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Delicatissimum (1891)

Purpureum Grandiflorum (1886)

Rhododendron catawbiense

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Volume 60 Number 1 2000

Arnoldia (ISSN 004-2633; USPS 866-100) is
published quarterly by the Arnold Arboretum of
Harvard University. Second-class postage paid at
Boston, Massachusetts.

Subscriptions are $20.00 per calendar year domestic,
$25.00 foreign, payable in advance. Single copies of
most issues are $5.00; the exceptions are 58/4-59/1
(Metasequoia After Fifty Years) and 54/4 (A Source-
book of Cultivar Names), which are $10.00. Remit-
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Karen Madsen, Editor
Andy Winther, Designer

Editorial Committee
Phyllis Andersen
Ellen S. Bennett
Robert E. Cook
Peter Del Tredici
Gary Roller
Stephen A. Spongberg
Kim E. Tripp

Copyright © 2000. The President and Fellows of
Harvard College

Page

2 Mary Gibson Henry, Plantswoman
Extraordinaire
Mary Harrison

13 Flowering Plants and Their Pollinators at
the Arnold Arboretum
David Giblin

20 A Fresh Look at a Traditional Favorite:
Rhododendrons
Richard Brooks

27 Rhododendrons, from The Bulletin of
Popular Information, 1934
Edgar Anderson

19 In Pursuit of Ironclads
Karen Madsen

Front cover: Rhododendron 'Big Deal' photographed
by Dick Brooks.

Inside covers: Watercolor drawings of petals from
"ironclad" hybrid rhododendrons and their common
parent. Rhododendron catawbiense. The hybrids are
among the oldest rhododendrons in the Arboretum
(year planted is in parenthesis), all were imported
from England. Painted by C. H. L. Gebfert as a guide
to identification by color, 1931. Archives of the
Arnold Arboretum.

Back cover: Hand-colored photograph of rhododen-
drons at 'Wellesley', where H. H. Hunnewell
conducted many of the early hardiness trials.
Archives of the Arnold Arboretum.

Mary Gibson Henry,
Plantswoman Extraordinaire

Mary Harrison

In the eighteenth century the amateur was a
familiar breed of botanist, especially in Colonial
America. lohn Bartram, who was to become the
king's botanist in 1765, learned his art through expe-
rience in the field and by corresponding with horti-
culturists and botanists on both sides of the Atlantic,
lane Golden, sometimes referred to as America's first
woman botanist, learned from her father and the
hooks he procured for her, and through correspon-
dence with botanists who admired her ability to rec-
ognize unusual species around her home in New
York State. In the twentieth century the tradition
continued and was represented especially well by
Mary Gibson Henry.

Mary Henry was born in 1884 at her grandparents'
house near Jenkinstown, Pennsylvania, to Susan
Worrell Pepper and lohn Howard Gibson. Her
mother's family were Quakers who had come from
England with William Penn and taken part in the
founding of Philadelphia. Horticulture was a tradi-
tional pursuit on both sides of the family. George
Pepper, a great-grandfather, had been a member of
the first Council of the Pennsylvania Horticultural
Society in 1828, and her Gibson grandfather, a keen
plantsman, had his own greenhouse. Her father
enjoyed hunting and camping, and contributed to her
interest in the natural world.

The home of Mary's family was in the center of
Philadelphia and had no garden, but before her
father's death in 1894, the family often visited
Moosehead Lake in Maine. There, under her father's
influence, her familiarity with the countryside devel-
oped. She became especially interested in native
plants, and her first acquaintanceship with twin-

Mary Gibson Henry (second from left) photographed in
the ballroont of her grandparents’ house, ‘Maybrook’. in
Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. To her left is her daughter
fosephine deNemours Henry, and at her right is her aunt
Mary Klett Gibson. At the far right is her daughter Mary

Gibson Henry Davis.

i

Mary Gibson Henry 3

ALL PHOTOS, COURTESY OF THE HENRY FOUNDATION FOR BOTANICAL RESEARCH

4 Arnoldia 60/1

flower (Linnaea borealis), a dwarf evergreen
shrub, awakened in her "not only a love for and
appreciation of the absolute perfection of the
flower itself, hut also for the dark, silent forest
that shelters such treasures." Many years later
(1932) she came upon this plant again, in north-
ern British Columbia, growing "in damp, shady
woods, in lower altitudes and on hare, bleak,
stony mountain tops up to 6000 feet."

