472 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 189. 



are ! Behind him, hidden by his furry mantle, lurks the spring, 

 and then once more the dead summer shall be reborn, and the 

 world shall be again all blossom and music ! " 



So, with this bracing note, October passes on, and, cheered 

 by Hope and softened by memory, we leave the old place to 

 sleep awhile, and turn to our winter fire and the companion- 

 ship of men and books, in lieu of birds and trees and Mowers 

 which have gladdened us for half a year. 



Hingham, Mass. M. C. Robbins. 



THE END. 



Forest-vegetation of the Upper Mississippi. — II. 



THE best Oak growing along the Upper Mississippi is the 

 White Oak (Quercus alba). It is not uncommon to find 

 trees with trunks eight to twelve feet in circumference. This 

 species once covered a considerable portion of the ridges, 

 especially on clay soil. The shaded slope on which the snow 

 long remains in the spring is also a favorable situation for it. 

 Young growth of White Oak is rapidly covering situations of 

 this character, which formerly contained no timber. Flat- 

 tened expansions of the stem are found just underneath the 

 surface of the ground. From these arise a number of trunks. 

 It is not improbable that, before the country was settled, late 

 fires in spring kept the forest-growth down, but after the ces- 

 sation of fires a vigorous growth started. The timber of the 

 White Oak is uniformly straighter and easier to cut than the 

 Scarlet Oak (Q. coccinea) or Black Oak (Q. tinctoria). These 

 Oaks grow in more exposed localities, where the soil is drier 

 and vegetation starts earlier in the spring, and for this reason 

 fires usually damaged them more than any of the others. The 

 old timber is usually gnarled and hard to split. The young 

 growth is, however, straight and easy to work where fires are 

 kept out. The soils on which they occur vary considerably. 

 They do well on sandy gravelly soil, as well as on clay and 

 black soil, and even make considerable growth on poor 

 sandy soil. Q. coccinea is the more common species, although 

 the forms are puzzling. The Red Oak (Q. rubra, L.) is the 

 finest of the Oaks in this region so far as beauty is concerned. 

 The trees are tall and straight, and sometimes yield five cords 

 of wood. It is not an uncommon thing for them to yield 

 three cords. The wood is easily worked, and this is owing 

 largely to the locality and soil where the species usually grows. 

 The large trees were less affected by the early forest-fires than 

 were the Black Oaks. The Red Oak occurs principally on 

 shaded hill-slopes, where the snow long remains on the 

 ground, also on clay ridges and black bottom-lands. Young 

 trees of Q. rubra are the most easily recognizable of the Black 

 Oaks when growing in such localities. Smooth bark and 

 straight trunk, with few lateral branches, distinguish them at 

 once from specimens of Q. tinctoria and Q. coccinea. 



One of the most variable Oaks, at least so far as general 

 appearances go, is the Bur Oak (Q. macrocarpa). On the sandy 

 soils it is diminutive in size, producing numerous lateral 

 branches. Here it is a spreading tree. On the poor sandy soil 

 between the Black and La Crosse rivers it is the most common 

 Oak. On clay and rocky soil it occurs mainly in small groups. 

 Some thirty miles east of La Crosse, in the Kickapoo Valley, 

 Bur Oak is a most valuable forest-tree. The trunk is straight, 

 with but few large lateral branches. In its habit it is wholly 

 unlike the form growing on sandy or rocky soil. Many trees 

 are ten feet in circumference. It does not grow in isolated 

 groups, but acres are covered almost entirely with this species. 

 It also occurs in the rich alluvial bottoms of various streams. 

 The Swamp White Oak (Q. bicolor) occurs only in the 

 bottoms of the Black and Mississippi rivers. A large number 

 of small trees occur near North Bend, Wisconsin. I have ob- 

 served a few more just below La Crosse. It becomes more 

 common southward; and a considerable number were observed 

 near Turkey River Junction, Iowa. No large trees have been 

 seen, though Mr. J. S. Harris informs me that he noticed 

 some near La Crescent, Minnesota, many years ago. The 

 only other Oak I have seen is Q. Muhlenbergii. It occurred in 

 considerable numbers on the south slope of a limestone bluff 

 just west of North McGregor, Iowa. 



