JULY l8, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



283 



author, came to these shores in 1629. He herein gives the 

 result of his observations and experience during a resi- 

 dence of four years, publishing his book in London in 

 1635. Having spoken in the early chapters of the situa- 

 tion, seasons and climate, he next discourses upon " the 

 Hearbs, Fruits, woods, water and Minerals." " The ground 

 affords very good kitchin Gardens, for Turneps, Parsnips, 

 Carrots, Radishe and Pumpions, Muskmillions, Isquouter- 

 quashes, Coucumbers, Onyons, and whatsoever grows 

 well in England, growes as well there, many things being 

 better and larger. There is also growing all manner of 

 hearbes for meate and medicine, and that not onely in 

 planted gardens but in the Woods, without eyther the art 

 or the helpe of man,, as sweet Marjoran, Purselane, Sorrell, 

 Peneriall, Yarrow, Mirtle, Saxifarilla, Bayes, etc. There is 

 likewise Strawberries in abundance." He devotes a chap- 

 ter to a consideration of the several plantations. Among 

 these he mentions more particularly the following : 



Dorchester "has very good arable grounds, and hay 

 ground, fairecornefields, and pleasant gardens with kitchen- 

 gardens." 



Roxberry "has faire houses, impaled corne-fields, and 

 fruitfull gardens. " 



Boston, " where dwells the Governour, hath very giod 

 land, affording rich corne-fields, and fruitful gardens, having 

 also sweete and pleasant Springs." William Blackstone, in 

 1625, "is cultivating a garden, and watching the growth of 

 some apple trees on the westerly slopes of Trimountain." 



"On Gov. Winthrop's island is planted an 



orchard and a vine-yard, with many other conveniences. 



In New-England' s Rarities, Josselyn says, "The plants 

 in New-England for the variety, number, beauty and 

 vertues, may stand in competition with the plants of 

 any countrey in Europe. " In the list of these which he 

 gives, we have the fullest account of the plants which made 

 up the collection to be found in the gardens of our remote 

 grandmothers. These excellent dames would seem under 

 the circumstances, to have fared well. Their English and 

 Indian beans and peas ; their various roots of excellent 

 quality, beets, parsnips, turnips and carrots ; the cab- 

 bages, asparagus, radishes and lettuce ; their various and 

 numerous pot-herbs and sweet-herbs ; the Indian pampi- 

 ons, melons and squashes — all testify to this belief. 



Nor should those dear reminders of their childhood's 

 home, the sweet familiar flowers, be forgotten, the White 

 Satten, the Lavender cotton, the Gillyflowers and Holly- 

 hocks, possibly arranged by themselves, in " a garden of 

 Pleasure" laid out with formal paths, bordered by "swete- 

 herbes," as Parkinson advises, and the whole surrounded 

 by a hedge-row composed of English Roses, Eglantine, 

 Barberries, and Privet, for the planting of which Josselyn 

 gives full directions. The Lilacs and the Snowballs are 

 reserved for the modest adornment of the door-yard as 

 precious souvenirs of Old England. 

 Chestnut Hill, Mass. Daniel Denison Slade. 



Botanical Notes from Texas. — XXI. 



A I fHEN the traveler, going westward on the Southern Pacific 

 * * Railway, has left San Antonio about one hundred and 

 seventy miles behind him, the brakeman's call, " Del Rio," ad- 

 vises him that the valley of the great river of the north, 

 though two or three miles away, is in sight. Del Rio is a 

 pleasant little city of about two thousand inhabitants, whose 

 name is significant of its proximity to the river. It is built in 

 a large and beautiful valley, from which the county, of which 

 the city is the capital, Val Verde, is named. 



The latitude of Del Rio is about twenty-nine degrees twenty 

 minutes. The one hundred and first meridian runs just west 

 of the city. The city of Mexico is nearly south of Del Rio, 

 about twelve hundred miles away. El Paso is some four hun- 

 dred and fifty miles farther up the river. New Orleans is 

 about seven hundred and fifty miles nearly east. 



