172 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 323. 



plants have bulbous roots that a large garden could be 

 made beautiful with these alone. The cultivation of ordi- 

 nary Dutch bulbs presents no difficulties, and every leading 

 seedsman in the country can furnish a good selection. But 

 as soon as one begins to take a special interest in plants he 

 will long for something besides the standard and staple 

 sorts, and a good beginning of a most interesting collection 

 can be made with a modest outlay of money. Besides the 

 regulation Tulips, for example, the planter will certainly 

 want some of the so-called botanical Tulips, or species 

 which have not been modified by cultivation. Mr. Orpet 

 mentions some of these on another page of this issue, and 

 the catalogues of foreign houses contain, perhaps, fifty, 

 most of which will continue and multiply from year to year. 

 Among the Narcissi there are probably a dozen leading sec- 

 tions, and these are broken into subsections, each of them 

 containing numerous named varieties. Besides the standard 

 varieties of Fritillaries, Crocuses, Snowdrops, Chionodoxas, 

 Scillas, Ornithogalumsand many more, an almost endless 

 number of species can be had, and every year brings its 

 new discoveries and introductions, and this opens up pos- 

 sibilities for life-long study and enjoyment. Many of these 

 bulbs cannot be found in stock in this country, and the 

 best plan for a beginner is to make out his list and ask 

 the American seedsman with whom he deals to import 

 them for him. No spring garden will be satisfactory with- 

 out some of the early Irises about which Mr. Gerard has 

 written so much in these columns, but which are practi- 

 cally unknown to any extent in this country. And then 

 there are possibilities with the plants from the Pacific coast, 

 which growers like Mr. Horsford are testing every year. Spe- 

 cial cultivation will be required for different species if they 

 are to be had at their best, and we can only say here that 

 the well-indexed volumes of Garden and Forest give much 

 expert counsel for beginners, and cultural directions for the 

 different seasons appear in every issue. It is hardly neces- 

 sary to add here that a great many spring-flowering 

 plants will develop into their best forms in a well-made 

 rock-garden. As a rule, the earliest flowers will be found 

 in light, well-drained soil and sheltered from cold winds, 

 so that they will respond to the very first warmth of the 

 spring sun, and the bloom of the same varieties will be 

 prolonged if some of them are planted in positions where 

 the ground will keep frozen longer and where they will not 

 be wakened up from their winter sleep so early. 



Forest- fires — How to Stop Them. 



THE following short and pithy paper was contributed 

 to the late meeting of the Forestry Associations by 

 Mr. H. B. Ayres : 



The best way to stop them is to prevent them, and we can- 

 not prevent them until the people appreciate the damage 

 they do. Americans, the imported ones as well as the abo- 

 rigines, do not make an effort unless they see some reason for 

 it ; and while our fire-wardens report thousands of acres 

 burned over, but " no damage done," why stop the fires ? 



If we could but know the full effect of forest and prairie fires, 

 and multiply their effect by their extent (as should be done), 

 we would all rush out and stop them as if they were approach- 

 ing our own houses ; for they are just as truly burning up our 

 property and the very resources of the country. The techni- 

 cal details of the injurious effects of these fires I am not pre- 

 pared to enter into ; but the value of the merchantable mate- 

 rial destroyed is but a very small fraction of the damage done 

 by them. While this subject is so slightly appreciated by most 

 of the people, and, perhaps, too lightly by all of us, I venture 

 the hope that future generations will understand these myste- 

 ries better, and may think, with some gratitude, of the Ameri- 

 can Forestry Association and its battle with the dragon. 



How stop fires ? First, inspire every person with a deeper 

 love for his country. Second, teach him the proper use of fire 

 by showing the danger of its misuse : Light a match on horse- 

 back and let it fall upon dry Pine-needles. Throw a cigar- 

 stump among dry leaves or turf. Fire a gun so the combusti- 

 ble wad will strike some dry Maple-punk. Start a camp-fire 

 against a tree, an old log or upon peaty ground, throw several 

 pailfuls of water upon it, leave it, and then bring your pupil 



back a week afterward to see mile after mile of blackened for- 

 est and hear the roar and crackle of his little camp-fire as tree 

 after tree falls before it. Take him into the unburned forest 

 and show him the millions upon millions of little seedlings de- 

 voting their plant-lives to man's service. Then by the touch 

 of brimstone consign this host of friends to the flames. 