Mary attended the Agnes Irwin School in
Philadelphia for six years,- when she left in 1902,
her formal education ended. In the years follow-
ing school she visited the Grand Canyon and
the Colorado Rockies, and on a trip to Europe
she climbed Mont Blanc with her brother and
several guides.

In 1909 she married John Norman Henry, a
physician who later became Philadelphia's
director of public health as well as president of
the General Alumni Society of the University of
Pennsylvania. The couple first lived in Philadel-
phia where Mrs. Henry had "a nice backyard . . .
and a tiny greenhouse." In 1915 they acquired a
large farm in Maryland with a view to building
a home there. The plan was abandoned when
World War I interfered and Dr. Henry volun-
teered for duty overseas. Nevertheless, long
summers spent in existing bungalows on the
property allowed Mrs. Henry to develop a large
kitchen garden, acquire some exotic ornamen-
tals, and experiment with native rock plants.
In addition to gardening in Maryland, she
cultivated orchids in the Philadelphia green-
house, and in 1924 she published an essay on
the subiect in Garden Magazine. She read
widely in horticulture and botany, and it was
her reading during this period that first devel-
oped her interest in wild plants of the southeast-
ern United States. Two books were of special
significance to her, Manual of the Southeastern
Flora by 1. K. Small and The Travels of William
Bartram, which she found an "unending source
of inspiration."

Time to indulge horticultural interests was
limited, however, for Mrs. Henry quickly
became the mother of five children, the young-
est of whom died at the age of six. Although
basically confined to home during the twenties,
she continued to expand her knowledge about
plants by studying nursery catalogs, often from

distant places — Trees and Shrubs from a nursery
in Tunbridge Wells, England; Coolidge Rare
Plant Gardens (1923) from a California nursery;
Himalayan and Indigenous Plants, Bulbs,
Seeds (1927) from a nursery in Bengal, India.
Seed lists came from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Office of Foreign Plant Introduc-
tions, and from the Royal Botanic Garden,
Edinburgh, which she had visited in 1923. (Fol-
lowing that visit Mrs. Henry initiated a corre-
spondence with the R.B.G.'s Regius Keeper,
William Wright-Smith, that lasted until he died
in 1956. Indeed, Wright-Smith was among the
earliest of several mentors to whom she looked
for professional advice.)

In 1926 the Henrys bought Gladwyne, a run-
down farm of ninety hilly acres twelve miles
from the center of Philadelphia, where they
hoped to combine the functions of their Phila-
delphia and Maryland homes. As the Henrys'
architect described it, a greenhouse was built
with a house attached. Planting must have
begun immediately, for a 1928 inventory of
the Gladwyne garden records over 200 shrubs
and plants, with multiple varieties of several
species — seven Cornus florida and three Hama-
melis vernalis, for example. Mrs. Henry's inter-
est in diversity within a single species was
later reflected in her passion for collecting
and hybridizing and an unflagging pursuit
of particular colors and dimensions. By 1931
there were some 850 trees and shrubs in her gar-
den, some of them new Asiatic finds acquired
from the collectors Forrest, Wilson, Rock,
Farrer, and Ward.

Another of Mrs. Henry's early mentors was
Francis Pennell, curator of botany at the Acad-
emy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, from
whom she sought help with identification.
When she expressed an interest in collecting
wild plants for her garden, it was he who urged
her to collect herbarium specimens along with
the plants and schooled her in how to document
her finds.

