May 27, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



251 



filiformis, which attains more than a foot in height, and bears 

 a single flower an inch in diameter each day through the 

 blooming season. The long slender leaves unroll like a 

 watch-spring, and the inflorescence in like manner turns fast 

 enough to bring the opening bud each morning to the upper 

 side of the wheel. 



As we pass to the dry areas again the two species of Star 

 Grass, Aletris farinosa and A. aurea, are conspicuously abun- 

 dant. They are about equal in size with their strict tall stalks, 

 bearing numerous scattered blossoms, but one is a pure white, 

 while the other is an attractive yellow. In the thickets there is a 

 tangle of Schrankia uncinata. This plant is so sensitive that 

 it closes its leaflets at the slightest touch of its prickly creeping 

 stems. Overhead the Magnolia fcetlda exhibits its gigan- 

 tic solitary white blooms in striking contrast with the multi- 

 tudes of minute Ilex flowers that cover the shrubs below. 

 Perhaps the two most showy red blooms are those of the 

 JEsculus Pavia and the more rare Erythrina herbacea, only 

 one cluster of which we have thus far seen. 



Ocean Springs, Miss. ByfOtt D. Halsted. 



How Dandelions Escape the Lawn-mower. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — A day or two after a lawn has been cut with the mower 

 the long, upright stalks of the Dandelion may be seen. The 

 explanation that the stems- have been bent down by the 

 machine and left uncut may be true in some cases, but there 

 is a peculiar habit of the plant that is worth noting here. The 

 flower-stalks of this handsome lawn-weed are usually upright 

 until the time of blossoming is past, when they bend outward 

 and downward, and in from three to five days assume what 

 may be called the " scythe-shape," or a double curve, with the 

 head quite close to the turf. Almost any Dandelion-plant, 

 growing unmolested and with several flower-stalks, will show 

 all stages of this downward curving of the stems. 



After the depressed stems have remained apparently inac- 

 tive for from three to five days the period of rapid elongation 

 begins, when they become upright, and the seed-ball is held 

 several inches higher in the air than were the flowers of the 

 same head a week previously. It will be remembered by 

 those who have observed this matter that it is the seed-bear- 

 ing stalks that quickly appear after the lawn has been mowed. 

 The flowers are first raised for the attention of insects, then 

 comes the reclined repose followed by the second uplifting, 

 that the winds, this time, may bear away the parachute-pro- 

 vided seeds. 



Rutgers College. H . 



Recent Publications. 



Description et Emploi des Eucalyptus Introduits en Europe 

 Pri?icipale?nent en France et en Algeria. Second Memoire. 

 Charles Naudin. Antibes, 1891, pp. 1-72. 



. The first memoir published by Monsieur Naudin upon the 

 Eucalyptus cultivated in Europe appeared in 1883. Since that 

 time the veteran French botanist has continued his investiga- 

 tions, and has been able to study a much larger number of 

 species in the garden of the Villa Thuret, over which he pre- 

 sides, and in which he has brought together the largest collec- 

 tion of these trees which has been formed; and in the present 

 paper he arranges fifty-six of them in synoptical tables 

 according to the shape of the leaves, the flowers and the fruit, 

 so that the cultivator of these trees will be able now much 

 more readily than ever before to determine the different spe- 

 cies, which have always proved extremely difficult to under- 

 stand from the fact that many of them appear entirely 

 different in their juvenile and adult states, producing at 

 first leaves of one sort and then later in life leaves .of 

 an entirely different shape and character. To overcome this 

 difficulty in the study of the genus Monsieur Naudin has made 

 a special Eucalyptus herbarium, in which are represented all 

 the species cultivated in Europe, by specimens taken at differ- 

 ent periods of their growth, and showing all the different stages 

 through which they pass from youth to maturity. In these 

 studies it may be mentioned that Monsieur Naudin has brought 

 to light among the plants cultivated at Antibes no less than 

 thirteen undescribed species, now first made known in this 

 memoir, a fact which shows the value of arboreta and the 

 importance of studying trees in a living state, where different 

 species can be compared with each other and their differences 

 noted. 