The most conspicuous Maple is the Soft Maple {Acer sacchari- 

 nutn). It occurs everywhere along the Mississippi, Black and 

 Wisconsin rivers and their tributaries. It forms more than 

 one-half of the forest-vegetation of the Mississippi River, but 

 becomes less common as the sources of the smaller streams 

 are reached. It grows where the lands are usually subject to 

 overflow, and the soil is sandy or alluvial. The Red Maple 

 (Acer rubrum, L.) is not a common species. It occurs in the 

 interior of the country, away from the Mississippi, on 

 sandy black loam. Although the Sugar Maple occurs in the 



rich rocky soil along the Mississippi River it is most common 

 in the interior of Wisconsin, away from the river. On the low 

 ridges drained by the Kickapoo River it is one of the most 

 common of forest-trees. The Ash-leaved Maple (Acer Negundo) 

 occurs in groups in the richer soils of ravines and bottom-lands. 

 It is seldom found in the bottom proper of the Mississippi 

 River. The tree requires a good soil for its development. 



Two species of hickory have only been observed, Shell 

 Bark (Hickoria tomentosa) and the Pignut Hickory (H.porcina). 

 Both species attain to considerable size. The habits of the trees 

 are quite different. H. tomentosa grows on clay soil, usually in 

 groups. H. porcina grows on various soils, such as rocky, 

 sandy, and along creek-bottoms. Shaded and moist localities 

 are favorable to its growth, which is much more rapid than 

 that of H. tomentosa. The Butternut (Juglans cinerea) is much 

 more common than the Black Walnut (J. nigra), although 

 both are found on the rocky banks of the Mississippi, and the 

 Butternut is abundant in sandy and gravelly soil along the 

 Kickapoo River, while Black Walnut was not observed in this 

 region. The latter tree is confined quite closely to the imme- 

 diate tributaries of the Mississippi. Along the Badaxe River 

 and smaller streams about La Crosse it is quite common, but 

 as the sources of the stream are reached it gradually dimin- 

 ishes in numbers. It needs a much richer soil than the 

 Butternut. 



Agricultural College, Ames, Iowa. L. H. Patnmel. 



Notes on North American Trees. — XXIX. 



MR. A. S. HITCHCOCK, of the Missouri Botanic Gar- 

 den, sends me the following criticism upon the 

 notes on Piscidia, published in Garden and Forest for Sep- 

 tember 1 6th (iv., 435): 



" You give to the Jamaica Dogwood the name of Piscidia 

 Piscipula. In working up the literature for my West Indian 

 collections I reach a somewhat different conclusion, and 

 should like to consult you about it. It seemed to me that 

 the genus Ichthyomethia, Patrick Browne ("Nat. Hist. Jam.," 

 p. 296, 1756), antedates, and should replace the Piscidia 

 of Linnaeus ("Syst. Nat.," ed. 10, p. 1 155, 1759), and that 

 the name for this tree should be Ichthyomethia Piscipula. 

 So far as I can see, there is no doubt about the identity of 

 the plant. Browne describes it well, and Linnaeus quotes 

 Browne's Ichthyomethia under his Piscidia, only he mis- 

 spelled it. If Browne's genera are to be taken up at all, should 

 not this one stand ? " 



Mr. Hitchcock's criticism is a sound one. I knew of 

 Browne's Ichthyomethia, but had carelessly overlooked 

 the fact that two editions of his work had been published. 

 The second edition, the only one I have seen, was pub- 

 lished in 1789, that is several years subsequently to Lin- 

 naeus' tenth edition of the "SystemaNatura," although there 

 is nothing on the title-page to show that it is not the 

 first edition. Browne's genera have been taken up in 

 many cases by modern authors, and there seems no 

 reason why the name of the West Indian Dogwood should 

 not be Ichthyomethia Piscipula, Hitchcock. 



C. S. Sargent. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Aster Shortii. 



OUR North American flora is rich in Asters, Golden- 

 rods, Sunflowers, and many other of the tubular- 

 flowered genera or Composite which produce beautiful and 

 showy flowers. These make this country bright during 

 the autumn months, and give a charm and beauty to our 

 autumn landscape which is peculiarly American, and which 

 the inhabitants of less-favored regions look upon with de- 

 light and admiration. Among these plants are many well 

 suited to adorn the garden, and it is always a matter of 

 surprise that more attention has not been given in this 

 country to cultivating them. It is true that they are, in a 

 certain sense, familiar outside the limits of the garden. 

 Many of them, however, are not widely distributed, so that 

 a New England Aster, for example, might be as unfamiliar 

 to an inhabitant of the south or of the far west as it would 

 be to a Japanese or to an Englishman. 