In part, Mrs. Henry attributed her desire to
collect to William Bartram. His glowing descrip-
tion of Rhododendron speciosum flammeum
(now R. speciosum] had fired her desire to
acquire a specimen, and when her search in
commercial outlets and botanical gardens

JOSEPHINE HENRY COUR I ESY OF THE HENRY FOUNDA ' ION FOR BOTANICAL RESEARCH

Mary Gibson Henry 5

One of the showiest of native American azaleas. Rhododendron
speciosum (now R. flammeum), the Oconee azalea. Mrs. Henry's
repeated journeys in search of this plant resulted in seven color
variants. Its range is confined to USDA zones 6 and 7.

proved unsuccessful, she decided to seek it in
the wild. This was the impetus for a long life of
annual and sometime biannual collecting trips
that continued until her death in 1967.

Her sympathetic husband encouraged her to
fulfill her ambitions and was able to equip her
handsomely with the tools and transport needed
for her expeditions. A car (specifically, a Lincoln
Continental), "outfitted with an 'attic,' an elec-
trically lit desk and a bookcase" was designed.
"The rear compartment is insulated and venti-
lated so that newly collected plants can travel
comfortably. Three plant presses, numerous
buckets, spades etc. are part of the equipment."
This unusual vehicle was driven by a chauffeur,
Ernest Perks, who remained with the Henrys for
sixty-five years. On some of her journeys Mrs.

Henry was also accompanied by her
daughter Josephine, a skilled photog-
rapher who took color photographs
of plants later used by Mrs. Henry in
her lectures.

On her first trip to the Southeast she
covered 2,000 miles and on that and
later trips collected seven color varia-
tions of Rhododendron speciosum.
Later expeditions were made along
the Atlantic Coastal Plain, on the
Piedmont Plateau, in Appalachia, and
in the mountains of east Tennessee
and Alabama. Mrs. Henry planted her
finds at Gladwyne and sent herbarium
specimens to the Academy of Natural
History in Philadelphia and the Royal
Botanic Garden, Edinburgh.

Experience quickly taught her that
"rare and beautiful plants can be found
in places that are difficult of access. . . .
Often one has to shove one's self
through or wriggle under briars, with
awkward results to clothing . . . Wad-
ing usually bare legged through count-
less rattlesnake infested swamps adds
immensely to the interest of the day's
work . . . On several occasions I have
been so deeply mired I had to be pulled
out." She also learned that the habi-
tats of many of the plants she sought
were in urgent need of protection. In
the Southeast she found the swamp
habitats of wild lilies being used as waterholes
for cattle or as dumps. To encourage the growth
of grass for grazing, farmers often burned brush,
destroying wild azaleas at the same time. These
threats reinforced her determination to collect
and cultivate American natives and to eventu-
ally introduce them to American gardens.

During a family holiday to Canada's Jasper
National Park in 1930, the Henry family learned
of a "tropical valley" in northern British
Columbia that was reportedly frost-free in spite
of the extreme winter temperatures surrounding
it. Their curiosity aroused, the family decided to
explore the area; for Mrs. Henry the opportunity
to collect in completely new territory in terrain
ranging from 2,550 to 9,000 feet was an irresist-
ible challenge.

6 A mold id 60/ 1

Maiy Gibson Henry and members of her family at the outset of their expedition to British Columbia in 1930.

The Canadian Department of the Interior had
little information on the area. Mrs. Henry sum-
marized it later, "Waterfalls and rapids in the
rivers make traveling hy water impossible,
while the distance by land is great over wide
stretches of hog and mountainous country still
in Its virgin roughness, and much of it yet
unmapped." However, an old schoolfriend of
Dr. Henry, then head of the Canadian National
Railways, gave them helpful advice, and the
Canadian government sent along a topographer,
K. F. McCusker, to map the territory as they
explored. Since the Henry family included two
sons and two daughters ranging in age from 14
to 21 and their travels would take them to
remote areas, they also arranged for a physician
to accompany them.

