274 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 172. 



Sweet-potatoes. — To the market buyer in the northern cities 

 the Jersey Nansemond is the type of a good sweet-potato. 

 The northern practice of cooking sweet-potatoes by steaming 

 them leads to a demand for a dry potato. The Nansemond, 

 as grown in the sandy soils of New Jersey, is certainly one of 

 the most handsome of sweet-potatoes. ' Coming southward, 

 on the eastern shore of Maryland, the Nansemond is even 

 driei and much sweeter than the New Jersey product, and in 

 south-east Virginia these qualities are still further intensified.. 

 In the sandy soils of eastern North Carolina the Nansemond 

 grows so dry as to be really choking when baked. Hence the 

 southern dislike for this variety, for southern people always 

 bake sweet-potatoes. ' But the character of a sweet-potato is 

 largely the result of soil as well as climate. This Nansemond, 

 grown in the clay lands of Pennsylvania, just across the river, 

 is not the potato it is in New Jersey, and even in the south, 

 when grown on the red clays of the mountain regions it loses 

 all the dryness which makes it acceptable to northern people, 

 without developing the sugary sweetness which makes the 

 southern people prefer the yams. With all my early prejudice 

 in favor of a dry, yellow sweet-potato, I find myself rapidly 

 dropping into a preference for the sweeter baked yams. North 

 Carolina ought to produce the finest of dry Nansemonds for 

 the northern markets, and probably will do so when our market 

 gardeners cease to insist that northern people shall prefer what 

 is relished here and try to grow well what northern people want. 



Experiment Station, Raleigh, N. C. W. F. MaSSey. 



Correspondence. 

 The Preservation of Beautiful and Historical Places. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir,— The interest which has been awakened in the preserva- 

 tion of beautiful and historical places is certainly extending, 

 and it is worthy of all possible encouragement. The Waverley 

 Oaks at Belmont, near Boston, whose story is so well told in 

 Garden and Forest, vol. iii., p. 85, and which were so admi- 

 rably illustrated in the same number, ought by this time to 

 have been saved beyond any possible accident. The entire 

 region which they occupy is a most interesting one, not only 

 to the botanist but to the geologist, and, in fine, to every lover 

 of the beautiful. It was not, however, my object in this article 

 to dwell upon the Oaks, although pages might be written upon 

 their value, but to call attention to a charming bit of wild 

 scenery in their immediate neighborhood, which should by all 

 means be included with the territory containing the famous 

 trees. This consists of a wooded dell, through which runs a 

 brook having, in the course of 200 feet, a descent of fifty or 

 sixty feet. The stream at the commencement of its descent is 

 caught in the jaws of a rocky ravine, which narrows rapidly 

 for some distance, and when released the water rushes along 

 over a comparatively level rocky bed among the roots of the 

 bushes and wild grasses that wave and nod to the action of 

 the tiny eddies, until, arrested in its course by a perpendicular 

 barrier of rock, it turns abruptly and foams and frets with re- 

 doubled speed to its final plunge over a precipice of twenty 

 feet. Beautiful at all times, the brook, when swollen at cer- 

 tain seasons, is really grand and impressive, becoming a true 

 torrent, rushing with a violence and impetuosity that would 

 seem impossible to one who sees it in its more gentle moods. 

 The dell, not only in the immediate neighborhood of the fall 

 but throughout its entire length, is characterized by fine forest- 

 trees of several varieties, by precipitous sides and rocky 

 ledges, and clothed with a vegetation peculiar to such locali- 

 ties. From the heights, distant views of the surrounding 

 country can be caught through the openings, the whole form- 

 ing a scene of picturesque beauty not surpassed in many 

 mountainous districts. The vagrant brook, emerging from 

 the glen, crosses the public highway under a bridge, winds 

 demurely about through the lowland, moistening the roots of 

 the lordly Oaks, and disappears finally in distant meadows. In 

 former years, when the property was in the possession of ac- 

 quaintances, a drive to Belmont in the late summer afternoon 

 and a view of the falls was always the special entertainment 

 offered to our friends, and it was one which never failed to 

 gratify. 



