoyment if 

 there had been any body in existence capable of acquiring 

 and protecting them in the public interest. The quarrying 

 operations along the Cheddar Cliffs are defacing some of 

 the grandest scenery in the country, and if money could be 

 raised to purchase these cliffs for public use, there is not a 

 corporate body to hold and manage such property in be- 

 half of the public. To meet this condition of things this 

 national trust is to be incorporated, and its primary func- 

 tion will be to accept from land-owners gifts of places 

 which they desire to place beyond risk of injury from their 

 successors, and to keep such places intact and at the ser- 

 vice of the nation. The new society numbers among its 

 organizers some of the best-known men in the kingdom, 

 and its first work will be to accept the care of a beautiful 

 sea-cliff from a Welsh land-owner, who is desirous of trans- 

 ferring it to them. This body will lose no time, we are 

 assured, in "acquiring legal power and entering upon its 

 duties," and it will carry with it the good wishes of all civil- 

 ized people the world over who have a feeling for nature 

 and for historic association. 



It is to be sincerely hoped that every state in the union 

 will pass an act with a purpose like that of the Massachu- 

 setts law incorporating the Trustees of Public Reservations, 

 or begin some mo vement similar to that organ ized by theDuke 

 of Westminster, Lord Dufferin, LordRoseberry, SirFrederick 

 Leighton, Professor Huxley and other public-spirited men 

 in Great Britain. Of course, there must be a controlling 

 public sentiment behind any legislation such as is here 

 recommended if it is to accomplish its highest purpose, but 

 it is evident that this sentiment is gathering strength every 

 year, and it will grow by exercise. It will not be satisfied 

 by the selection of a few isolated tracts, but as it develops 

 it will be manifested, as we have already said, "in a rev- 

 erent regard for natural scenery over the entire face of the 

 country. It will ensure, not only intelligent treatment for 

 special reservations, but it will help to protect every pleas- 

 ing prospect from being marred, and it will act as a sensi- 

 tive public conscience to protest against the obliteration and 

 defacement of natural beauty and the desecration of spots 

 that are hallowed by historic memories, wherever they are 

 found." 



The Origin of the Purple Beech. 



A S all our readers probably know, the Purple or Copper- 

 •**■ leaved Beech is not a distinct species, but a natural variety 

 or sport from the common European Beech, as is shown by 

 its botanical name — Fagus sylvatica, var. purpurea. The gen- 

 eral belief among horticulturists has been that the first Beech 

 with colored foliage was discovered in the last century in the 

 Hainleiter Forest, near Sondershausen, in Thuringia, and to it 

 all the many specimens which adorn the pleasure-grounds of 

 Europe and America can trace back their origin. This belief 

 was supported not long ago by Herr G. Lut/.e, of Sonders- 

 hausen, in an article published in the Bulletin of the Thurin- 

 gian Botanical Society, which declares that the historic tree 



still exists, is about 200 years old, and must be regarded as 

 " the parent of all Purple Beeches." But Herr Lutze acknowl- 

 edged that this belief contradicts the assertions of another 

 writer, Aschershausen, who maintains that Purple Beeches 

 are indigenous in southern Tyrol. 



These contradictory affirmations are noted by Herr J. Jaggi, 

 of Zurich, at the beginning of an article first published in the 

 Swiss Journal of Horticulture, and thence copied into the 

 pages of a recent number of Gartenflora. Herr Jaggi, who says 

 that Aschershausen probably based his assertion upon Haus- 

 mann's Flora of the Tyrol (Innsbruck, 1851), quotes Hausmann's 

 entry thus : " Fagus sylvatica, var. sanguinea : Common in the 

 mountains around Roveredo," and says that the authorities he 

 cites are Pollini, who died in 1831, and Cristofori, who died in 

 1S48. And then Herr Jaggi proceeds to throw a clearer light 

 upon the history of our familiar tree. 



