I IO 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 159. 



tree with something' of the habit of a Thuya, but very distinct 

 in all botanical characters, and much more southern in its 

 range. The Thuya was described first by Nuttall ; Don, 

 in ignorance of Nuttall's earlier description, described it 

 again as Thuya plicata. Then Carriere, taking up a manu- 

 script name of Douglas, called it Thuya Menziesii ; and so, 

 having to dispose of Nuttall's name of Thuya gigantea, and 

 knowing only one Arbor-vitse from the region, applied it to 

 the Libocedrus, which had been regularly named before by 

 Torrey. For some reason or other Carriere's names have held 

 among cultivators ; and when one buys from a European 

 nursery a plant called Thuya gigantea he is sure to get 

 Libocedrus decurrens, while the true Thuya gigantea appears 

 variously as Thuya plicata or Thuya Lobbii, so called from 

 the collector Lobb, who sent home seeds of this tree to 

 England long after it was in cultivation there, sometimes 

 as Thtiya Menziesii and as Libocedrus decurrens. This trans- 

 position of names has been pointed out before, and the 

 synonymy of these trees is fully and correctly displayed in 

 most of the recognized works on conifers ; and occasion- 

 ally the two plants are labeled correctly in European bo- 

 tanic gardens. The correction does not penetrate deeply, 

 and Thuya gigantea will continue to be known, no doubt, 

 as Libocedrus decurrens in most European gardens and 

 arboretums until Wellingtonia fades into Sequoia. 



Some idea of the massiveness and beauty of a trunk of 

 the western Arbor- vitas can be obtained from the illustra- 

 tion which appears on page 116, although no illustration 

 can give any idea of the beauty of the coloring of the bark, 

 which is one of the chief attractions of this noble tree. The 

 illustration, from a photograph by Notman, represents a 

 tree of medium size in the natural park recently acquired 

 by the new city of Vancouver, in British Columbia, which 

 has already been described in this journal. 



How to Begin Reform in Forest-management. 



THE Maine State Forestry Association held a meet- 

 ing in Augusta last week to consider the forest- 

 interest of that state and suggest appropriate legislation on 

 the subject. Mr. B. E. Fernow, Chief of the Division of 

 Forestry in the Department of Agriculture, was invited to 

 be present, but, being unable to attend, sent a letter to 

 Hon. James E. Hobbs, President of the Association, from 

 which we are allowed to make the following extracts : 



What the forestry interests of Maine need above all things 

 is the diffusion of -more knowledge as to the true value as a 

 resource, and the real nature of the forest, and as to the means 

 and methods of its satisfactory reproduction. Next it needs 

 such protection against fire as that knowledge would at once 

 command, and a civilized community ought not to withhold 

 from any kind of property. 



Whatever measures you may propose to meet these needs, 

 I warn you against urging any legislation without proper and 

 adequate means of carrying it into execution. Too many in- 

 effective laws have already been enacted iri all the states with 

 regard to this and other interests, much to the detriment of 

 the cause which they were intended to benefit. It is not an 

 easy matter to propose practicable measures for forest-protec- 

 tion as long as forest-property is all held in private hands. 

 Hence it is good policy to proceed slowly until some practica- 

 ble remedy is proposed and embodied in legislation, when 

 full and proper means to carry out the law should be strenu- 

 ously insisted upon. A half-hearted execution of the law is 

 certain to retard healthy development of the forestry movement. 



I have advocated, and I would advocate now, that the best 

 first step to be taken by any state is to employ a forest-commis- 

 sioner, whose business it would be to gain the needed knowl- 

 edge of forest-conditions in his state, and then act upon his 

 proposals for legislation which are based upon this knowledge. 

 His very name and existence, if he be the right man, would 

 stimulate the citizens of 'the state to study the questions in- 

 volved, to form an opinion, and to aid in abolishing abuses 

 and improving conditions. He should be in sympathy with 

 the owners of woodlands, and especially with the lumbermen, 

 with whose co-operation alone forest-legislation can be suc- 

 cessfully accomplished. 



From the legislation of other states in the Union but little 

 can be learned that is very effective. On the other hand, the 



plan of the Canadian Government, in Ontario, for the protec- 

 tion against fire, may suggest some measures that could be 

 adopted in Maine. Brieily, its provisions are that the Govern- 

 ment appoints fire-wardens, at the recommendation of the 

 lumbermen, to act during the dangerous season, preventing 

 and putting out fires and instructing the people in regard to 

 the fire laws. The Government pays one-half, the lumbermen 

 the other half of the expense. The result has been satisfactory 

 to both parties. 



