232 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 169. 



There are Lilacs, purple, white and Persian, in profusion, and 

 the Mock Orange and Spiraeas, all have their turn as the sea- 

 sons go round. One White Lilac has shot up to the height of 

 a two-story house, and now that the windows are no longer 

 there to help one to gather them, it shows, when in bloom, 

 a crown of inaccessible blossoms ; others yield their wealth 

 of flowers nearer at hand, and by the well, a Persian Lilac drops 

 like a fountain with rosy jets. 



No longer supported by the fallen house, a Trumpet Creeper, 

 which trailed along the ground, has been clipped into a com- 

 pact bush. A venerable Althaea, which we did our best to 

 save, blossomed feebly for a season or two and then perished, 

 deprived of the accustomed shelter of the porch, but great 

 bushes of the old-fashioned White Rose abound, and there, 

 too, is the sweet Blush Rose, beloved of the bee and the sturdy 

 Hessian. ' A large Damask Rose still flourishes under the 

 Lilacs, and a luxuriant Baltimore Belle climbs in reckless pro- 

 fusion over its confining wires. Where the fence stood is a low 

 cluster of bushes covered in summer with a bold Red Rose, 

 single and splendid, the remote parent, perhaps, of the Jacque- 

 minot ; they call it here the Russian Rose, but I do not know what 

 its real name may be ; and down in the orchard I found a bush 

 of the dear, thorny, little Scotch Rose, the smell of which is 

 laden, as is no other, with the memories of childhood. 



There are clumps of Tiger Lilies and old-fashioned small 

 Bluebells and Sweet Williams, and a Barberry-bush swings 

 its yellow blossoms and red berries over the rear wall, and 

 under the Box-arbor I found Spiderwort growing in great 

 clusters. 



One day, while strolling down along the orchard fence, a famil- 

 iar odor, heavy and sweet, led me on to where a wild Azalea was 

 hanging out its fragrant blossoms. I do not see why a hedge 

 of these might not do well in this moist soil. I hailed this one 

 with delight as a fine ornament to the place. 



But what we like best is the fine old Box arbor, which has 

 grown up from a garden border until its stout trees are now 

 six inches in diameter, and nearly ten feet high, which shows 

 their great age. They were fair-sized bushes when old men 

 of this town were boys, and to make even a bush of a Box- 

 plant is slow work. Here, shaded by a young Elm which has 

 sprung up in the kindly shelter of these twisted old trunks, 

 we sit and look out upon the meadow and the growing plants, 

 and feel linked with the past by this memento of those who 

 loved this garden spot, and toiled to make it fair and fruitful, 

 even as we, too, toil to restore its beauty and productiveness. 



Hingham, Mass. M. C. Robbins. 



Winter Studies of the Pine Barren Flora of Lake 

 Michigan. — IV. 



In peat swamps, "and also in wet sands, the Pitcher Plant 

 {Sarracenia purpurea) may be studied. The leaves are mostly 

 purple or wine-colored, striped sometimes with brighter lines. 

 A nest of these leaves, resting on the Sphagnum, or among 

 Cranberry-vines, is an attractive sight, aside from the interest 

 which their singular form excites. Every curve and swelling 

 of the vasiform leaf and of the hood is perfect, in harmony 

 with the flowing lines of beauty, and the eye lingers on a 

 beautiful shape. In winter they are mostly filled to the brim 

 with water or with ice. When the latter is the case, by remov- 

 ing the integument a complete model of the cavity is obtained 

 in ice. The water is limpid and the ice clear, except at the 

 bottom of the cavity where objects that have fallen in have 

 settled. The repeated freezing and thawing to which the 

 pitchers are subjected by change of temperature does not 

 harm them, for the tissues are not torn, and they are ready to 

 resume their function of catching insects in the spring, and 

 continue till the plant is supplied with a new growth of leaves. 



The nest-like clumps of the Prickly Pears {Opuntia Rafi- 

 nesquii) are very different in appearance and habitat, finding 

 a congenial soil in the dry sands where they grow abundantly. 

 The mixed character of our flora is well displayed by this 

 and the Pitcher Plant, for the latter may be seen in the wet 

 sand, and a few feet away the Prickly Pears and the Bearberry 

 may be found growing. As the only representative of the 

 Cactus family it is an object of special interest to the student 

 of this flora. The winter aspect of the plants will at once be 

 noticed. During the warm weather the joints of the stem 

 are green and plump, and the skin quite smooth, except on 

 some of the oldest, and the stems are somewhat ascending, 

 and some of the joints upright ; in the cold season, though 

 retaining their green color, they are much wrinkled, the skin 

 wavy, and the joints are limp, lying flat upon the ground as if 

 to expose as little of their surface as possible. The stiff tissues 

 have become very pliable, and the stems, if lifted up, fall 



back like a weak or lifeless body. When partly buried in 

 sand, or covered with dead leaves, which their irregular shape 

 and spines well adapt them to catch and hold, they retain 

 more of their summer habits and position. Their spines are 

 sometimes rather formidable, though not present on all plants, 

 or so greatly developed, except upon a few, where they become 

 an inch to an inch and a half long, and stout in proportion. 



