October 17, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest, 



419 



be compelled to clear their right of way of all old ties, 

 trees, stumps and dead wood, and either to seed to grass or 

 have the whole strip cultivated. The companies should be 

 held responsible for fires set by engines and section foremen. 

 Then every man should be compelled to put out any fires he 

 starts or sees burning, for old trees and rotten wood may hold 

 fire for weeks before it breaks out, if not attended to. 



Such conflagrations as the Hinckley fire, in Pine County, 

 cannot be stopped by any human effort after it once starts, for 

 the heat and smoke will kill a man many hundred feet ahead of 

 it. The territory burned over by that fire was twenty to thirty 

 miles wide north and south, and forty to sixty miles from east 

 to west. On this vast area there will not be trees enough in 

 leaf next spring to cover four hundred acres as the average 

 of the land was covered before the lire. About all of this land 

 was once covered with a thick growth of Pine, which had 

 mostly been cut ; perhaps three or four hundred million feet 

 were yet standing in the eastern portion of the district. This 

 is now dead and black as coal. Four buildings are left on this 

 whole tract of a thousand to twelve hundred square miles. 

 There were from 100 to 125 farmers scattered through the 

 burned district, but not one house or rod of fence remains to 

 show where these farms once were, and the whole territory 

 is a vast blackened desert. Tree-seeds will have to be planted 

 before there will be any timber grow. 



Taylor's Falls, Minn. 



W. S. D. 



Cephalanthus occidentalis. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — During the past summer my attention was drawn to an 

 unusually vigorous group of Button-ball bushes, at Shel- 

 burne, New Hampshire, on the farm of Mr. A. E. Philbrook. 

 The plants form a large clump and are notable, not only for 

 their remarkable size, but because they are the only represen- 

 tatives of the species within a wide area of territory. 



Prior to 1865 these bushes were growing on the edge of a 

 small pond, and were not particularly noteworthy, except that 

 they were isolated specimens. In that year the pond was filled 

 up in order to provide sufficient area for a barn, and in the 

 process the bushes were buried to a depth of three or" four 

 feet. They immediately pushed their way up through the 

 overlying sand, and have continued to make a vigorous 

 growth up to the present time, affording a most desirable 

 shade for the poultry. The plants now range to a height of 

 seven feet, the largest having a stem diameter of one and one- 

 half inches. During the past summer the bloom was most 

 abundant; the foliage was large, dark green and healthy. The 

 plants, as a whole, made a most attractive appearance, and 

 suggested the possibility of the usefulness of Cephalanthus 

 occidentalis for ornamental purposes. 



The history of these plants certainly shows that under care- 

 ful treatment this shrub may be vastly improved, and that it 

 may become worthy of a place among those already esteemed 

 for decorative purposes. It is quite probable, of course, that 

 the thrifty character of these plants is partly due to their loca- 

 tion in a poultry-yard for the past thirty odd years, and the 

 course of treatment to be followed in the improvement of this 

 species for purposes of cultivation may be suggested by this 

 fact. 



McGill University. D. P. PeilhciUoiU. 



Recent Publications. 



The introduction to a bulletin on The Cultivated Raspber- 

 ries of the United States, prepared by A. A. Crozier, and 

 sent out by the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, is 

 so interesting that we herewith present the historical parts of 

 it in a somewhat condensed form. 



The common Red Raspberry of Europe was cultivated by 

 the Greeks and received its name, Rubus Idosus, from Mount 

 Ida, where it flourished wild. From southern Europe it found 

 its way into France, the low countries and England, and thence 

 to the United States. The Red and White Antwerps belong 

 to this species, and they have remained standards of excel- 

 lence. here for more than a century. These foreign sorts, 

 although many of them bear abundantly large and well-flavored 

 fruit, suffer from our cold winters and hot summer suns, and 

 are adapted to only limited areas in this country. These de- 

 fects directed attention to our native Raspberries. The Black 

 Cap, Rubus occidentalis, was probably the first brought into 

 cultivation. There is a species resembling it on the Pacific 

 coast and the Rocky Mountains, Rubus leucodermis, which 

 is quite as promising, but which as yet has furnished no variety 



adapted to general cultivation. The eastern species attains its 

 greatest abundance and development in the rich valleys of 

 Ohio and Indiana, and more of our cultivated varieties have 

 come from this region than from any other source. The spe- 

 cies ranges, however, from Missouri and Arkansas into New 

 England, and the east has furnished more early varieties, and 

 larger and, later ones have originated in the west. 



