So 



FLORA AND SYLVA. 



beauty, of all our native trees. "The deep fur- 

 rows of its warm brown bark ; the angular 

 ruggedness of its branches, and the flattened 

 form and horizontal shadows of its head ; give 

 it an air of age and dignity ; while the pure 

 colour, abundance, and fine-cut outline of its 

 leaves, add a refined expression during its pe- 

 riod of foliage." The foliage breaks into softly 

 rounded horizontal layers, drooping on the ex- 

 terior to catch and reflect the sun, so that it 

 presents to the eye broader and warmer masses 

 of light than does the foliage of any othertree 

 of our forests. 



Where the soil and climate suits the Sassa- 

 fras its growth is rapid, from i to 2 feet in a 

 year; where it flourishes farmers know that the 

 soil is fertile. Its wood is a soft orange colour, 

 durable, and rather hard; it is used in some parts 

 of the country for fencing. The pleasant taste 

 and aromatic fragrance of the bark and young 

 leaves make the Sassafras afavourite with those 

 who like to nibble among their shrubberies, 

 and the habit is soon formed of never passing 

 a tree without a taste of its pleasant mucilagi- 

 nous foliage. All trees have characters of their 

 own; and the Sassafras is the embodiment of 

 sunny, cheerful warmth. It does not transplant 

 well when large, as the thick root-stocks have 

 few rootlets ; but small suckers are easily 

 planted, and it may be raised from seed. 



DANSKE DANDRIDGE. 

 Rose Brake, West Virginia, U.S.A. 



[The Sassafras Tree was at one time far 

 more often planted in the warmer parts of our 

 country, and in open soilitgrewto a fairstature 

 though nothing like such as are named above. 

 The planting of many good trees has been 

 seriously hindered by the worship of Welling- 

 tonias, Araucarias, &c, and it is now almost a 

 rare tree. — Editor.] 



Eastern Cypress at Ickworth. — This tree is of 

 such doubtful hardiness in many parts of our coun- 

 try that we should hesitate to plant it, although we 

 have here and there seen, as at White Knights before 

 the hard winters came, some good trees of it ; also 

 near the coast in mild districts we may plant it here 

 and there. This being so, we were the more surprised 

 to see many trees of it at Ickworth in rude health and 

 giving a very distinct and graceful appearance to that 

 garden ; the effect is that of a real Italian garden, shel- 

 tered, graceful, varied, and quite the opposite of the 

 usual British-pattern " Italian garden," with its Irish 

 Yews, hard lines, and little yellow dots of Arbor-vitae. 



I In the West African Forest. — The dense forests 



I through which our road lay are very fine. They 

 may be the breeding ground of deadly diseases, 

 but they are truly beautiful to look at. They con- 

 sist of what I may describe as three distinct storeys. 

 The ground-floor storey is made up of the ordinary 

 close, tropical bush of from 15 to 20 feet in height, 

 through which the forest trees of equatorial Africa 

 push their thick lofty stems and big branches to 

 form the second storey. These are of about the 

 same size as the great forest trees of Western 

 Europe. The third storey, towering over and above 

 the other two, is formed by the straight and smooth- 

 stemmed Cotton Tree, with its mushroom-shaped 

 roof, many being over 1 50 feet in height. The big 

 parrots of this region, when perched upon them, 

 look no larger than English robins. This tree has 

 no branches until close to the top of its pillar-like 

 stem, where they shoot out almost horizontally, 



! like the iron stays of a great and shallow umbrella. 

 A large inverted green saucer placed on the nozzle 

 of a tall and massive silver candlestick would con- 

 vey a good idea of what the Cotton Tree looks like. 

 Its polished stem of soft and pearly grey tapers 



j little, being great in circumference all the way up to 

 where the branches spring. The stand of the candle- 

 stick represents the roots, which go little into the 

 ground, but mostly rest upon it. Rising up from 



J the outer edge of that stand are great protecting 

 buttresses, often covering a circle of ground that 

 would measure 200 feet in circumference. Those 

 ribbed buttresses add much to the stability of the 

 tree and to the magnificence of its imposing appear- 

 ance. . . . But what strikes the stranger most in 

 this weirdly dark forest scenery are the thousands 

 of twisted creepers and winders of all shapes and 

 sizes which cross and recross one another, the smaller 



' ; ones hanging in tangled masses festooned between 

 the trees like the tangled locks of some giant Meg 

 Merrilees. Many of these creepers are thicker than 

 a man's wrist, and to get through this lower jungle 

 you must cut them, for none will break. Twisted 

 round them again, are usually others of a tougher 

 and more cord-like quality, which compress the 

 expansion of those round which they twine, pinch- 

 ing them into the spiral irregularity of a corkscrew. 

 These great winders hanging from branch to branch 

 in vast quantities at every angle and in puzzling 

 irregularity, bar the way to all who would pass in 



: any direction. . . . Look down any chance opening 



I in the depths of this awe-inspiring forest, and, as the 

 gentlewind sways about these ropes and coils of brown 

 creepers, one thinks of the loose shrouds, broken 

 stays and halyards and confused masses of rigging 

 that hang from masts and yards of the old and once 

 beautiful " three-deckers," still to be seen as ruins 

 in the neglected back waters of our naval harbours. 

 — Lord Wolseley's " Story of a Soldier's Life." 



