102 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 316 



region of the French Alps, and pictures of the ravage of 

 these mountain-slopes, when scoured by torrents, have be- 

 come familiar to all. We do not need to cross the seas, 

 however, for object-lessons of this sort, and a singularly 

 striking one was presented at the forestry meeting last 

 week at Albany, by Professor Rothrock, in an illustrated 

 lecture on the relation of forests to the soil. Three streams 

 of about equal length flow in parallel courses from the 

 ridge which forms the rim of the Susquehanna basin into 

 the west branch of the river. The streams are about ten 

 miles apart ; they start at about the same altitude ; descend 

 with about the same rapidity, and the slopes in the drainage 

 area of each are of similar inclination. Professor Rothrock 

 showed some lantern-slide p'ctures of the westernmost 

 of these streams, where, in its lower levels, rocks weighing: 

 several tons had been swept along by the force of the 

 freshets, while the banks were thickly gullied and bare of 

 vegetation. Successive views up the stream showed the 

 destruction of roads and bridges, and, finally, at the head- 

 waters stretched the bare crest, from which the cover of 

 woods had been all cleared away. In the valley of this 

 stream farm-lands were rapidly losing their fertility, and in 

 a freshet last year thousands of dollars of public property 

 had been destroyed and several lives had been lost. The 

 next stream was flowing gently as a summer brook be- 

 tween banks, a fair percentage of which were clothed with 

 trees up to the very springs at its fountain-head. There 

 had been high water in this stream at the time of the fatal 

 freshet in the first stream, but no property had been injured, 

 no life had been lost, no soil had been scoured from the 

 underlying rock. Along the third stream, from whose 

 sources the timber had also been cut away, the picture of 

 desolation in the first valley was repeated, with the same 

 melancholy history of death and loss. The restrained and 

 equable flow of the second stream is made the more re- 

 markable by the fact that there are destructive torrents on 

 either side of it, with no apparent cause for the difference, 

 except that the trees had been saved in one case, and 

 stripped away in the others. Such facts as these enforce 

 in a convincing way the argument as to the value of the 

 forest-cover as a check upon mountain-torrents and as a 

 means of retaining the soil in its place. 



Winter-blooming Plants in the Pines. 



A NUMBER of plants have flowered with us all winter. One 

 of the most conspicuous is Sonchus asper, which has not 

 only blossomed all the time, but the seeds have matured, and 

 on pleasant days the ripened heads, with their soft white pap- 

 pus, have rounded out, and the seed has wafted here and 

 there to further spread this European weed. But, weed as it is, 

 it is not without its attractions. Sometimes the plant was half- 

 buried in snow, but still the yellow heads stood erect, not 

 drooping at all. Dandelions, too, have been in bloom in shel- 

 tered places most of the winter, but the seed has not matured. 

 The trim little Draba verna commenced flowering in Decem- 

 ber, and is still in bloom. It is very pretty, with its thick 

 rosette of small leaves lying flat on the ground, from which 

 arise several branching flower-scapes, and as they elongate 

 with flowering summits they leave behind the flat, roundish 

 seed-pods which are almost as pretty as the flowers. A low 

 dish of these plants, set as close together as they will stand, is 

 an attractive table ornament. The flowers are white and about 

 as large as those of Gypsophila, and any delicate flower from 

 the garden is made doubly beautiful by inserting it among 

 these small spray-like blossoms. The drooping Snowdrop is 

 especially charming among them. 



The Shepherd's-purse has tried to blossom during the win- 

 ter, but, compared with our cheerful little Draba, it has made 

 a melancholy failure. The stems have struggled upward, but 

 the flowers have left only abortive seed-pods. Sweet Alyssum 

 has been in flower all winter, and the perennial Candytuft is 

 almost in blossom. These Cruciferae, as a rule, are a hardy 

 race, and both the weeds and cultivated plants defy ordinary 

 winter weather. 



A Labiate plant, Lamium amplexicaule, has also been in 

 blossom throughout the winter, and has ripened seed. It hugs 

 the ground more closely in winter than in summer. A few 

 pleasant days will lift it up, and its stems will stretch out rap- 



idly, leaving the older whorls of flowers to mature the seed, 

 while it forms new whorls of little pinkish purple flowers, with 

 lower lip spotted with white. Large patches of the common 

 Starwort, Stellaria media, were full of bloom in January, and 

 very handsome, with its spreading stems so thickly covered 

 with leaves as to entirely hide the ground. Interspersed 

 among the leaves the numerous pure white star-shaped flow- 

 ers were doubly welcome at this season. 