Several of the herbaceous plants have not lost all their seeds, 

 though the stems are dead. The cottony heads of Anemones, 

 especially those of Anemone cylindrica, attract attention. They 

 are swollen to an oblong bunch by reason of the loosened 

 akenes, and the down is rusty-looking. The faded stems 

 abide stiffly in their places, and contribute their part in giving 

 variety to the scene. The pale pappus of the Golden-rods and 

 Asters, and the hairy spikes of the Beard-grass (Ardropogon), 

 still remain in quantities sufficient to remind one of the spots 

 where they were common in summer ; and when the ground 

 is mantled with snow, and flocks of snow-birds and snow- 

 buntings appear, such plants as these, rising above it, are a 

 welcome source of food to these birds, lighting on the stalks 

 to gather the seeds or skipping over the surface of the snow 

 to pick up those which have been scattered by the wind. 



Those interested in Mosses and Lichens will find many of 

 these forms of plant-life in as good a state to investigate as in 

 the summer. Dr. Henry Muehlenberg, a careful and diligent 

 botanist in the days of firesides and back-logs, resorted to his 

 wood pile for material of this kind in the winter-time, and 

 considered it the best season for their study. Under date of 

 January 18, 181 1, he writes to his friend, Dr. Baldwin: "For 

 Mosses, the present season is best. They are best distin- 

 guished when the operculum is ready to fall and the peristoma 

 beginning to show itself. The Lichens we can often find at the 

 fireside, and I have gathered a good number just before I put 

 the wood in the stove or on the fire" (Darlington's "Reliquiae 

 Baldwinianae," p. 26). But to enjoy such plants and discern 

 their beauties, to learn some of the lessons they may teach, 

 it is not necessary to be a bryologist or lichenologist, or be 

 called by any such hard names, or even be skilled in the use 

 of the compound microscope, though this instrument is in- 

 dispensable if one would go very far. 



The Reindeer Mosses (Cladonia rangiferina and allied 

 species) here take to the sand as readily as in rocky regions 

 they do to the rocks. The shapely clumps, usually circular in 

 outline and with a rounded surface, resting on the bare ground, 

 the dichotomous branching of the stems, their varied colors, 

 pale, ashy-gray, greenish-gray, yellowish, pink and flesh-color, 

 all please by their variety. The trunks and limbs of many of 

 the Pines are spotted or nearly covered with the flat expansion 

 of other Lichens, varying in shades of color, but mostly those 

 of gray. These colors are too subdued for brightness, but 

 harmonize well with the dark-colored bark of the Gray Pine, 

 there being enough of contrast for good definition, and the 

 boll of the tree, however small, when provided with the 

 Lichens, takes on the appearance of age. Species of Usnea, 

 with long, glaucescent stems depending from the limbs of 

 trees, are not common as they are farther north, where they 

 hang from the limbs in such quantities as to make the bearded 

 trees, look venerable. 



Several of the common mosses are quite noticeable in win- 

 ter. In patches on the sand are the light green, or the yellow- 

 ish green tufts of one of the most abundant kinds, Ceratodon 

 purpureus. The cushiony tufts vary in size and shape, being 

 as small as a coin to a foot or more across, and round, oval or 

 irregular in shape. The fruiting-stems have already started, 

 and in early spring the bunches will be bright with purple 

 stems and capsules. Much like them are the tufts of Bryum, 

 but with stems less condensed. In marked contrast with 

 these, both for stoutness and color, are the stems of the White 

 Moss (Leucobryum). The compact tussocks are almost white, 

 or white tinged with green, and are very pale, spread out at 

 the base of some sheltering tree, the soft cushions are very 

 inviting as a place of rest in summer, but, if tried, may be 

 found as fully saturated with water as the stems of the better- 

 known Sphagnum, able to absorb seven or eight times their 

 weight of water. Wherever they are, these cellular Mosses 

 aid the trees under whose shade they grow, by helping to retain 

 the moisture near their roots, and enriching the soil with hu- 

 mus when the stems decay, and thus find their role in the 

 economy of nature. Large reaches in the damper grounds are 

 carpeted with the Hair-cap Moss {Polytrichum commune). Its 

 sharp, slender leaves, resembling those of the Juniper, have 

 an evergreen look. The stems are tall for a Moss, sometimes 

 nearly a foot in height, and in walking through the soft beds 

 one sinks into them ankle-deep. Another pretty moss grow- 

 ing in loose patches of considerable extent in the partial shade 