A mile or so from the city there are several large and pow- 

 erful springs of excellent water ; together these springs form 

 the San Felipe River. In its short, but very swift, course to the 

 Rio Grande, it not only affords abundant water-power, but also 



can be made to water nearly the entire valley through which it 

 flows. If the people of Del Rio will in a liberal way improve 

 their natural advantages they can make it a large and pros- 

 perous city, and this good work, to some extent, has been be- 

 gun. Cultivated fields and orchards and vineyards abound in 

 the valley. Wine to the amount of several thousand gallons is 

 made annually in Del Rio, and viticulture is capable of indefi- 

 nite extension here. Apples, Pears, Peaches, Apricots, Quinces 

 and Plums are also to some extent in cultivation. All of those 

 fruits succeed better than the Apple. With irrigation, fruits 

 grown here are nearly independent of the clouds for their 

 supply of water. Nature has made the soil all that is required 

 for success. But late " Norters," after a summer-winter, such 

 as south-western Texas is now enjoying, quite often blast 

 fruit-growers' hopes of a crop, even when the fruit is nearly 

 half-grown. No part of Texas, unless it be a small portion of 

 the state near Brownsville, is exempt from those sudden ex- 

 tremes of cold. There seems to be no way to avoid them 

 except for the state to throw up a range of mountains, say, a 

 mile or two high, along its northern boundary. The occa- 

 sional destruction of a fruit-crop, unless the trees, too, are in- 

 jured by the cold, as they sometimes are, might, however, 

 prove a less serious loss to the grower than to the consumer 

 of the fruit. 



The proximity of the river and the sparseness of the human 

 population in this region afford pleasure-seekers good hunt- 

 ing, and sometimes plenty of game. Away from the settle- 

 ments wild turkeys are still abundant. Dry weather has driven 

 most of the quail to regions favored with more rain, and there- 

 fore with more grain-fields where they may glean. I saw a single 

 covey of the handsome California species near the city, and 

 the Texas Bob White is also here. The common American 

 deer and the antelope are yet common. Here, too, the colored 

 man may still luxuriate on his favorite opossum. The fox, 

 raccoon, badger, lynx and three or four other species of cat, 

 including the dreaded Mexican lion, two species of wolf, the 

 black bear and the southern armadillo, with the fox-squirrel in 

 abundance, inhabit this portion of the Rio Grande region. 



From the summit of Round Mountain, a sedimentary hill in 

 the lower San Felipe valley, on a clear, bright, early winter 

 morning, a broad and pleasant field of views opens up to the 

 visitor. He sees the San Felipe, with its beautiful valley, from 

 its source to where it is lost in the Rio Grande ; the winding 

 valley of that river, Del Rio, the hills and mountains in the 

 distance ; and across the Rio Grande he sees scores of the 

 thatched adobe houses in Mexico, while the peaks of San Rosa 

 Mountains stand up against the distant sky. 



To northern readers a botanical excursion on Christmas may 

 seem untimely. But here we were on Christmas-day in south- 

 western Texas. Some wild plant may be collected every day 

 of almost any year. That is especially true of the present win- 

 ter, in which no norther has yet visited Texas. I am writing 

 in early February, and here at Fort Clark, even Sophorasecun- 

 dirlora shows its violet flowers, and many individuals of 

 the Berberis, common to this region, are in full bloom. A 

 little farther south of us Peach-trees are already pink with their 

 blossoms. 



On the lowlands, near Rio Grande, growBaccharis glutinosa 

 and B. angustifolia. All the beauty that Nature has vouch- 

 safed to the genus Baccharis resides in the elongated plumose 

 pappus of some of her species. Neither of the species men- 

 tioned is celebrated for its beauty, but at Uvalde, near the 

 lake, I saw another species, probably B. salicifolia. It was in 

 the full glory of its fruiting and was attractive and handsome. 

 The species growing here are somewhat useful. They are 

 tall shrubby plants, growing ten or more feet tall and becom- 

 ing three to four inches in diameter. Mexicans use the slim 

 trunks for fagots, for light fencing and for thatching. They 

 are also useful in holding together and strengthening the 

 banks of irrigating ditches. B. angustifolia is known as Cedar 

 wherever it grows in western Texas. 



There are several dams across the San Felipe to afford more 

 water-power or to supply the irrigating ditches. In the ponds 

 created by the dams, and everywhere instill water, Nymphsea 

 advena grows in great luxuriance, and hundreds of its peculiar 

 but homely flowers appear above the water. In both still and 

 flowing water of the San Felipe, along whose banks we strolled, 

 queer little Trichocoronis rivularis is very common. Some- 

 times it makes the surface of the water white with its small 

 flowers. It is a composite and clearly amphibious in its way 

 of living. In shallow water it roots in the soil at the bottom 

 of the stream in which it grows. In deeper water rootlets and 

 all float. When growing in water, which sometimes fails it, 

 still it is not discouraged, but pushes its roots into the liman 

 and grows equally as well there. It is a south-western species. 



