222 



FLORA AND SYLVA. 



worst, but, to accentuate matters, shocking 

 combinations of colour are seen, such as blue 

 Lobelia, scarlet Geranium, mauve Verbena, 

 with crimson and purple Fuchsias all crowded 

 together within an area of a few feet, and dis- 

 tressing in their warring shades. Within a few 

 yards from these a similar atrocity is perpetu- 

 ated in blue and bright scarlet, with dull red 

 Cupheas and bright pink and white Fuchsias, 

 — some of the plants good enough in them- 

 selves, but hideous in combination. Here, 

 too, are Cannas in great masses, without a 

 trace of colour, and planted frequently where 

 they can hardly exist and certainly do no good. 

 Admitting that the season of 1903 with its 

 heavy rainfall, rough winds, and changing tem- 

 peratures is sadly against the flower-garden, 

 there is surely the more need to study how 

 best to light its borders with clear and good 

 colours, and combinations of leaf and flower. 

 There is, on the other hand, no better op- 

 portunity for noting the respective colour- 

 values of plants than during these dark days, 

 when poor things look doubly bad and the 

 merits of such as are good are clearly seen. 

 It would be well for all who undertake plant- 

 ing for bright effect to spend an hour or two 

 in quiet study of these combinations, good and 

 bad, as it ought to result in the avoidance of 

 similar mistakes in future. It would be un- 

 just to say there is not good as well as bad 

 colour in these park gardens, but the ugly 

 colours and combinations are so harmful in 

 their effect on the public, and so often imi- 

 tated by people with fewer means of growing 

 the plants in question, that we think it best to 

 look at the matter from that aspect, and so 

 name examples that may be seen by all who 

 are interested. 



Forests of the Harz. — We drove in a car- 

 riage andpair for miles bysmooth roads, which 

 wound upwards among endless groves of Pines, 

 in squares of different ages, standing as close 

 together as they could stick, all planted in 

 rows. Every row was as straight as a line, vistas 

 running forwards in endless perspective, left 

 and right, as far as the eye could reach. What 

 a revelation to one direct from the Himalayas, 

 where no two trees are of the same kind or the 



same age, and all are located by chance, as 

 Nature sowed them. This was the Harz forest, 

 the birthplace of forest lore. The country was 

 divided like a chess-board into districts of 1 ,000 

 morgen, or acres, each under its separate officer. 

 Each district is divided into ten stripes, or 

 squares, corresponding to each decade of the 

 century, during which period the proper square 

 or stripe, where the oldest mature trees are, is 

 felled and disposed of, and the 100 acres in- 

 volved are replanted in rows, each row and 

 each tree 3 feet apart. The decade is again 

 subdivided, so that 10 acres are cut down and 

 1 o acres replanted each year. Thus, at the end 

 ! of the century every square has had a full crop 

 of mature timber taken off it and been re- 

 planted with a new crop. The rule for thin- 

 ning, which is also carried out at stated periods, 

 is to cut out the overshaded stems. Thus, the 

 surviving trees are chosen, and the master trees 

 only remain. The heads of the trees are al- 

 ways seeking the daylight, and thus the most 

 rapid lengthening out is attained, and the side 

 branches are crushed and drop off as they de- 

 cay, leaving a straight-grained tree, free from 

 knots. Thinning out is then performed, to let 

 in air and light and promote the thickening 

 process. The sale of thinnings pays all the 

 expenses, and at the end of the 100 years the 

 ground carries from 100 to 150 mature trees 

 to each acre, of a value of, say, £1 per tree. 

 The rent of this land for grazing might be 

 about 5s. yearly per acre, so that from one acre 

 of forest there is a revenue of over £100 in 

 100 years, or £1 per acre yearly instead of 5s. 

 There is an important consideration always to 

 be acted on — that of the effect of the prevail- 

 ing wind. The tallest trees must always have 

 the next tallest plot to windward of them, to 

 protect them from the storm ; and so the plots 

 are arranged in steps like stairs each older lot 

 being guarded by a younger lot, while the 

 youngest lot is sheltered by the oldest of the 

 next series of steps. At the end of any rota- 

 tion period, the capital value of the growing 

 timber must be fully maintained, or even im- 

 proved, so that the annual yield, representing 

 the interest of that capital, is a source of reve- 

 nue as regular as clockwork to the State which 

 owns the forest. — ("Forests of India.") 