The party left Philadelphia hy train on lime
25, 1931, arriving at Pouce Coupe, m northern
British Columhia, on lune 30. From there they
motored to Fort St. lohn, where they joined the
9 men, 58 horses, and all the supplies that

would accompany them. For the next eighty
days, they traveled fifteen to twenty miles a day
on horseback with occasional stops to collect
plants, seeds, and herbarium specimens. The
journey led them alongside rivers and through
meadows filled with Jacob's ladder iPole-
monium), larkspur (Delphinium!, and penste-
mons. In the higher country bellflower
(Campanula) and forget-me-not iMyosotis)
were abundant. "Collecting plants while riding
with a pack is not always a simple matter. A
trowel goes in a leather sheath on one side of my
belt and a knife on the other side. A strong pair
of saddle bags is fastened to the pommel on my
saddle, in which each morning are placed sev-
eral empty jam cans. Each evening all full cans
are aired and watered, and in the morning are all
carefully packed in wooden packing cases on the
horses. Quite frequently the cans were frozen
solid to the ground and I had to use my ax to
chop them loose." Mrs. Henry's collecting
methods proved reasonably successful, and

Maiy Gibson Henry 7

Tropical Valleys in the Far Northwest

Reports such as those heard by the Henrys of
"tropical" valleys in Canada's far northwest
were frequent at the time. The heating agent
was the many sulphur springs in those val-
leys. In the 1920s their warmth enabled a
trapper working out of Fort Laird, within
seven degrees of the Arctic Circle, to grow
winter crops of potatoes, onions, and tobacco.

The area the Henrys were interested in
exploring lies between the Peace and Liard
rivers, roughly 56° north latitude ik 121°
west longtitude and 58° north latitude
123° west longitude. The first Europeans had
made their way through the northern Rocky
Mountains by way of the Peace River some
150 years previously, but few botanical
collectors had been there. In 1872, the Cana-
dian botanist John Macoun, working for the
Canadian Pacific Railway, collected in the
vicinity of Fort St. lohn (established about
1805) and Hudson Hope (established in
1808). He also collected for the Canadian
Geological Survey, which carried out a sci-
entific investigation of the Peace River in
1875. Further surveys by others had been
made in 1887 and 1891, resulting in some
knowledge of the distribution of certain
trees and shrubs.

In response to the Henrys' discussions
with the Canadian Department of the
Interior, one of their topographers, K. F.
McCusker, was assigned to accompany the
group and to map the territory. The expedi-
tion began on 25 June 1931, covered a thou-
sand miles on foot and horseback, and lasted
eighty days. Near sulphur springs, Mary

Henry noted "rank growth of delphinium
often over eight feet tall and raspberries,
roses and vetches growing in the thickest,
most luxuriant tangle." A pool nine feet
in diameter with crystal clear water and
temperatures estimated at about ninety
degrees Fahrenheit provided an "Arctic Tub"
enjoyed by the group.

McCusker gave Henry family names to
many of the rivers, lakes, and mountains
they encountered. One mountain at 9,000
feet "stands forth pre-eminently, its snow-
covered summit towering above the others,
the highest mountain we saw all summer."
This McCusker named for Mary Henry and
subsequently British Columbia's Depart-
ment of Lands made the name official.

In the following year Flugh Raup, then an
associate researcher at the Arnold Arbore-
tum, made an Arboretum-sponsored collect-
ing trip to the same territory. He described
his experience and catalogued his and Mary
Henry's collections in Phytogeographic
Studies in the Peace and Upper Liard River
Regions, Canada. He included a brief
account of the Henry expedition and noted
that Mrs. Henry "collected 350 numbers of
flowering plants and ferns, making notable
additions to the known flora of the region."

On a lecture tour of England and Scotland
in 1948, Mrs. Henry presented an account
of her travels to the Royal Horticultural
Society and to the Royal Scottish Geographi-
cal Society, which awarded her the Mungo
Park Medal for Exploration in Northern
British Columbia.

many of the plants survived the journey back
to Philadelphia. Opuntia frigida, Monarda
mollis var. menthaefolia, Artemesia frigida,
Amelanchier florida, and Cornus stolonifera
survived at Gladwyne for some years, but many
of the northerners were unable to adjust to the
local climate.

