614 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 201. 



creative genius who is entrusted with the landscape 

 design. 



As we have said, this is a private enterprise purely ; and 

 yet the span of a human life is so short when compared 

 with the possible life and the ever-growing influence of a 

 well-ordered arboretum, that the project can hardly be con- 

 ceived of in any other way than as a great institution, or, 

 rather, in connection with the forest and other features of 

 the plan, a cluster of institutions, devoted to special science 

 and art. Indeed, it cannot fail to be a centre of educa- 

 tional influence in forestry, arboriculture and landscape-art, 

 so long as it has any lusty life, whoever may direct it. 

 Looking, therefore, at the enterprise in its essential rela- 

 tions to popular education in science and art, we may be 

 allowed to express the hope that provision will be made to 

 ensure its perpetuation. It is not often that men of wealth 

 and public spirit find so worthy an object for their gener- 

 ous impulses. 



Notes of a Summer Journey in Europe. — III. 



BEFORE leaving Geneva for Pallanza, on the other side of 

 the Alps, a short excursion was made to some of the vil- 

 lages along the northern shore of the lake, and opportunities 

 were found for a ramble through some of the vineyards which 

 cover every hill-side. To persons always accustomed to 

 the prevailing American mode of pruning Grape-vines by 

 leaving one or more long stems and training them to high 

 trellises, the system practiced here at first seems strange. 

 The old portions of the plants look like stumps, generally not 

 more than a foot above ground. At the top of the stump are 

 from two to four short arms, two or three inches in length, 

 and from each of these arms one or two shoots are allowed to 

 grow and bear from one to three bunches of grapes. At 

 pruning-time these shoots are cut back to the stumps again. 

 In some vineyards the stumps appeared old, and were en- 

 tirely moss-covered, the moss sometimes being as much as an 

 inch and a half thick. Some rather small stumps were said to 

 be at least thirty years old. The vines are usually tied to slen- 

 der stakes about four feet in height, the tying material being 

 simply one or two stalks of Oat-straw or other Grass-plant, 

 with the ends tied or made fast by a neat twist. So diminutive 

 do these vines appear in comparison to those trained on our 

 system, that from a distance or from a train they seem more 

 like Peas or Tomato-stalks trained to stakes. 



The vines are planted quite near together, and, apparently, 

 hand-labor is entirely depended upon in the cultivation of 

 these vineyards. Indeed, toward the upper end of the lake, 

 anything but careful hand-labor would be impossible on ac- 

 count of the great steepness of the hill-sides, which are faced 

 with stone walls supporting terrace upon terrace, so that the 

 soil cannot be washed away. The situation is exceedingly fa- 

 vorable for Grape-culture ; every foot of land fit for it is made 

 use of, and one fs impressed with a sense of thrift and economy 

 in such intense cultivation. At Nyon some rather weedy vine- 

 yards were noticed, and laborers were busily hoeing out such 

 weeds as Mustard, Chickweed, a pretty flowering but perni- 

 cious Bindweed, or Convolvulus (C. arvensis), Potentillas with 

 long runners, and Canada Thistles, the latter in full bloom. 



The dreaded Phylloxera has apparently not yet gained a foot- 

 hold here, and the vines generally seemed very healthy. They 

 had not long ceased flowering, and the little grapes were mostly 

 just well-formed (July 21st). Many of the bunches were in- 

 fested by little lepidopterous larvae, or caterpillars, one or 

 more of which attack a bunch. They spin little silken tubes, 

 within which they live separately, and generally accomplish 

 the destruction of a considerable portion of the cluster of 

 fruit. 



After leaving the lake, and on proceeding toward Brieg, on 

 the Simplon Road, Apple-trees and orchards become more 

 common, and are usually found in land which is kept in grass. 

 Our common Locust is thoroughly naturalized, and grows as 

 rampantly as a weed all along the railway. Above Brieg, on 

 the Simplon Road, the Walnut-trees were bearing no fruit, the 

 young tips and blossoms having been destroyed by frost. The 

 mountain-sides were still covered with flowers, most noticea- 

 ble among them being several kinds of Campanulas. On de- 

 scending toward the Italian frontier, the native Clematis (C. 

 Flammiila) becomes conspicuous everywhere, strongly sug- 

 gesting our own Virgin's Bower. Farther down in the valleys 

 the Walnut is again abundant. The young walnut fruit is here 

 much destroyed by lepidopterous larvae, which cause the im- 



mature nuts to drop during the summer, the injury being 

 analagous to that caused by the codlin-moth among apples. 



