12 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
IRecent Ipnbltcaticms. 
No one in all the trades, professions and occupations of life has more 
reason to reverence Nature than has the nurseryman. It is only through 
her smiling aid and inviolable laws that he succeeds in propagating 
the many varieties of fruit and flower and ornamental or useful shrub 
and tree demanded by his patrons. It is to him more than to other 
workers in the soil that the wonders of forest and plain appeal; for his 
mind is bent on tree and flower exclusively. To the nurserymen, there¬ 
fore, as indeed to all lovers of Nature, the recently published work of 
.John Muir, on “ Our National Parks,” is of special interest. 
The author of this book has treated his subject in so entertaining and 
instructive a manner that his title seems but faintly to indicate the sub¬ 
ject matter, unless one is somewhat familiar with the broad expanses 
of mountain and forest in the far West. The book is appropriately 
dedicated to Charles S Sargent, “steadfast lover and defender of the 
country’s forests,” for twenty seven years director of the Arnold Ar¬ 
boretum, chairman of important commissions for the preservation of 
forests, author of “ Silva of North America” and* other works. It is 
made up of sketches published in the Atlantic Monthly in attempt to 
set forth the beauty and usefulness of our wild mountain forest reser¬ 
vations to the end that they may be preserved. 
In the first chapter Mr. Muir notes with pleasure a tendency to 
wander in wildernesses and proceeds to nourish that tendency, describ. 
ing in simple yet alluring manner the attractions of the great forest 
preserves for business men needing rest from the cares of a strenuous 
life. Thompson-Seton has brought into busy homes and offices the 
daily life of feathered and furry denizens of pfain and valley; the love 
of Nature is fostered even more by Mr. Muir’s graphic descriptions of 
both habitat and habitant; his depicture is interwoven with mention 
of the animal people of the forest, experiences with individuals forming 
many an aside. Full advantage has been taken of the opportunity for 
an enthusist truthfully to portray the grandeur of mountain peak and 
towering tree, of echoing canon and verdant plain. 
The book is as fascinating as it is instructive. After expressing a 
regret that the work of man is likely to effect still greater changes in 
the beauties of Nature, the author takes a bird’s-eye view of the gar¬ 
dens of the continent, starting with the vast tundras of Alaska, smooth, 
even, undulating, continuous beds of flowers and leaves from latitude 
62 degrees to the shores of the Arctic ocean, Nature’s own reservation 
defended by kindly frost. The Yellowstone, Yosemite, General Grant 
and Sequoia national parks are described in detail in succeeding chap¬ 
ters, but in the discussion of the wild parks of the West are most inter¬ 
esting descriptions of the Black Hills Reserve of South Dakata, filled 
with yellow pine and Eugelmann spruce, and carpeted with an abund¬ 
ance of flowers; the Rocky Mountain Reserves, the Teton, Yellowstone, 
Lewis and Clark, Bitter Root and Priest River and Flathead, compre¬ 
hending more than twelve million acres of mostly unclaimed, rough, 
forest-covered mountains in which the great rivers of the country take 
their rise. The least known of all of this grand group of reserves is 
the Bitter Root, the wildest, shaggiest block of forest wilderness in the 
Rocky Mountains, “full of happy, healthy, storm-loving trees, full of 
streams that dance and sing in glorious array, and full of Nature’s 
animals, elk, deer, wild sheep, bears.” “ Wander here a whole sum¬ 
mer if you can,” says Mr. Muir. “ Thousands of God’s wild blessings 
will search you and soak you as if you were a sponge, and the big days 
will go by uncounted. If you are business-tangled and so burdened 
with duty that only weeks can be gotten out of the heavy laden year, 
then go to Flathead Reserve; for it is easily reached by the Great 
Northern Railroad.” There the king of larches grows to a height of 
2 0 feet, and the forest is carpeted with the richest beds of Linnasa 
borealis. 
“The vast Pacific coast reserves in Washington and Oregon—the 
Cascade, Washington, Mount Ranier, Olympic, Bull Run and Ashland 
—include more than 12,500,000 acres of magnificent forests of beautiful 
and gigantic trees. They extend over the wild, unexplored, Olympic 
mountains and both flanks of the Cascade range. Along the moist, 
balmy, foggy, west flank of the mountains, facing the sea, the woods 
reach their highest development, and, excepting the California red¬ 
woods, are the heaviest on the continent. They are made up mostly of 
the Douglas spruce, Pseudotsuga taxifolia, with the giant arbor vitae 
or cedar, and several species of fir and hemlock in varying abundance- 
Over all the other species the Douglas spruce reigns supreme. It is no 1 
only a large tree, the tallest in America next to the redwood, but a very 
beautiful one with bright green drooping foliage, handsome pendant 
cones, and a shaft exquisitely straight and round and regular.” Mr. 