Mrs. Henry considered the most interesting
find of the expedition to be Lapland rosebay

(Rhododendron lapponicum), collected near
St. Paul's lake in northern British Columbia. She
sent a specimen for identification to Alfred
Rehder, the curator of the herbarium at the
Arnold Arboretum, who reported that it was pre-
viously known in North America only in the
East northward of the higher mountains of north-
ern New York and New England. He declared it
"an extremely interesting discovery ... its occur-

8 Arnoldia 60/1

rence in Western North America is of great
phytogeographical interest ... I have placed a
small twig of it on record in our herbarium ... for
neither we nor the Gray herbarium had any
specimens of this species from the West."

Herbarium specimens were also distributed
to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel-
phia and the Royal Botanical Garden,
Edinburgh, and a few woody plants came to
the Arnold Arboretum. The Royal Botanical
Garden, Edinburgh, also received seventy pack-
ages of seed, and fifty cans of living plants went
to Gladwyne.

Mrs. Henry traveled back to the Peace River
area in 1932, 1933, and 1935 with her daughter,
Josephine, and K. F. McCusker, the topographer.
They communicated with Philadelphia via
twelve carrier pigeons they brought with them
and received messages from Dr. Henry by radio
receiver.

Following these trips to British Columbia
Mrs. Henry continued collecting in the south-
eastern part of the United States. Nothing could
surpass her delight in the northlands, but com-
paratively few plants from there were able to
survive the hot summers in Philadelphia,
whereas plants from the Southeast flourished
there. "As a field botanist," she wrote, "duty
calls me to those fertile fields of our southern
states where so many treasures lurk in out of
the way corners."

From 1931 to 1935 Mrs. Henry wrote six parts
of her account of the Peace River expedition.
Collecting Plants Beyond the Frontier, pub-
lished by National Horticulture Magazine; two
final segments appeared in the same journal in
1949. During this period she also wrote twenty-
three other articles, most of them published
in Horticulture or in National Horticulture
Magazine. Her topics included uncommon oaks
and rare rhododendrons, little known violets
and unusual honeysuckles, hybrid jasmines and
Indian begonias. Based on her own personal
experience, she evaluated plants for cold hardi-
ness and recommended soil mixtures, trans-
planting methods, and greenhouse techniques.

Following her husband's death in 1938, Mrs.
Henry turned her attention to expanding her
garden. At the summit of the land at Gladwyne
was a huge deposit of Baltimore gneiss around

which she developed a naturalistic rock garden.
The plantings included native American alpine
plants, some of them collected in northern Brit-
ish Columbia; many varieties of phlox, silene,
and artemesia; hymenocallis from Georgia and
Florida; tradescantia from the Gulf of Mexico;
gentiana from New Jersey; and yuccas from
eighteen different locations; calycanthus and
low-growing magnolias from Georgia; and many
varieties of dwarf rhododendrons. A trillium
garden was planted in a woody area near a small
stream, and collections from Texas, New
Mexico, and Arizona were established in a
desert rock garden. Each plant was provided
with a soil mixture and habitat as similar as

Hymenocallis henryae. Mrs. Henry found this new species
in western Florida; botanist Hamilton Traub described and
named it. Mrs. Henry collected species of Hymenocallis
from eleven southern states. Some were planted out-
side and lifted for the winter. At one time she had 125
varieties of lily, "distinct, beautiful variants of eastern
American lilies. " As she herself noted, lilies "engaged
much of my time. "

Mary Gibson Henry 9

"As for my rock garden, the largest of the existing pile of rocks were too big to move and all I did was to
rearrange the smaller ones and to make paths and steps that are scarcely distinguishable. Soils were changed
into suitable mixtures” (1943). Mrs. Henry gives scale.

possible to its original growing conditions; the
change in latitude often resulted in plants
remaining desirably small and compact.

Visitors to Gladwyne often commented on
the range of plants growing there. E. H. Wilson,
in identifying Queicus pumila, which Mrs.
Henry had sent him, expressed surprise that this
southeastern plant should prove hardy in Phila-
delphia,- and William fudd, Arnold Arboretum
propagator and one of Mrs. Henry's advisors,
was impressed by the many rare and unusual
plants that could not be found elsewhere so
far north.