A few brief extracts from the general considerations which 

 form the first part of this work will be interesting, perhaps, to 

 our readers, especially as different species of Eucalyptus are 

 destined to play, it seems, an important part in the future of 



California, where many of them have long been successfully 

 grown. "The most interesting things," Monsieur Naudin re- 

 marks, "about the genus from the cultural point of view, is the 

 rapidity with which certain species grow, a rapidity which is 

 unequaled by any of our native trees, and the quantity of wood 

 valuable for manufacturing purposes and for fuel which they 

 can produce in a comparatively short time. To this advan- 

 tage possessed by these trees must be added that of being able 

 to support themselves much farther south than most of our 

 forest-trees of Europe, even to the southern limits of the Alge- 

 rian Sahara, although the region in which they can be culti- 

 vated is extremely restricted on the north. There are certain 

 species, however, natives of Tasmania and of the high moun- 

 tains of southern Australia, which will succeed beyond the 

 Mediterranean region, and which can be cultivated on the 

 Atlantic coast as far north as Brittany, and even in the south- 

 west of England. In countries with warm and humid climates, 

 especially in equatorial regions at the sea-level, the introduc- 

 tion of the Eucalyptus has so far been a failure. There is 

 reason to believe, however, that there are certain species of 

 the intertropical regions of Australia and of the Maylaysian 

 Islands which might be expected to succeed even in the tropics. 

 More than a hundred species are now known, and it is easy to 

 understand that from this number there is a considerable 

 choice to be made, according to the usages for which they are 

 intended. Most of the species are forest-trees, some reaching 

 in a comparatively short time a colossal size. Their principal 

 value, then, is the production of timber, although the value of 

 their wood for fuel is almost as great — a quality which will be 

 appreciated in countries where the absence or high cost of 

 coal is a serious obstacle to the production of metals or to the 

 use of steam-engines. 



" Two species may be distinguished among all the others 

 for the rapidity with which they reach a large size ; these are 

 E. globulus and E. Mulleri; and they grow much more rapidly 

 than any of the native trees of Europe. In twenty years these 

 trees attain to the size and height or an Oak a hundred years 

 old. Other species, without growing as rapidly, are still re- 

 markable for the short time they require in which to grow to 

 a size large enough to produce valuable material. Such spe- 

 cies are E. diversicolor, E. marginata, E. crebra, E. botryoides, 

 E. robusta, E. leucoxylon, E. Gunnii, E. viminalis, E. rudis, 

 E. corynocalix, E. rostrata, E. gomphocephala, E. cornuta, E. 

 amplifolia, E. tereticornis and E. polyanthema. The wood of 

 some of these species is exceedingly heavy, and might be 

 used to advantage for blocks for paving the streets of cities." 



" The climate is not all that is necessary to insure the suc- 

 cessful cultivation of Eucalyptus. The character of the soilis 

 important. Many species, it is true, are not particular in this 

 respect ; others, on the contrary, are apparently very fastidious, 

 and if the soil is not suitable to them they grow badly or-soon 

 die outright, either immediately after the seed has germinated 

 or in the course of a year or two afterward. It is difficult to 

 say with our present knowledge what they need, although 

 experience seems to show that granite or sandstone soils suit 

 them, as may be seen on the shores of Provence, where such 

 soils are the most common. It is also necessary that the soil 

 in which they are planted should be well cultivated and freed 

 of other arborescent vegetation. The Eucalyptus cannot bear 

 the neighborhood of other trees, disputing the possession of 

 the ground and depriving them of the light of the sun. When 

 it is attempted to grow them in the shade, they become drawn 

 up and give unsatisfactory results. No Eucalyptus can grow 

 on land impregnated with salt, and they all suffer when planted 

 so near the sea that salt spray reaches their leaves. Bright 

 light and a free circulation of air is indispensable to these 

 trees, two conditions made necessary by the large amount of 

 water evaporated from their leaves, for it is well known that 

 the Eucalypti exhale a large quantity of water drawn from 

 the soil drained by their roots. Certain species, particularly 

 those which grow naturally in the most arid regions subject 

 to long droughts, store water in their roots and in the lower 

 part of their trunks, which are sometimes enlarged into 

 a sort of bulb, and from which they draw the water necessary 

 for their existence during periods of excessive drought. It is 

 useless to hope that arid rocky hills can be covered with for- 

 ests of the large Eucalyptus, which require for their rapid 

 growth an abundance of soil." 



"The seeds of Eucalyptus may be planted at different 

 periods of the year, according to regions and climates. With 

 us the best time is the spring — in March, April or May — for 

 if the seed is sown at that time, the young plant will have 

 sufficient strength to support the cold of the following winter. 

 In forming a plantation of Eucalyptus, it is of prime necessity 

 to decide upon the object to be attained, that the species may 