There is another locality which for its attractions should be 

 reserved. In the south-eastern portion of the township of 

 Newton, close upon the outskirts of Brookline, and almost 

 within the sound of the bells of Boston, lies the sheet of water 

 which for two centuries has borne the name of Hammond's 

 Pond. Encircled by its border of forests, craggy eminences 

 and picturesque surroundings, it has retained in a remarkable 



degree its primitive wildness and beauty. Its peculiar se- 

 cluded position, affording rest, protection and food, still attracts 

 the migratory water-fowl in their appropriate season, while 

 the neighboring woods and thickets are the chosen breeding- 

 place of innumerable songsters, and in them the red fox digs 

 his hole unscared. No poet has ever sung its praise, and yet 

 its charms are perennial. Whether in the bloom and joy of 

 spring, when its borders are whitened with the panicled An- 

 dromeda ; in the early summer, when its surface is bright with 

 the glossy leaves and fragrant flowers of the Water-lily ; in 

 the days of autumn, when it reflects the glorious coloring of 

 the Maples — its vicinity has been, and is still, the chosen 

 haunts of the botanist and lover of rural quietude. Here 

 Bigelow, Boot, Tuckerman, Emerson, Oakes and others have 

 discovered and described countless specimens of its abundant 

 flora ; here, too, scholars of- less note have found inspiration 

 and encouragement in their communion with nature. 



Beyond the western boundary of the pond is a large grove 

 of Hemlocks, remarkable for their great size, height, symme- 

 try and beauty, the approach to which is over a wooded hill- 

 side and by a descent through a narrow ravine. Within the 

 grove, and on its southern border, is a craggy peak made up 

 of large fragments of rock piled one upon the other in a con- 

 fused Titanic mass. Within the crevices and cavities thus 

 formed upon its northern slope, and protected from the sun- 

 light by the deep shade of the trees, masses of snow and ice 

 linger long after their disappearance elsewhere, while Ferns 

 and other shade-loving plants grow in profusion, forming with 

 the lichens and mosses a "rockery" that no art could imitate. 

 From its summit wide stretches of country, embracing the 

 graceful outline of Wachuset, and the bolder one of the Great 

 Monadnock, in the far horizon, are visible, while all about is 

 yet a forest-region, with grassy paths and openings, but par- 

 tially invaded by dwellings and farms. No doubt there are 

 districts of interest and value lying within a short distance of 

 many towns and cities. It would be wise to secure them for 

 public use before they are destroyed, as they certainly must 

 be. No better investment than such a purchase could be made, 

 and in many cases the cost would be comparatively trifling, if 

 an effort were made to secure the land without delay. 

 Chestnut Hill, Mass. Daniel Denison Slade. 



Recent Publications. 



The Silva of North America, a Description of the Trees 

 which grow naturally in North America, exclusive of Mexico, 

 by Charles Sprague Sargent, illustrated with figures and 

 analyses drawn from nature by Charles Edward Faxon, and 

 engraved by Philibert and Eugene Picart. Volume II. Cyril- 

 lacecE-SafiindacecE. Large 4to, pp. 117; 47 plates. Houghton, 

 Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York. 



The second volume of this work, which has just been 

 issued, equals its predecessor, noticed in these columns six 

 months ago, at the time of its first appearance, in the 

 high quality of the descriptive matter it contains and in the 

 faithfulness and beauty of the illustrations, which are not sur- 

 passed by those published in any work devoted to the natural 

 history of the New World. The trees belonging to four only 

 of the natural families of plants are included in this volume. 

 These are the Cyrillacece, the Celastracece, the Rhamnacece and 

 the SapindacecE. Two of the three genera of Cyrillaceas are 

 represented in the North American silva by Cyrilla and Clif- 

 tonia, both monotypic and both found in the southern Atlantic 

 and Gulf states, although Cyrilla occurs also in the West Indies 

 and in Brazil. They are both small trees and both are orna- 

 mental, especially Cliftonia, which is evergreen, and which 

 covers itself in the spring with short racemes of pale pink 

 fragrant flowers. The Titi, as this tree is called where it 

 abounds, is a feature of the vegetation in some parts of the 

 south, occupying, as it does, great areas of swampy land with 

 impenetrable thickets. Both Cyrilla and Cliftonia were, it 

 appears, at one time inhabitants of Bartram's garden in Phila- 

 delphia ; and, where the climate will permit of it, both will 

 repay cultivation. 



Three genera in Celastracea appear in The Silva — Evo- 

 nymus, Gyminda, a genus separated from Myginda by 

 Professor Sargent with a single West Indian and south Flori- 

 dan species, a small tree of no commercial importance or 

 utility, and Schasffaria, a genus of two species, one Texan and 

 the other tropical American. The last becomes a small tree 

 and was once not rare on the Florida keys, before the Bahaman 

 wood-choppers invaded them and carried away all the large 

 trunks to send to England, where the wood has been used as 

 a substitute for Box-wood. The great genus Evonymus, in 