At the end of the 1930s Mrs. Henry began to
receive recognition for her achievements. She
became a director of the American Horticultural
Society and a council member of the Pennsylva-

nia Horticultural Society. When the Rock
Garden Society inaugurated their bulletin in
1943, she was appointed associate editor and
wrote the first article in volume one, number
one, "A Rock Garden of Natives." In 1941 she
hecame a research associate in the department
of botany at the Academy of Natural Sciences,
Philadelphia. That same year the Pennsylvania
Horticultural Society awarded her their
Schaeffer Gold Medal for her "notable contribu-
tion to horticulture. Her keen eye has detected
many species and varieties of horticultural
value. These have been transplanted to or propa-
gated in her garden at Gladwyne and her skill in
their culture has made possible the demonstra-
tion that many highly attractive native plants
can be grown far from their native haunts ... As
a result of her untiring efforts we are now more

10 Arnuldia 60/1

Phlox X henryac, a cross of P. nivalis and P. bifida, originated at
Gladwyne, "a chance seedling in my trial garden. ” P x henryae, a pale
pink with deeply notched lobes, is in the foreground with P. bifida
in the rear.

than ever aware of the tremendous potentiali-
ties of the native American flora for supplying
plants worthy of cultivation."

It was at this time that Mrs. Henry began
to make her plants available to nurseries. The
Upper Banks Nursery, operated by Fairman
Furness, was a fifty-acre garden and rare plant
nursery along Ridley Creek in Media, Pennsyl-
vania. In 1940 Mrs Henry gave Furness permis-
sion to gather cuttings of many of the plants in
her garden. When the plants were ready for
distribution in 1942, he published a catalog.
Rare and Native Shrubs Collected by Mary
Henry, that included varieties of Rhododen-
dron, Calycanthus, Halesia, Philadelphus, and
Syringa that she had developed. The Mayfair
Nurseries, rock garden specialists in Hillsdale,
New lersey, also offered plants from Gladwyne,

including many varieties of Mrs.
Henry's phlox and penstemon.

Over the years her interest in collect-
ing and breeding lilies had grown.
In 1946 she was awarded the silver
medal at a lily show organized by the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society.
"The most outstanding exhibit of lilies
from the American wilds was the eight
selections of Lilium philadelphicum
now being cultured by Mrs. Henry
at Gladwyne, Pennsylvania," wrote the
judges.

Perhaps the most satisfying achieve-
ment in her work with lilies was the
discovery of a fragrant, yellow specimen
in a cattle pasture in southern Alabama,
near the Gulf of Mexico. "1 had long
hoped," she confessed, "that 1 might
chance upon some species which had
remained unknown to science." In addi-
tion to herbarium specimens she col-
lected seeds, which were successfully
propagated at Gladwyne and bloomed
after five years. The species did prove to
be a new discovery; Mrs. Henry named
it Lilium iridollae, for it represented
to her "the pot of gold at the foot of
my rainbow."

In 1949 Mrs. Henry's garden was
threatened with destruction when the
State of Pennsylvania and the U.S.
Army Engineers decided to use Gladwyne "as a
dump for the silt, sewage and refuse to be
pumped from the bottom of the Schuykill
River." She called upon her many botanist
friends and colleagues around the United States
and in Great Britain to support her appeal to the
governor of Pennsylvania to spare the property.
Not only was the appeal successful, but the let-
ters her supporters wrote provide clear evidence
of Mrs. Henry's status in the horticultural
world. All spoke of the importance of her collec-
tion of native and rare American plants and
of its great scientific and horticultural value.
Some put the garden in the same class as the
Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and the Arnold
Arboretum. Mrs. Henry was described as a
highly competent botanist and an extremely
skilled horticulturist. The president of the

Mary Gibson Henry 1 1

Royal Horticultural Society pointed out that
her fine American flora, "much superior to
the ordinary run," were being distributed to
gardens in England. Hugh Ratip, professor of
botany at the Harvard Forest, wrote, "She has
been an indefatigable student of horticultural
values in the native American flora, in the
finest tradition."

To safeguard the garden's future, Mrs. Henry
established the Henry Foundation for Botanical
Research, dedicated "to the collection and pres-
ervation of choice, rare and endangered New
World Plants."

