JANUARY 14, 189 1.] 



Garden and Forest. 



21 



Maxillaria picta. — Some other species of the genus Maxil- 

 laria are better known than this one, and their superiority 

 entitles them to much more general attention than they 

 receive. It is a plant very easily managed. It is a native of 

 Brazil and was introduced to Europe in 1832. The ovate 

 pseudo-bulbs are slightly compressed, furrowed and clad with. 

 ragged brownish sheaths. They support two or three sharply 

 pointed ligulate leaves, from twelve to fifteen inches in length, 

 leathery, and dark green. The scapes emerge from the base 

 of the pseudo-bulbs formed during the previous spring and 

 summer. They are from six to nine inches in length, and' 

 each bears a single flower about two inches in diameter. The 

 petals are smaller than the sepals ; and both petals and sepals 

 are incurved and have their margins turned slightly backward. 

 The interior surface is dark orange with irregular brownish 

 blotches, and the exterior creamy white, becoming greenish 

 at the base, with numerous spots and patches of reddish pur- 

 ple. The sepals are further marked on the outside with a 

 line of the latter color which traverses one-third of their length 

 from the base. The lip is broader than the sepals and about half 

 their length, creamy white, marked on the upper surface with 

 reddish purple spots and with lines, which are most numerous 

 toward the margins. The column is reddish purple and very 

 conspicuous. The flowers are produced with great freedom 

 during November and December, and they are powerfully fra- 

 grant. It is the odor, rather than the color, size or form of 

 the flowers, which renders them attractive and pleasing. The 

 plant thrives best in pots or pans, with ample drainage mate- 

 rial, rough peat fibre and growing sphagnum. Abundance of 

 water is required during the growing season, but afterward 

 the supply may be slightly diminished with advantage. A con- 

 stant intermediate temperature gives very satisfactory results. 

 Saccolabuim giganteum. — Among the numerous Orchids 

 now in bloom it would be difficult to find one more stately or 

 one in which the colors of the flowers are more exquisitely 

 blended. It is a plant of erect habit, the stem being well fur- 

 nished with bold strap-shaped leaves about twelve inches in 

 length, unequally notched at the apex, and of dark green color, 

 with parallel lines conspicuously paler. The pendulous axil- 

 lary inflorescence is about as long as the leaves, and it takes 

 the form of a cylindrical raceme four inches through at the 

 widest part, tapering slightly toward the tip. The flowers are 

 sweetly fragrant, each an inch across, and densely packed on 

 five-sixths of the peduncle's entire length. The sepals are 

 elliptical, white, with pale purple spots, and the petals elliptic- 

 lanceolate and like the sepals in color. The lip is dilated and 

 trilobed at the apex, the lobes turned upward, bright purple, 

 with lines of a darker tint on the upper surface and lilac tipped 

 with purple beneath. The column is greenish white, marked 

 with purple at the base and in front. This species succeeds best 

 in pots, as do most of the large-growing Saccolabiums, with 

 crocks and rough pieces of charcoal and sphagnum on the 

 surface for the roots. The plant delights in a hot, moist 

 atmosphere and frequent applications of water during the 

 growing season. To promote abundant flowering it is neces- 

 sary, however, that the roots and air be maintained in a some- 

 what drier state, and that the temperature be slightly reduced in 

 winter. But even then sufficient water should be given to 

 prevent the smallest degree of shriveling. Free exposure 

 to light, but strict shading from brilliant sunshine, even at the 

 dullest period of the year, are essential for securing luxuriant 

 foliage. 



Cambridge, Mass. M. Barker. 



Anchusa Italica. — The Italian Alkanet, as it is called, is a 

 member of the Borage family, and is also known as Anchusa 

 azurea and A. paniculata, both of which names are descrip- 

 tively correct, as the flowers are borne on tall panicled stems 

 and are of a bright shade of blue. If we except the Larkspurs 

 there are few hardy plants that possess this peculiar shade of 

 blue ; and, as the plant under consideration flowers in early 

 summer and lasts long in perfection, its value is considerable, 

 as it is quite hardy and also a true perennial. The Anchusas 

 are among the easiest of perennials to raise from seeds, for 

 these germinate as readily as those of most annuals, and as 

 seeds are freely produced it is obviously the best means of 

 propagation. There are several other Anchusas, but our own 

 experience is limited to the above and to A. Capensis. This last 

 species is said to be a tender biennial ; but we have found it 

 perfectly hardy in that the abundant seeds, produced rapidly, 

 germinate around the parent plant, survive the winter and flow- 

 er the following season in profusion for three months. The 

 flowers, however, are small in comparison with those of A. 

