March 7, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



95 



Berlin Letter. 



ON the summit of the Kreuzberg, at Berlin, within the 

 boundaries of the new Victoria Park, are two large 

 Hackberry-trees of the American species Celtis occidentalis, 

 which date from the beginning of the century, and are 

 grouped with widely spreading Acacias of like age. In 

 the course of years the roots of the Celtis-trees had been 

 laid bare to a considerable extent by the action of high 

 winds blowing over the hill-top. They have been lately 

 carefully covered by spreading garden-mould over them. 

 As the species is rare in Germany, and as these two speci- 

 mens are in a way historic, having been planted by Lenne 

 at the dedication of a colossal statue which commemorates 

 the delivery of the Fatherland from the domination of 

 Napoleon, it seemed to me that they should be rescued 

 from impending destruction. One species of Celtis, C. 

 australis, which inhabits the south of Europe, is called, in 

 German, Ztirgel. Misled by similarity of sound, the Berlin 



here with great vigor and promises to be the best of coni- 

 fers both in elegance of appearance and in the rich green 

 color of its foliage. It has proved perfectly hardy, while 

 Pinus Sabiniana succumbed to the unusual severity of the 

 last winter, and Pinus Coulteri, although it endures the 

 climate, develops but slowly. 



The Big Trees of California, which had been apparently 

 acclimated in the vicinity of Berlin, were also unable to 

 resist the extreme severity of last winter. There were 

 specimens, thirty to forty feet high, which were in a very 

 flourishing condition, but they have met with the same fate 

 which befell the Cedars of Lebanon a generation or so ago. 

 If there are any Sequoias still living, it is due to the fact 

 that the snow protected some that were very young, or 

 because a few of large growth were specially protected. 

 One specimen, however, has survived without special care, 

 and did not lose a leaf. The people of Berlin are reluctant 

 to abandon the cultivation of a tree of such beauty and 



Fig. 20 — An Umbrella Tree, Melia Azedarach, var. umbraculitera, in Riverside, California. — See page 93. 



newspapers reported that Zirbel nuts (Pinus Cembra) had 

 ripened in large quantities on the Kreuzberg, and that the 

 children ate them with avidity. Of course, this mountain 

 conifer is not to be found in Berlin. The fact is that the 

 boys of Prussia are quite indifferent to the distinction 

 between the Urticacese and Conifera?, and, being a trifle 

 Spartan in their appetites, had amused themselves by 

 gathering a fruit that had no connection whatever with the 

 Pine-nuts, and were no other than the little berries of the 

 Hackberry, the flesh of which is so thin that it is scarcely 

 counted among edible fruits. 



The cones of Pinus Jeffreyi matured for the first time 

 last autumn, in the vicinity of Berlin, on a tree at Schaffen- 

 berg, about twenty-five feet in height, which had produced 

 nothing but bright orange-colored male flowers for several 

 years previously. The cone is quite large and might be mis- 

 taken for that of Pinus Canariensis, which, like it, is charac- 

 terized by leaves in clusters of threes. P. Jeffreyi grows 



interest, and as a matter of fact such excessively cold 

 weather occurs but two or three times in a century, and 

 therefore the trees will be planted again. Nevertheless, it 

 seems to be demonstrated that in Brandenberg the Sequoia 

 can never really become a big tree. Young saplings of 

 Redwood, although they seem more delicate, withstood 

 the winter at Scharfenberg, but they were protected by a 

 covering of dead leaves. 



Picea Omorica, of Servia, is still rare here, and no culti- 

 vated trees, so far as I know, have attained anything like the 

 proportions which they reach in their natural home. 

 However, with that tendency to variability which conifers 

 always show in cultivated seedlings, some of these have 

 developed into remarkable forms, which depart widely from 

 the type. In the palace garden at Potsdam I recently ob- 

 served one of these young Spruces with such drooping 

 branches that it promised to assume a shape quite singular 

 in this race generally characterized by upright growth. 