A year or so before her death Mrs. Henry was
advised by her physician to reduce the strenu-
ous level of her activities. She nevertheless con-
tinued to lead a full life as outlined in the 1966
publication Accomplishments of the Founda-
tion, which recounts her activities during the

last full year of her life. Between May and
August she spent 42 days in the field, traveling
in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia,
Kentucky, North Carolina, and Florida, and col-
lecting some 75 plants, including another
Lillhnn iridollae and a Styrax americanum that
still grows at Gladwyne. That same year she
filled orders from retail nurseries all over the
United States and from individuals from Peru to
Israel. She distributed Gladwyne material to the
Morris Arboretum, the University of Arkansas,
the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Hilliers
Nursery in England, and the Agricultural
Experimental Station in Puerto Rico. Visitors to
her garden included members of the American
Rhododendron Society, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, the New York Botanical Garden,
the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, and the
department of botany at Princeton University.

Mrs. Henry wrote in her autobiography. “Winters have found me enmeshed deeply in the routine work of my
tiny greenhouse and six coldframes . . . about 600 pots and flats to be repotted and taken care of and that duty
devolves entirely on me. Most of the pots contain Amaryllids and what began as ‘winter fun has turned into
a serious breeding program. ”

12 Arnoldia 60/1

Lilium iridollae (the pot-of-gold lily) was perhaps the most
cherished of Mrs. Henry’s many finds. She collected the
original specimen and seeds in southern Alabama, 1940. A
single-flowering plant of three to five feet in height, her
seedlings first flowered in 1945.

On a collecting trip in North Carolina in
April 1967, Mary Gibson Henry died at the age
of eighty-two. Her years of devotion to horticul-
ture had produced many solid achievements:
over a hundred articles had been published
in iournals such as Herhertia, Bartonia, and
National Horticultural Magazine; herbaria in
Scotland and North America had received thou-
sands of specimen sheets from her collections;
the hardiness of plants previously thought too
tender for Philadelphia had been demonstrated;
new species and varieties had been introduced
to arboreta and nurseries,- interest in American
flora for American gardens had been stimulated;
the garden at Gladwyne had been preserved for
future generations.

Following her mother's death in 1967,
Josephine deN. Henry became director of the
Foundation, a position she held until 1996,
when she was succeeded by Mrs. Henry's grand-
daughter Susan Treadway. These successors
have continued to expand the collection of
native American plants and to maintain the
natural qualities of the garden. Through lec-
tures, plant sales, and garden tours, new genera-
tions are introduced to the work and ideals of
the garden's founder.

References

Archives of the Henry Foundation for Botanical
Research, Gladwyne, Pennsylvania

25 September 1943. William Henry Judd to
Mary Gibson Henry.

13 November 1931. Alfred Rehder to Mary
Gibson Henry.

27 November 1931. Ibid.

19 December 1935. Ibid.

29 November 1929. E.H. Wilson to Mary
Gibson Henry.

Henry, Josephine deN. 1980. Not All Plantsmen Are
Men. Bulletin of the American Rock Garden
Society 3,0[1]: 68-73 & 30(3): 115-122.

Henry, Mary Gibson. 1950. An Autobiography.
Herhertia 6: 1 1-30.

1933. Exploring and Plant Collecting in Northern

British Columbia. Year Book of the Pennsyl-
vania Horticultural Society. 68-75.

1946. A New Lily from Southern Alabama and

Northern Florida. Bartonia: Journal of the
Philadelphia Botanical Club 24: 1-4.

Raup, Hugh M. 1934. Phytogeographic Studies in the
Peace and Upper Liard River Regions, Canada.
Contributions from the Arnold Arboretum of
Harvard University VI.

Stout, C. Frederick C. 1942. Report of the President.

Year Book of the Pennsylvania Horticultural
Society, 1 1 .

Acknowledgments

The author thanks members of the Henry Foundation
Miss Josephine deN. Henry, Susan Treadway, and Betsey
Davis for their generous hospitality and help in the
preparation of this essay. Particularly appreciated is their
willingness to grant access to their vast collection of
correspondence and photographs.