Pyxidanthera has been hardly able to wait in patience, and 

 has actually unfolded some of its blossoms now and then all 

 winter long, but the grand opening will be a little later. An- 

 dromeda caylyculata was in bloom in January and still con- 

 tinues to flower. Many of the Swamp Maples were red with 

 flowers early in February ; other trees of both White and Red 

 Maple still hold their flowers back. The Alders and Filberts 

 have hung out their catkins, but are not yet ready to scatter 

 their golden pollen. Some of the Willows were fully out in 

 February, with insects hovering about the blossoms. 



One of the most attractive plants in the garden this winter 

 has been Rosa Wichuriana, which was sent from the Arnold 

 Arboretum. The small, glossy leaves and the dark red clus- 

 tersof hips, which, like the leaves, look as if they had been var- 

 nished, are very handsome and make beautiful table decorations. 

 A few other Roses have more or less held their foliage, notably 

 those with a touch of Rugosa blood. The trailing Forsythia 

 commenced to flower weeks ago, but the cold of late Feb- 

 ruary browned the blossoms as it did those of Pyrus Japonica, 

 whose cherry-red blossoms have greeted us every few days 

 throughout the winter. 



In a south window of my dining-room a climbing Nastur- 

 tium is growing by the side of a climbing ivy-leaved Gera- 

 nium. When the main stem of the Nasturtium had reached 

 three feet or a little more, one of the leaves turned away from 

 the light and back again, making the petiole coil around the 

 Geranium and itsown main stem, which it hugs closely forsup- 

 port; apparently not satisfied with one coil it turned the second 

 time, making two coils. This is a remarkable case of instinct 

 or intelligence in a plant which causes one of its leaves to 

 turn away from a strong light in order to hold up and sustain 

 itself. It has grown so fast that the stem-spaces between the 

 nodes are from three to four inches in length. The stem has 

 now reached a foot beyond the fastening and needs another 

 support, and to-day a new leaf has made a coil like its prede- 

 cessor. If all of the leaves behaved in a similar manner it 

 would not appear so strange. 

 Vineland, N. J. Mary Treat. 



Exotic Trees and Shrubs for Florida Gardens. — IV. 



METROSIDEROSsemperflorens,Bottle-brush,Australian 

 Myrtle. I have seen this shrub in full flower in April at 

 Orlando. It grows well in the sandy soil if fertilized and 

 mulched with muck. The flowers are deep scarlet, shaped 

 like a bottle brush; the leaves are small and dark green. 

 The growth is very straggling, and to obtain good speci- 

 mens judicious pruning is necessary. M. tomentosa, of 

 New Zealand, is a beautiful shrub of dense, compact 

 growth, dark Myrtle-like foliage and striking crimson flow- 

 ers. I saw beautiful specimens on the World's Fair Grounds 

 in New Orleans, and at Houston, Texas, but on my place 

 in Florida it was a failure. It evidently dislikes the sandy 

 soil and the protracted drought in spring. In its native 

 habitat it reaches a height of thirty to forty feet, and is 

 called the Christmas-tree, as it is at that time in full flower. 



Meyenia erecta, from West Africa, will soon be a great 

 favorite in the gardens of south Florida, as it endures full ex- 

 posure to the sun and produces its handsome blue and white 

 Gloxinia-like flowers in great profusion from May to Septem- 

 ber, and sprunts readily from the roots when frozen down. 

 This shrub can scarcely be overestimated in value for open- 

 air culture in Florida. It is now included underThunbergia, 

 but is generally known under the name of Meyenia in 

 gardens. 



Myrtus communis, common Myrtle, grows to perfection 

 on moderately good soil. A small plant which was set out 

 in the fall of 1889 is now about five feet high, and the stem 

 near the ground measures seven inches in circumference. 

 M. australis (Eugenia myrtifolia, E. australis) is a fine Aus- 

 tralian shrub of dense habit. The specimen on my place 

 looks healthy and vigorous. It needs a little fertilizer and 

 heavy mulching. In its native country it grows to a height 



