304 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 175. 



eternally upon his canvas. The tender grace of early spring, 

 and the glowing glory of autumn are alike evanescent and 

 wonderful expressions on this smiling meadow face. Like a 

 dream, this hint of ineffable beauty melts away, and the im- 

 pression gives place to a reality of vivid green field, and dark 

 blue water, which will make but a pleasant inland landscape 

 until the August sun burnishes it into ruby and gold, and 

 makes it once more a vision for a painter. 



The exquisite must perforce be evanescent, that no touch 

 of commonness may mar its distinction. 



The tender grace of a day that is dead 



haunts many a spot, otherwise tame enough, with a memory 

 and a knowledge of its capabilities, that make it forever dear and 

 • beautiful to him who has seen it under that enchanting gla- 

 mour lent by a season, or an hour, which imprints upon the brain 

 a picture that can never be forgotten. And when at other times 

 of year I look upon this far reach of often-changing meadow, 

 there abides with it always a memory of the soft and tender 

 charm of early spring, that no reality of November-brown, or 

 winter-snow can wholly drive away. _ _ , , . 



Hingham, Mass. M. C. RobblllS. 



Winter Studies of the Pine Barren Flora of Lake 

 Michigan.— VI. 



NEXT in abundance among the conifers is the White Pine 

 (P. Strobus), either in moister and richer ground or 

 mingled with the Gray Pine and Oaks upon the ridges. The 

 trees are mostly small, none more than a couple of feet 

 in diameter. The bright green soft and slender leaves, two 

 to four inches long and in bundles of five, are somewhat tufted 

 at the ends of the branches, giving to this Pine a grace too 

 little appreciated by those in search of trees for ornamental 

 planting. There is a feathery softness in the foliage of the 

 White Pine which is lacking in that of the Scotch and the 

 Austrian Pine, so often seen in parks or in private grounds. 

 The foreign trees appear stiff and rugged beside it. The 

 branches of the older trees are nearly horizontal, and rather 

 slender near the end, and, when the leafage is heavy, may 

 curve or droop a little on this account, and when moved by 

 the wind wave to and fro with a graceful motion. But the 

 wind generally gives them a broken, choppy motion, like a 

 subsiding water-surface on which the storm has spent its 

 force. This is more apparent when their tops can be looked 

 down upon from some commanding height. For use in parks, 

 particularly if the soil is light or sandy, this Pine is admirably 

 adapted. I once came into a pure wood of this tree near 

 Michigan City, Indiana, which had evidently been cared for by 

 the proprietor. The trees were young, the trunks from six 

 inches to a foot in diameter, and not crowded for standards of 

 such dimensions. As a result, the limbs were lower down, 

 and the crowns rounderand morespreading than when pressed 

 upon by others in the thick forest. The sandy ground, well 

 covered by fallen leaves, was completely shaded, and the cool, 

 refreshing grove showed the possibilities of this Pine for park 

 purposes, either when available as a natural wood or planted 

 in harmony with its natural conditions. 



Another conifer is the White Cedar, or American Arbor- 

 vitae (Thuya occidentalis). The small trees, from ten to 

 twenty feet in height, either border the sloughs or form 

 small groves in the moist grounds, but are nowhere abun- 

 dant. Though its foliage resembles that of the Gray Pine in 

 color, in other respects it is quite in contrast with it. This is 

 shown by the form and arrangement of its scale-like leaves, 

 its flat, fan-shaped spray, its numerous branches, the smaller 

 drooping and twisted so as to point various ways, and its bole 

 covered with light-colored shreddy bark. The Red Cedar 

 (Jimiperus Virginian ct) is sparingly found either in company 

 with the White Cedar, or oftener in drier ground. It is 

 scarcely taller, the trunks being rarely more than six or eight 

 inches through. Nearly all are beautiful trees, almost perfect 

 spires, though somewhat grim in habit. The spray is dense, 

 beginning near the ground, and the branches shorten so gradu- 

 ally as to make a conical mass of foliage. The leaves are 

 rusty green and but slightly glossy, and in the winter change 

 to a tanny brown and other shades, which impart to the crown 

 a purplish hue. By means of its different tints it is readily 

 distinguished from the White Cedars, even at a distance, and 

 charmingly varies the effect when grouped with them, its 

 purples and browns mingled with their light, and, in the win- 

 ter, somewhat faded green. The ordinary, or more typical, 

 leaves of the Red Cedar are blunt and scale-like, but near the 

 ends of the more vigorously growing branches they are stiff 

 and prickly pointed, like those of the common Juniper, though 



considerably smaller. The youngest trees, till they reach the 

 height of a man, have leaves almost wholly of this character, 

 and entire branches on older trees may be found that look as 

 if a branch from a different species had been fastened to it. 