As soon as we cross to the Italian side of the Alps and get 

 to the region about Lake Maggiore, we find the treatment of 

 the Grape-vines to be very different from that practiced around 

 the Lake of Geneva. Here the vines are allowed to grow long, 

 as we are most accustomed to see them, and they are trained 

 to tall poles or trellises, or very commonly to living trees. 

 The tree most selected for this office is the common Field 

 Maple {Acer campestre), a species which does not generally 

 grow to a very large size. Most of the branches are removed, 

 only enough being left to keep up the life of the tree. The 

 removal of the branches allows the sun and air to have free 

 access to the vine, while its living support has at least the ad- 

 vantage of not needing frequent renewal ; although, on the 

 other hand, it must take considerable nutriment from the 

 ground, which should otherwise be appropriated by the vine. 

 The practice is one which will hardly commend itself to thrifty 

 cultivators. 



The main object of my excursion south of the Alps was to 

 visit some of the gardens at Pallanza on Lake Maggiore, par- 

 ticularly the gardens and nurseries of the Messrs. Rovelli. 

 The rows of thrifty specimens of our great Southern Ever- 

 green Magnolia, planted here as a street and shade tree, at 

 once indicate that Pallanza enjoys a climate peculiarly favor- 

 able for trees and other plants of warm, temperate regions. 

 Handsome high hedges and immaculate clipped walls of what 

 is called Elceagnus pungens showed how thoroughly accli- 

 mated is this Japanese species, which we have not yet been 

 able to grow well where the temperature is liable to go a 

 good many degrees below zero of Fahrenheit. 



The nurseries of the Messrs. Rovelli are not kept as an ex- 

 hibition or show-place, in the popular sense of the term ; but, 

 although no studied attempt is made to produce landscape or 

 floral effects, there is much to please and repay any one who 

 may be able to spend a few hours there. 



The greatest interest in the place rests in the fact that here 

 we find large, characteristic, and often handsome specimens 

 of a great number of rare trees, shrubs and other plants 

 which the firm propagate ; so that the visitor who personally 

 goes to this nursery with the intention of purchasing may 

 obtain a fair idea of the size, effect and other characteristics 

 which his plants may develop when they attain to a good age 

 and large proportions. Conifers and other evergreens are 

 most largely represented among the arborescent plants, and 

 we find here such well-grown specimens of Pines and other 

 trees as are rarely seen in the collections which the average 

 traveler is likely to visit. 



One of the rarities of the garden and an object of special 

 pride is a handsome specimen of the so-called Chinese Golden 

 Larch {Pseudolarix KcEmpferi), which is as much at home in 

 this mild Italian climate as it is when subjected to the extremes 

 of heat and cold, which it endures so well in the vicinity of 

 Boston. This specimen produces fruit biennially, and the 

 seed is allowed to fall and germinate beneath the tree, as 

 greater success in procuring young plants is obtained in this 

 way than by any artificial sowing which has been tried. The 

 ground was covered with thousands of young seedlings, 

 whose light-green foliage formed a complete and very pretty 

 covering. 



A specimen of the Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macro- 

 carpd), at forty years of age, has a trunk three feet in diame- 

 ter, and makes a handsome tree ; and, besides other large 

 Cypresses, here also are good representatives of the Sequoias 

 (S. sempervirens and S. giganted), the first ninety feet high, 

 while of the latter a curious pendulous form was pointed out 

 as one of the novelties of the nursery. 



A specimen of Cryptomeria Japonica, from fifty to sixty 

 feet high, is the finest I saw anywhere. This has not yet 

 proved hardy enough to thrive well at the Arnold Arboretum. 

 A large specimen of the rare and beautiful Californian Abies 

 bracteata thrives here, and produced fruit some years since. 

 The very long, sharp-pointed leaves, which are white beneath, 

 and the curious long-bracted or porcupine-like cones make 

 this one of the most distinct and remarkable species of the 

 genus. Another curious tree is Keteleeria Fortunei, long con- 

 sidered by many botanists as an Abies, and known as A. For- 

 tunei. Its right to a distinct generic name now appears to be 

 well established. This species is a native of south-eastern 

 China, and is only hardy in warm temperate or sub-tropical 

 regions. It may truly be called a very rare tree outside of its 

 native habitat, the Messrs. Rovelli having the largest and 

 finest in cultivation. This individual tree has a trunk two 

 feet in diameter, covered with a curious corky bark resem- 

 bling that of the Cork Oak. Although it produces cones in 