The ordinary wild form of the Black Cap had come to be 

 cultivated quite largely for market near New York city before 

 1850. The first distinct variety on record is the Ohio Ever- 

 bearing, which attracted attention as early as 1832, from its 

 habit of fruiting to some extent upon the young canes in 

 autumn, a habit which did not increase its value for market 

 purposes. The yellow form of this berry, represented by the 

 Golden Cap, was introduced about the same time. The Do- 

 little next came into prominence, and although it is a good 

 variety, hardy and productive, it is not decidedly superior 

 to the wild species. Eminent authorities, like Dr. Warder 

 and Charles Downing, did not consider black caps suited for 

 the most refined taste, and even now they generally bring a 

 lower price in the market than the red varieties, although in 

 Indianapolis and certain other places where black raspberries 

 are supplied abundantly of fine quality, the demand is greater 

 and more lasting than for the red varieties. In Boston the 

 demand is almost wholly for red varieties, and black caps can 

 hardly be sold. 



Our native Red Raspberry has a wider range than the Black 

 Cap, extending farther northward. It takes less kindly to cul- 

 tivation, and we have few well-authenticated examples of its 

 varieties brought into cultivation from the wild state. The 

 evidence by which certain red varieties are classified as be- 

 longing to our native species are mainly structural, and not 

 historical, since they have nearly all -originated as chance or 

 artificial seedlings upon cultivated grounds. That the blood 

 of our native Red Raspberry is found largely in our most 

 popular and hardy sorts is a fact, if fact it is, which rests 

 mainly on circumstantial evidence. The Turner, for example, 

 which is called a native sort, originated in the midst of many 

 other seedlings grown on the seed of Red Antwerp. The 

 Thwack is said to be a cross between Herstein and Brandv- 

 wine, and, therefore, probably contains some foreign blood. 

 The popular Cuthbert, usually regarded as a native species, 

 originated in a plot of an English variety known as the Hud- 

 son River Antwerp. It seems possible, therefore, that 

 American seedlings of European sorts and hybridization from 

 the same foreign source may have been more potent factors 

 in the development of our garden Raspberries than has been 

 supposed, and that the characteristic features of the foreign 

 species, such as lack of hardiness, small light-colored canes, 

 numerous prickles, thick rugose leaves, may have become so 

 far modified by cultivation and crossing that one cannot 

 always be certain upon inspection alone as to the parentage of 

 any given variety. 



None of our popular varieties are known to be hybrids ; but 

 some promising work in this direction has been done by 

 Brinkle, Arnold, Caywood, Burbank and others. There is an 

 interesting group of probable natural hybrids between the 

 native red and black species known as the Purple Cane group. 

 Plants of this class are occasionally found growing wild where 

 Red Raspberries and Black Caps grow. This type has been 

 described by Peck under the name of Rubus neglectus, but 

 later botanists consider it of hybrid origin from its interme- 

 diate character, its location near the two species, and from the 

 fact that it never grows anywhere in large numbers as a true 

 species would likely do. The plants are more vigorous and 

 often more productive than either of their supposed parents ; 

 the canes are upright, slightly arching, generally reddish pur- 

 ple, with few and small spines. The plants produce few or no 

 suckers, and, although rooting at the tips of the canes when 

 layered under cultivation, are not known to do so naturally. 

 The purplish fruit is tart and larger than that of either the 

 black or red species. There are doubtful forms of this class 

 which approach more nearly the red species, and differ from it in 

 having darker fruit. The once popular Philadelphia is of this 

 class. The old Purple Cane was cultivated ninety years ago in 

 the vicinity of our eastern cities, and was undoubtedly the first 

 American species introduced into gardens, and it remained for 

 more than half a century the leading variety over a great part 

 of the country. The Shaffer is another prominent Raspberry 

 of the same group, and there are a score of others of the same 

 general character. These varieties are superior for canning 

 and drying, but their dull color makes them less attractive to 

 the eye, and thus diminishes their market value. The plants. 

 however, are hardy, vigorous, productive of large fruit and 

 easy to cultivate. 