I invite especial attention, however, to the fact that the 

 Commissioner of Crown Lands and his office have charge of 

 this service, and that in Maine also somebody, like the pro- 

 posed forest-commissioner, must be directly responsible and 

 charged with this duty, if it is to be effective. Paper legisla- 

 tion, without a special officer to enforce it, is not likely to put 

 out or prevent fires. 



Castiglioni's Travels in the United States. 



'"PHIS work* has received so little attention from writers on 

 *■ American botany that a brief notice of the book and its 

 author may be of some interest to those curious in the earlier 

 literature of our plants. 



LuigiCastiglioni, a descendant from the ancient and illustrious 

 Milanese family of that name, was born shortly after the middle 

 of the last century, and died in 1832. The various honorable 

 offices held by him during his life, and the distinguished titles 

 conferred upon him, bear witness to his active interest in the 

 affairs of his day.f He was Director of the Royal Mint, Presi- 

 dent of the Academy of Fine Arts of Milan, Senator of the 

 Kingdom of Italy, Chamberlain of the Emperor of Austria, 

 Chevalier of S. Stefano, P. M., and of the Iron Crown, and a 

 member of many learned societies, including the American 

 Philosophical Society of Philadelphia. He was a devoted 

 student of numismatics and the possessor of a famous collec- 

 tion of Italian coins. Early in life he became much interested 

 in sylviculture, and with his brother, Count Alfonso, afterward 

 associated with him in the authorship of a work on foreign 

 plants useful in medicine and the arts, was instrumental in in- 

 troducing many valuable trees into northern Italy. In recog- 

 nition of his botanical attainments a genus of plants was dedi- 

 cated to him by the Spanish authors Ruiz and Pavon, but, the 

 genus not being well founded, the name has since become 

 a synonym. 



In 1785 he visited this country, moved, as he tells us, by 

 curiosity to witness the political birth of a republic composed 

 of distinct nations extending over a vast area, and by the desire 

 to study the natural productions of the land, particularly those 

 of the vegetable kingdom, with the view of introducing the 

 more useful ones to his native Lombardy. He passed three 

 years in traveling through the thirteen states and a portion of 

 Canada, and the result of his observations was published in 

 1790, shortly after his return to Milan. 



The main portion of the book consists of a narrative of his 

 travels, with extended comments on the histories and govern- 

 ments of the states, with notes on the manners and customs of 

 the people and on the natural productions of the country. It 

 is followed by an appendix entitled *' Observations on the Most 

 Useful Plants of the United States," in which almost all our 

 common trees and shrubs, and some of the more interesting 

 herbs, are described in alphabetical order after the manner of 

 Marshall's Arbustum. This appendix is accompanied by three 

 plates. 



That the author was well qualified for the task his judicious 

 observations on the social and political condition of the young 

 republic, and his careful notes on its geography and natural 

 history, abundantly testify. Though not of the importance to 

 systematic botany that the works of his predecessors, Wangen- 

 heim and Marshall, proved to be, his account of our trees and 

 shrubs is in other respects by far the most interesting that had 

 appeared up to that time. As an instance of his sagacity, it is 

 worthy of remark that he distinctfy notes and repeatedly in- 

 sists upon the affinities of our plants with those of Japan and 

 China, a subject which has since played so important a part in 

 the philosophical consideration of the two floras. In vol. ii., 

 p. 156, he says : " It is moreover to be observed that the plants 

 are very similar to those of the eastern coast of northern Asia, 

 the Magnolia, Illicium, Calycanthus, Ginsengand many others, 

 for example, growing here as in Japan and China, thus con- 

 firming the assertion of Franklin that the eastern coasts of the 

 old and new continents bear much analogy in their climates," 



* " Viaggio negli Stati Uniti dell'America Settentrionale fatto negli anni 1785, 17S6 

 e 1787 da Luigi Castiglioni. Con alcune Osservazioni sui Vegetabili piu utile di 

 quel Paese." Two volumes, 8vo. Milano, 1790. 

 t See Litta, " Famiglie Celebri di Italia." 