 Italica. It is a well known fact that bees are partial to many 

 Boraginaceous plants, and to the genus Anchusa in particular. 



A. Capensis is eminently suitable for sowing in places where 

 it can be left alone to take care of itself, as in a wild garden. 

 The Alkanet of commerce, a deep red dye, is the product 

 of A. tinctoria, a dwarf species of spreading habit. 



South Lancaster, Mass. E. 0. Orpet. 



The Forest. 



Forest-policy Abroad. — II. 



WITH respect to the second class of forest-property, that be- 

 longing to towns, villages and other public bodies, it is again 

 impossible to speak for the whole of Germany, except upon the 

 broadest lines. The state everywhere exercises oversight and 

 a degree of control over the management of these forests, but 

 the sphere of its action varies within very wide limits. Even 

 within the individual states it does not remain the same. Thus 

 far, however, the action of the Government is alike, not only 

 throughout Prussia, but in all parts of Germany. It prevents 

 absolutely the treatment of any forest of this class under im- 

 provident or wasteful methods; nor does it allow any measure 

 to be carried into effect which may deprive posterity of the en- 

 joyment which it has a right to expect. How far the details 

 vary may be gathered from the fact that while in the Prussian 

 provinces of Rheinland and Westphalia the village commu- 

 nities manage their own forests, subject only to a tolerably 

 close oversight on the part of the controlling staff, in the 

 former Duchy of Nassau, now Prussian territory, their share 

 in the management does not extend beyond the right to sell 

 the timber cut under the direction of the Government Ober- 

 forster, the right and obligation to pay for all the planting and 

 other improvements which may be deemed necessary, and the 

 rather hollow privilege of expressing their opinion. But how- 

 ever galling so extensive an interference with the rights of 

 property may appear, it is none the less unquestionably true 

 that in France, as well as in Germany, the state management 

 of communal forests lies at the root of the prosperity of a very 

 large proportion of the peasant population, and the evils which 

 have attended its withdrawal in individual cases are notorious. 

 While, on the one hand, villages whose taxes are wholly paid 

 by their forests are by no means rare, on the other, the sale of 

 communal forest-property in certain parts of Germany in 1848 

 has been followed with deplorable regularity by the impover- 

 ishment of the villages which were unwise enough to allow it. 

 The relations of the state to the third class of forests, those 

 belonging to private proprietors, are of a much less intimate 

 nature. The basis of the relations is, however, the same. To 

 quote again from Donner, " The duty of the state to sustain 

 and further the well being of its citizens, regarded as an im- 

 perishable whole, implies for the Government the right and 

 the duty to subject the management of all forests to its inspec- 

 tion and control." But this intervention is to be carried only 

 "so far as may be necessary to obviate the dangers which an 

 unrestrained utilization of the forest by its owners threatens to 

 incite, and the rights of property are to be respected to the 

 utmost consistently with such a result." Prussia, of all the 

 German countries, has respected these rights most highly, and 

 the Government exerts practically no restraining influence 

 except where the evident results of deforestation would be 

 seriously dangerous. Here it may and does guard most jeal- 

 ously the woodlands which have been called in general "pro- 

 tection forests," of whose many-sided influence so much has 

 of late been said and written in America. 



The state leaves open a way of escape for the private pro- 

 prietor who finds himself unwilling to suffer such restriction 

 of his rights for the public good, and shows itself willing to 

 buy up areas, not only of Protection Forest, but also of less 

 vitally important woodlands. On the other hand, it is ready, 

 with a broadness of view which the zeal of forest-authorities 

 sometimes unfortunately excludes, to give up to private 

 ownership lands which, by reason of their soil and situation, 

 will contribute better to the commonwealth under cultivation 

 than as forest. In this way the forests, whose preservation is 

 most important, are gradually passing into the hands of the 

 state ; yet the total area of its woodlands is increasing but 

 slowly. 



The policy of state aid in the afforestation of waste lands, 

 important through their situation on high ground or other- 

 wise, is fully recognized, but the absence of considerable 

 mountain chains has given to this branch of government 

 influence very much less prominence than in the Alps of Aus- 

 tria, Switzerland and France, where its advantages appear on 

 a larger and more striking scale. 



In closing this brief sketch of forest-policy in Prussia it may 

 be proper to refer briefly to the erroneous ideas of German 