 I have taken from the same tree three forms of spray — that 

 with ordinary leaves, that with the pointed, awl-shaped leaves, 

 and that with the two commingled. 



The common Juniper (Jnniperus communis) is often met 

 with, especially near the shore of the lake, though clumps of 

 it occur throughout the sand region, so that it is the most 

 widely diffused of the conifers here. Some of the shrubs at- 

 tain a large size, the prostrate limbs from three to six inches in 

 diameter. Clumps are found more than thirty feet across in 

 their longer diameter, their general shape being oval or circu- 

 lar. Those, from a single root, sometimes measure twenty- 

 five feet, and those from ten to fifteen feet are not unusual. 

 The color of the bushes is considerably variegated in the win- 

 ter. The smaller branches are brownish or purplish near the 

 end, the leaves changing somewhat in color. Lower down, or 

 nearer the ground, they preserve their look of glossy green. 

 The lower surface of the leaves shows more in the cold 

 weather than in the summer. The spray is flatfish, but the ulti- 

 mate branches tend to rise into a vertical position, or twist upon 

 their support, thus interfering with their flatness, and exposing 

 the glaucous under sides of the leaves, so that the ends of the 

 branches seem to be covered with hoar-frost. The appearance 

 is so deceptive that upon a day suitable for frost actual touch 

 may be needed to convince one of his error. This varies their 

 color still more. The green or bluish green berries are com- 

 monly abundant, and this also gives variety to their general 

 appearance. These do not assume their dark blue color till 

 the season following the time of flowering, the fruit ripening 

 the second year. 



There are occasional groves of Tamarack (Larix larcind), 

 or some trees may be found by the edges of sphagnous 

 swamps. The largest areas comprise but a few acres, and on 

 the whole the tree is scarce. It is of low stature and bushy- 

 branched, the limbs usually coming low down upon the trunk. 

 The recent shoots are brownish or reddish gray, but the 

 ground color of the mass of the spray in the winter season is 

 very dark, the bark on many limbs, either from its own decay 

 or from some fungoid growth, being coated with a sooty sub- 

 stance, which may be rubbed off like a black dust. The 

 branches are nearly horizontal, and divide into numerous 

 short, straight and very slender branchlets, on which rest the 

 round or cylindrical buds, often wider than the twigs them- 

 selves. The prominence of these buds when the limbs are 

 bare of leaves gives to the spray of the Tamarack a peculiarly 

 roughened appearance, as if covered with wart-like bodies. 



Englewood, 111. E- J- Hill. 



Plant Notes. 

 Some Recent Portraits. 



The June issue of the Botanical Magazine contains figures 

 of the new Lilinm Henryi (t. 7177), one of the interesting 

 plants discovered by Dr. Augustine Henry in western China. 

 From Dr. Henry's notes it appears that " it occurs in two situ- 

 ations, both near the town of Ichang, in the Hupeh province, 

 on the grassy slopes of precipices at an altitude of 200 to 2,000 

 feet above the sea-level. A few specimens occur on the east- 

 ern side of the dome, a mass of conglomerate, which rises to 

 about 1,800 feet, and which lies ten miles south of Ichang. 

 The plant is very plentiful on the right bank of the Ichang 

 gorge, between the villages of Ping-shan-pa and Shih-pi-shan, 

 and on the grassy slopes of the limestone cliffs inland from 

 the last-named village, from which the path leads up to the 

 Taout monastery, named Yang-tai-kuan." Lilium Henryi 

 flowered at Kew in August, 1889. It is a species with bright 

 yellow flowers two or three inches long with lanceolate seg- 

 ments reflexing when expanded from near the base and fur- 

 nished with numerous red-brown spots, and toward the base 

 with a green keel andafewlargeclavate bright yellow papillae ; 

 Cypripedium Klotzschianum (t. 7178), a showy species discov- 

 ered in British Guiana during Sir Robert Schomburgk's second 

 exploring expedition in that country. With regard to the affin- 

 ities of this species, it is stated in Veitch's Manual of Orchid- 

 aceous Plants that, "though when not in flower, it is scarcely 

 distinguishable from C. caricinum, the nearest affinity is un- 

 doubtedly with C. Lindleyanum" ; Aphelandra Blanchetiana 

 (t. 7179), a showy acanthaceous plant and a native of Brazil; 

 Edgeworthia Gardnerii (t. 7180), a native of the Himalayas, 

 extending eastward into China and Japan, in which last coun- 

 try it is also extensively cultivated, as it furnishes a valuable 