By this time he will be prepared to take a hearty interest in 

 stopping fires, and will speak to those he meets of the damage 

 they do. He will go into the woods and study these fires as 

 they burn. He will soon see that a foot-path, a brook, a 

 stretch of lowland often stops a fire. This will naturally lead 

 him to make trails and bridle-paths and roads through his for- 

 est, especially parallel to streams, thus forming a double bar- 

 rier and securing access to water where most effective. It 

 may often be advisable to remove combustible material from 

 between the trail and the brookorfromotherstripsof ground — 

 safety strips. He will probably establish lookout stations on 

 hill-tops or build towers above the trees, and may even have 

 these stations connected by telephone where there is special 

 danger. If the forest be unusually dry and full of such in- 

 flammable material as to make a rushing fire imminent, he 

 will patrol his forest on the bridle-paths and will keep close 

 watch on every party that enters his territory, seeing especially 

 that their camp-fires are extinguished when the party moves. 



Further than these few suggestive remarks I do not know 

 what more to say about stopping fires. The sum of the mat- 

 ter is that legislation is ineffective unless supported by the sen- 

 timents and the acts of the people. The people must be con- 

 verted (at so much a head, if necessary) ; then, when the 

 movement becomes popular, the warden can apply himself 

 directly to the fires, studying — not fires in general, but the spe- 

 cific fires of his forests — and if as intelligent and faithful as the 

 average American woodsman he will quickly find a way to 

 stop them if the means are at command. 



Notes of Mexican Travel. — IX. 



SAN MARCOS AND THE VOLCANO OF COLIMA. 



FROM Zapotlan to the great sugar plantation, the 

 Hacienda of San Marco is some forty miles as the 

 trail runs. This leads through the lava beds, a rocky tract 

 of frightful character, whose meagre, heated soil offers 

 congenial conditions for Aralia pubescens, Acacia pen- 

 natula, Lysoloma Acapulcensis, Gnazuma ulmifolia, Stem- 

 madenia bignoniasflora, Bombax Palmeri, and half a dozen 

 species of Bursera — lancifolia, graveolens, Palmeri, bipin- 

 nata, fagarioides and Pringlei. Next it threads, over sandy 

 soil, a forest of Pine which flanks the Nevado on the east, 

 in its way winding around deep ravines and over dividing 

 ridges, and crossing midway the barranca of Atenquique, 

 a barranca 600 feet deep and one-fourth of a mile wide, 

 whose sides in places rise perpendicular nearly to the top. 

 Then, leaving the forest, it descends into the more open 

 river cation at Patinar, but soon climbs out again to pass 

 over high open ridges, and finally crosses the barranca of 

 Beltran, on whose southern bank gentle slopes, a mile or 

 two broad, are occupied by the cane-fields of San Marcos. 

 The barranca of Beltran comes down from between the 

 Nevado and Volcano ten miles to the west ; and near the 

 place of crossing discharges its stream into the river which 

 flows south from Patinar through a deep but broad cation 

 at the foot of the cane-fields. This barranca is quite as 

 deep a chasm as that of Atenquique, and even narrower. 

 On its 'steep walls hangs in numerous folds the trail either 

 paved with smooth cobblestones or hewn from the solid 

 rock. A low wall of masonry is raised along its outer edge 

 to prevent the animals falling off; but as the traveler for 

 the first time looks over it from the back of his slipping 

 mule on to the tree-tops and house-tops far below, his head 

 becomes giddy and he prefers to dismount. This barranca 

 did not yield me many species, since its precipitous wall 

 presents but scanty foothold for plants, and its narrow floor 

 is swept at seasons by mountain torrents. 



As we ascend to the hacienda by a long lane through 

 cane-fields, the grand house of the proprietor, with its heavy 

 walls, its towers and its colonnades, perched on a rock high 

 above the sugar-mills and the ample quarters, presents 

 much the appearance of a feudal castle. Out of the Pine 

 forests in the background looms the vast naked form of the 