On page 268 of vol. i. of Die Harbkesche wilde Baumzucht, 

 published at Brunswick in 1772, he tells us, Philippe Du Roi 

 says: "A variety of the common Beech is Fagus sylvatica 

 toliis atro-rubentibus (F. rubrifolia Buchensis, Ott, Dendrolo- 

 gie, 245). In Germany this variety is represented by several 

 tall trees in the principality of Schvvarzburg, whence it has 

 been transported into cultivated grounds and gardens. . . . 

 Ott met with it in the Canton Zurich, in a garden near the vil- 

 lage of Buch, and named it from this circumstance." But, as 

 Herr Jaggi then shows, Ott was here misquoted by Du Roi. 

 What he had really said (page 245, Dendrologie, Zurich, 1763) 

 was : " In Switzerland we have two varieties of the Beech : (1) 

 Fagus foliis candidis, Scheuchz, //. alp., vi., page 322 ; and (2) 

 F. rubrifolia Buchensis, Wagner, Helv. curios., page 266. The 

 latter is found nowhere except near the village of Buch, on the 

 Irchel mountain, in the Canton of Zurich, and there only in 

 small numbers, and also in a garden to which it had thence 

 been carried, retaining its purple color." 



Following up this clue, Herr Jaggi then shows that "the 

 Swiss Purple Beeches can by no means have been derived 

 from the Thuringian tree, for we have certain witness to a 

 group of native Swiss specimens which greatly antedated the 

 supposed 'parent' at Sondershausen, and, indeed, must have 

 long existed while this was still in its swaddling-clothes." 

 Turning to the authority cited by Ott {Wagner's Historia 

 naturalis Helvetia curiosa, Tuguri, 16S0), he quotes the fol- 

 lowing sentence : "A Beech wood at Buch, on Irchel moun- 

 tain, in Zurichgau (commonly called the Stammberg) contains 

 three Beech-trees'with red leaves, such as are nowhere else to 

 be found." 



Still more explicitly, we then learn, speaks Scheuzer, in his 

 Description of the Natural History of Switzerland {Beschrei- 

 bung tier Nature-Geschichten des Schweizerlandes, Part I., Zu- 

 rich, 1706), filling two quarto pages (pp. 2 and 3) with an arti- 

 cle called "The Red Beech-trees of Buch." 



" At Buch," this account runs, "a village lying in the An- 

 delfinger estate, in the Canton Zurich, on the so-called Stamm- 

 berg, there stand among other Beeches, Oaks and other forest- 

 trees, three Beeches which differ from the sort commonly 

 known in Europe in that they assume their colored garment 

 early, at the beginning of summer ; and, strange to say, at the 

 holy Feast of Whitsuntide offer to our sight a marvelously 

 beautiful red, so that the peasants dwelling within the limits of 

 a two-hours' journey are accustomed then to assemble here to 

 break off leaves and twigs from these blood-red Beeches and 

 carry them home in their hats. The inhabitants explain that, 

 in former times, five brothers murdered each other on this 

 spot; and, as a righteous testimony from God, live blood- 

 besprinkled Beech-trees sprang up, as a lasting witness to so 

 horrible a deed. No one knows anything about the time when 

 this murder-occurrence took place, nor about any other of the 

 facts needful to establish the authenticity of the history. Nev- 

 ertheless, it is certain that the peasants now living (1706) did 

 not invent the fable, but inherited it as a tradition from their 

 ancestors. And it is said that here and there in old herbaria 

 notices of the Red Beeches of Buch may be found. Forwhich 

 reasons one is prompted to question whether perhaps the vil- 

 lage of Buch itself may not have obtained its name from these 

 rare trees." 



The German for Beech, we may explain, is Buch. In Sul- 

 zer's edition of Scheuchzer (Zurich, 1746), a note appended to 

 the term "blood-red" explains that the color is really a dark 

 red ; another note attached to the words last quoted says that 

 the armorial shield of the village of Buch bears, in fact, a pic- 

 ture of a red Beech-tree ; and a third tells us that at that time 

 one or two of the red trees seemed to have perished, while, on 

 the other hand, "new ones had followed in their places," this 

 note reading as though the commentator had not himself in- 

 vestigated the matter. 



