April 29, 1891.] 



Garden and Porest. 



193 



GARDEN AND FOREST, 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 







ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 





NEW YORK", WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 1891. 





TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : — A National Reservalion at the Head-waters of the Missis- 

 sippi 193 



Tree-planting in Cities 193 



The Gardens at Monte Carlo. (With figure.) 194 



How We Renewed an Old Place. — IV Mrs. J. H. Robbins. 194 



Winter Studies of the Pine Barren Flora of Lake Michigan. — II. E. J. Hill. 195 



New or Little Known Plants: — Aster Tartaricus. (With figure.) 196 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter W. Watson. 197 



Cultural Department: — The Reticulated or Sponge-bearing Cucumber, 



Dr. R. P. Harris. 198 



Some Early Native Flowers F. H. Horsford. 199 



The Snowflakes M. Barker. 200 



Palms W. H. Taplin. 201 



Orchid Notes M. Barker. 201 



Transplanting Hardy Ferns H. 201 



Decay Spots upon Leaves B. D. H. 201 



Correspondence : — Notes from Bassaic G. 202 



Botanical Nomenclature.. Professor N. L. Britton. 202 



Insect Lime, Nevertheless B. E Fernow. 202 



The Sugar Maple in Flower R. S. 203 



Periodical Literature 203 



Notes 204 



1 llustrations : — Aster Tartaricus, Fig. 35 1 97 



The Gardens at Monte Carlo, Fig. 36 200 



A National Reservation at the Head-waters 

 of the Mississippi. 



IN the eighteenth annual report of Professor N. H. 

 Winchell, State Geologist of Minnesota, it is suggested 

 that a state park should be established, and the location 

 especially favored is the region about the Itascan source 

 of the Mississippi River. Here are the prime attractions of 

 many lakes, rivers and streams of pure water which are 

 found where the tumuli of the glacial epoch formed 



■ depressions and reservoirs such as mark its moraines. 

 Besides this, it has much historic interest as a region of 

 adventure since the days of Lieutenant Allen, of Schoolcraft 

 and of Jean Nicollet. 



This recommendation of a great forest-reserve, which 

 might include the head-waters of the Mississippi, the St. 

 Lawrence and the Red River of the North, has more than 

 a mere local importance. In the first place, a dense forest 

 on the north-western highlands of Minnesota, or, as it is 

 known, the Height-of-Land region, which constitutes the 

 divide between the Red River and the Mississippi, would be 

 of great value in preserving the water-supply of these great 

 rivers. The land here consists of rolling, gravelly drift- 

 hills, with many small lakes which have neither inlet nor 

 outlet, while at a lower level there are springs and lakes, 

 with under-ground supply, which constitute the remot- 

 est sources of the three great drainage -systems of the 

 continent. No doubt, if all these lakes and streams 

 and reservoirs could be protected from sun and wind by 

 dense coniferous forests, which would also protect the 

 ground from deep freezing and the snow from melting 

 rapidly, this would help to make a more uniform distribu- 

 tion of water. It is well known that, in the woods, ground 

 which was frozen in the fall will thaw out under deep snow, 

 and the snow will gradually settle, thawing underneath, 

 though the temperature above it may be below freezing. 

 While these conditions prevail in the deep woods, on the 

 prairie, but a few miles away, where the winds have full 

 sweep, and the ground is blown bare, the frost is often 



from five to fifteen feet deep, and may remain in the 

 ground until June or July. Meanwhile, the melted snows 

 with the spring rains have run off from the surface, instead of 

 settling into the soil. The great floods in the Red River 

 valley, which is practically treeless except near the heads 

 of its eastern tributaries, follow cold winters with deep 

 snow, and occur in April and May as. the snow melts. 



For the purpose, therefore, of protecting our water-supply 

 there are few 7 regions in the United States where a forest- 

 reservation could serve a better purpose. It should be 

 remembered, too, that fires started by Indians and settlers 

 run over this drift-region, through the forests of Norway 

 Pine, Jack Pine and Poplar in front of the lumbermen. It 

 is probable that, west of the Mississippi, as much log- 

 timber has been destroyed by fire during the past thirty 

 years as has been cut. If a reservation could be held 

 here, while some of this timber remains, an experiment in 

 systematic forestry might be made, with a reasonable 

 chance of proving that it could be conducted with profit. 

 If this is delayed for a few years, instead of having timber 

 and young growth to start with, nothing will be left but 

 worthless barrens throughout all this elevated region, and, 

 indeed, these barrens cover a considerable portion of it 

 already. 



This proposed reservation, which should include Itasca 

 Lake and the tributaries above its outlet, is a basin of un- 

 usual beauty, abounding in mineral springs as well as in 

 typical moraines, drift-hills and lakelets. It is from 1,200 to 

 2,000 feet above the sea-level, and is, substantially, a non- 

 agricultural region, although not too cold for farming. 

 The hills are covered with the growth of the trees named 

 above, where they have not been destroyed by fire, and 

 there are forests of Tamarack, Spruce and Fir in the low- 

 land. It is mostly unsettled yet, but it may be impossible 

 in Minnesota to secure an unbroken reserve that would 

 cover all the land which should be held in timber, 

 for, scattered among the forests, there is land here 

 and there which could be profitably tilled. But there 

 is little doubt that it would be wise to withhold all the 

 timber-land and brush-land of the state from settlement until 

 it should be examined and the question of its adaptability 

 settled. The present practice is to enter the land, strip it 

 of its timber, and then, if it is not good agricultural land, 

 to abandon it to annual fires. In this way millions of 

 acres are made non-productive. There are at least 9,000,000 

 acres in northern Minnesota, at a rough estimate, which 

 could be always more profitably kept in wood-land than in 

 farm-land, while the entire 30,000 or more square miles 

 which are in timber and brush should be protected from 

 fire and held for producing timber until it was actually 

 entered for farm-cultivation. 



The senate of Minnesota has already passed a series of 

 resolutions, which were prepared at the suggestion of the 

 Minnesota State Forestry Association, petitioning President 

 Harrison to set apart a vast tract of unoccupied and non- 

 arable lands which lie contiguous to the Lake of the 

 Woods, to Rainy Lake and to Rainy River, for a great 

 national park. There are 3,000,000 acres in a compact 

 body in that section, and the Forestry Association urges 

 that at least one-third of this be reserved. Recent law, as 

 we have explained, empowers the President to set apart 

 such reservations. No doubt, the friends of forestry in 

 various parts of the country will be prompt to point out 

 places where it may be wise to exercise this power. It 

 seems to us that this high region of Minnesota is one 

 which is certainly worthy of attention for this purpose. 



The Boston papers announce that the Forester of that 

 city is prepared to give shade trees to citizens who will 

 agree to set them on the streets before their property, the 

 recipients to supply at their own expense the labor and 

 soil necessary to plant the trees. Theoretically, this 

 sounds attractive ; practically, if the offer is accepted by 

 many people, the appearance of the city will be seriously 

 injured, and the taste of the inhabitants for trees and tree- 



