9 2 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 315. 



moment's notice. As a matter of fact, however, under the 

 system of political appointment that has prevailed here 

 there is hardly one foreman in the entire force who is able 

 to properly direct a gang- of men in the woods, even after 

 the trees which are to be felled have been marked. Of all 

 " the unemployed" in New York who want work, there are 

 probably not a dozen who know how to handle an axe 

 skillfully. There ought to be in the employment of the 

 Park Board many foremen who could go into the woods 

 and select the trees which need pruning and those which 

 need felling. Under proper management the superinten- 

 dent should now have a skilled force with years of expe- 

 rience. Bat there is nothing like a trained body of men 

 in the park service who have been educated and disci- 

 plined to park work, and if this necessary forest-work is 

 attempted now on any considerable scale it will probably 

 mean that a hundred men will be turned loose in the woods 

 who may do damage in seven days that it will require 

 seven years to heal. 



We have urged, year after year, the necessity of proper 

 work in these plantations, but the Park Board has never 

 authorized the Superintendent to go ahead; no satisfactory 

 survey has ever been made ; no scheme of management 

 has ever been adopted ; no men have been trained for the 

 purpose. There never was a more baseless assumption 

 than the one that anybody can cut down a tree, and that 

 any one knows what trees ought to be cut. These park- 

 woods will never become what they should be until the 

 axe is used freely in them, but, on the other hand, there is 

 nothing which can do so much harm in the woods as an 

 axe in the hands of an ignorant man. 



The Pride of China Tree. 



THIS tree, Melia Azedarach, is the type of a small family 

 to which the Mahogany-tree also belongs. It has 

 been so long cultivated in the tropical and extra-tropical re- 

 gions of the two worlds, that it is impossible to locate with 

 any precision its original home, although the Swiss botan- 

 ist, Boissier, believed that it was indigenous in some of the 

 provinces of northern Persia. 



The China-tree was introduced into the United States 

 about ahundred years ago by the French botanist, Michaux, 

 who first planted it in the neighborhood of Charleston, 

 South Carolina, where he had a garden, into which he 

 brought American plants gathered in his various journeys 

 undertaken under the auspices of the King of France, and 

 where he planted, too, a few exotic trees which he thought 

 would thrive in the southern states. The Melia found in 

 the Carolinas the conditions which suited it, as it has wher- 

 ever it has been planted beyond the influence of severe 

 frosts, and soon established itself in the neighborhood of 

 dwellings, and then spread into the forest, where it is now, 

 in some places at least, as much at home as any native 

 tree. The Pride of China rarely exceeds the height of fifty 

 feet, and develops a wide-spreading head, which makes it 

 desirable as a shade-tree. The compound twice-pinnate 

 deciduous leaves, of a dark lustrous green, make a light 

 and graceful foliage. The flowers, which are produced in 

 clusters, are of a pale bluish-lilac color and quite fragrant. 

 The fruit is a globose yellowish berry-like drupe, contain- 

 ing a round stone, which is five-celled, with a seed in each 

 cell. 



The root of Melia has been used in the southern states 

 medicinally to destroy intestinal worms, and the whole tree 

 has the reputation of being obnoxious to insects. For this 

 reason it is often planted near stables to drive away flies, 

 and that the horses may eat the fruits, which are said to 

 prevent bots. In some countries the stones are strung 

 like beads for rosaries, so that the tree is often called " arbor 

 sancta." The seeds yield an oil which may be used in 

 lamps. The berries have received the reputation at the 

 hands of some writers of being poisonous ; certainly, they 

 are not so to horses, and in India they are used in medi- 

 cine. 



In a recent issue of Tlie Garden and Field, of Adelaide, 

 the alleged poisonous nature of the fruit of this tree is dis- 

 cussed, and it is asserted that " a Melia-tree requiring prun- 

 ing, its superfluous branches were cut off and thrown over 

 a fence into a pasture. Several pigs and cows ate the berries ; 

 the result was that the pigs died and the cows became very ill, 

 but recovered after three or four days, one effect being the 

 falling off of milk in one day from half a bucket to half a 

 cuptul. It is also stated that in some places the pulp of the 

 berries is used for poisoning dogs, being mixed with food 

 for the purpose." A case has been recorded of a European 

 girl in India, who, having eaten the berries, became insen- 

 sible and died. On the other hand, the best writers on the 

 medical properties of plants make no allusion to the poison- 

 ous nature of the fruit of this tree ; but as the Melia is so 

 often planted in our southern cities, where it produces fruit 

 in great abundance and is easily accessible to children and 

 domestic animals, its real properties should be determined, 

 and we shall be glad to record the results of any observa- 

 tions on this subject with which our correspondents and 

 readers may favor us. 



Melia Azedarash produces handsome brownish or red- 

 dish, rather coarse-fibred, wood, which is handsomely 

 marked, and is often used for furniture in tropical countries. 



A remarkable form of this tree is now often cultivated in 

 the southern United States, especially in Texas, where it is 

 supposed to have originated some twenty or thirty years 

 ago. This is the variety umbraculifera, or, as it is com- 

 monly called, the Umbrella Tree, and its habit and peculiar 

 mode of growth are well displayed in the illustration on 

 page 95 of this issue, made from a photograph of a tree 

 growing in a garden at Riverside, in southern California, 

 for which we are indebted to Dr. James C. White, Boston, 

 Massachusetts. We have been unable to find any account 

 of the origin and history of this variety, which does not 

 appear to be known beyond the limits of the United States, 

 and we shall be very much obliged for any information 

 relating to its history. 



Vegetable Sculpture in China. 



THE fantastic and grotesque training of shrubs and 

 trees, which reached its acme among the Dutch, is 

 usually attributed to the gardeners of Holland, but should 

 not, I think, be placed wholly to their credit, for, as traders, 

 the Dutch had visited China previous to the development of 

 vegetable sculpture in Holland. These bold navigators 

 noticed the curious-trained plants of that country, and, ad- 

 miring these vegetable curiosities, introduced the fashion 

 into their native land. 



On my first visit to Canton in 1883 I was amused and 

 instructed by some of the noted gardens of that city. The 

 "Fa-ti," literally flower-place, is the most interesting of the 

 gardens. This is an open space of ground on the west 

 bank of the Pearl River, and has been occupied by Chinese 

 nurserymen and florists for ages. It is surrounded with a 

 closely packed mass of houses ; the streets are only six 

 feet wide, and their labyrinthian windings and intersec- 

 tions lead the stranger into a veritable Chinese puzzle. The 

 alleys are covered with filth and garbage, and bad sewer- 

 age is evident, and they are crowded with jabbering half- 

 naked Celestials and lazy mangy dogs. 



An imposing arched structure of enameled porcelain in 

 blue and yellow forms one of the entrances to the garden. 

 Long pendent sign-boards hang on either side, on which a 

 distracting combination of gilded strokes and dots are em- 

 blazoned on a red ground, and these set forth in flowery 

 phrases the name of the garden and its proprietor, also the 

 excellence of his merchandise and his incomparable hon- 

 esty as a trader. Inside the entrance the garden opens up 

 into a series of long parallel beds, divided by walks and 

 margined with rows of green enameled pots containing a 

 variety of trained shrubs and trees. The vegetable sculptor 

 is conscious of the inadequacy of a mere shrub to give his 

 picture the higher artistic tones of suggestion and expres- 