Muir refers to the use of this spruce for ship spars. 
The author, now and then, emphasises the fact that the grandeur of 
these great reserves is unappreciated, unvisited, unknown. “ These 
grand reservations.” he says, “ should draw thousands of admiring vis¬ 
itors at least in summer, yet they are neglected as if of no account, 
and spoilers are allowed to ruin them as fast as they like. A few 
peeled spars cut here were set up in London, Philadelphia and Chi 
cago, where they excited wondering attention ; but the countless 
hosts of living trees rejoicing at home on the mountains are scarce con 
sidered at all ” As an example of what may be seen if one will but 
visit these mountains, the following extract is made from a brief de¬ 
scription by Mr. Muir of the reserve in the Cascade range referred to : 
“ To one who looks from some high standpoint over its vast breadth, 
the forest on the west side of the Cascades seems all one dim, dark, mono¬ 
tonous field, broken only by the white volcanic cones along the summit 
of the range. Back in the untrodden wilderness a deep-furred carpet 
of brown and yellow mosses covers the ground like a garment, press¬ 
ing about the feet of the trees, and rising in rich bosses softly and 
kindly over every rock and mouldering trunk, leaving no spot uncared 
for ; and, dotting small prairies and fringing the meadows and the 
banks of streams not seen in general views, we find, besides the great 
conifers, a considerable number of hardwood trees, oak, ash, maple, 
alder, wild apple, cherry, arbutus, Nuttall’s flowering dogwood, and in 
some places chestnut. In a few favored spots the broad leaved maple 
grows to a height of a hundred feet in forests by itself, sanding out 
large limbs in magnificent interlacing arches covered with mosses and 
ferns, thus forming lofty sky-gardens and rendering the underwoods 
delightfully cool. No finer forest ceilings are to be found than these 
maple arches, while the floor ornamented with tall ferns and rubus 
vines, and cast into hillocks by the bulging, moss covered roots of the 
trees, matches it well. 
“ Passing from beneath the heavy shadows of the woods, almost any¬ 
where one steps into lovely gardens of lilies, orchids, heathworts and 
wild roses. Along the lower slopes, especially in Oregon, where the 
woods are less dense, there are miles of rhododendrons making glorious 
masses of purple in the spring, while all about the streams and the lakes 
and the beaver meadows there is a rich tangle of hazel, plum, cherry, 
crab-apple, cornel, gaultheria, and rubus, with myriads of flowers and 
abundance of other more delicate bloomers, such as erythronium, bro- 
disea, fritillaria, calochortus, Clintonia, and the lovely hider of the 
north, Calypso. Beside all these bloomers, there are wonderful fern¬ 
eries about the many misty waterfalls, some of the fronds ten feet high, 
others the most delicate of their tribe, the maidenhair fringing the rocks 
within reach of the lightest dust of the spray, while the shading trees 
on the cliffs above them, leaning over, look like eager listeners anxious 
to catch every tone of the restless waters.” 
It is in this happy style throughout the book that the reader is intro¬ 
duced to scenes restful in the extreme. In every line is seen the author’s 
love for the trees and the mountains, the flowers and the dashing 
streams about which he writes. Very unappreciative indeed must be 
the person who having read Mr. Muir’s description of Yellowstone 
park does not long to visit that wonderful spot at once. The same 
may be said of the description of the other national parks. Reference 
to the sequoias calls to mind the fact that it was the firm of Elhvanger& 
Barry, R >chester, N. Y., that first brought this famous tree to the east 
and that fine specimens are growing to day in their nurseries. 
Notwithstanding the changes that have taken place since the expe¬ 
ditions of Lewis and Clark and Pike across the continent, much of the 
territory of the West is still wild and Mr Muii’s book will be read 
with deep interest by lovers of Nature who have little sympathy with 
some of the “improvements” by man. The work is illustrated with 
engravings that add to its value, and there is an index. It is hand¬ 
somely bound. Its mission is in every way commendable and the 
reader cannot lay it down without being convinced of the importance 
of prompt action on the part of the authorities looking toward the 
preservation of the forests. Cloth, 8vo., pp. 370, $1.75. Boston and 
New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