Note

To visit the Henry Foundation for Botanical Research,
call 610-525-2037 or write to the Foundation at Box 7,
Gladwyne, PA 19035, for reservations and information
about membership, educational programs, plant sale,
hours, fees, directions, and parking.

Mary Harrison is a volunteer in the Arboretum's
herbarium and library. She has annotated the letters and
diaries of William Judd, the letters of Oakes Ames, and
indexed the minutes of the Horticultural Club of Boston.
Her next undertaking will be the annotation of the
diaries of plant explorer Joseph Rock.

Flowering Plants and Their Pollinators at
the Arnold Arboretum

David Giblin

The flowers of magnolias are open to all, pollinators and nonpollinators
alike. In this photograph of Magnolia acuminata var. subcordata, the visitor,
a bee. happens to be a pollinator, but it could just as well be a beetle or fly
enjoying a free meal.

Many visitors to the
Arnold Arboretum
know it as a world-
renowned garden with an unpar-
alleled collection of woody
plants. For others, it is a park
affording respite from urban
pressures. For still others, it is an
important resource for studying
a wide range of topics, from plant
exploration to arboriculture,
from plant taxonomy to the
history of landscape design.

Speaking for myself, as a floral
biologist I view the Arboretum
as one of the world's finest muse-
ums of pollination biology.

The plant collections of the
Arnold Arboretum are living
illustrations of the remarkable
floral diversity engendered over
evolutionary time by the partici-
pation of pollinators in plant reproduction. The
variety of floral sizes, shapes, colors, and fra-
grances on display demonstrate the range of
adaptations evolved by the flowering plants in
response to the predilections and idiosyncrasies
of their pollinators.

For example, some flowers in the collections
are open to all potential pollinators,- others have
evolved complex morphologies that allow entry
to only the most reliable visitors. Each morphol-
ogy reflects a strategy that has proven success-
ful in ensuring that these winged vectors
transport pollen between flowers. Among the
more astonishing strategies are the use of petal
color and pattern as signals, both honest and
deceptive, and of male floral parts that are
spring-loaded or acoustically sensitive.

By definition pollination is the process
whereby pollen grains (male gametes) are depos-

ited on the female reproductive structures of vas-
cular seed plants, typically with the aid of ani-
mals, wind, or water. For pollination to result in
fertilization, the sperm cell of a pollen grain must
unite with the egg cell of an ovule, after which
the fertilized ovule develops into a seed.

Basic biology teaches that the living vascular
seed plants are divided into the gymnosperms
(the conifers, cycads, gnetophytes, and ginkgo)
and the angiosperms (flowering plants) on the
basis of their reproductive characters. The
primary distinction is that gymnosperms (liter-
ally, "naked seeds") lack flowers — the ovules
are borne openly in cones — whereas in angio-
sperms ("vesseled seeds") the ovules are
enclosed within the carpel of the flower. The
fossil record has shown that flowers evolved
after the gymnosperms, making the latter the
more ancestral lineage.

ARCHIVES OF > HE ARNOLD ARBORETUM

14 Arnoldici 60/1

The course of floral evolution in angiosperms
involved several major trends. These include a
reduction in overall complexity (for instance, a
reduced number of stamens or petals), a transi-
tion from radial to bilateral floral symmetry, the
fusion of petal and/or sepal parts, and a transi-
tion from a superior ovary (that is, the ovary sits
above the attachment of the other floral whorls)
to an inferior one. It is important to remember
that these are trends; evolution is not a linear
process. Ancestral morphologies such as radi-
ally symmetrical flowers with separate petals
and superior ovaries can be found in angiosperm
families that are regarded as having originated
more recently.

Most biologists agree that insects, probably
beetles, were the first pollinators, and that
gymnosperms were the first seed plants to rely
on pollinators for reproduction (Leppik 1960).
Gymnosperm taxa, including members of
Cycadaceae and Gnetaceae {Welwitschia
mirabilis and species of Ephedra], a\\ show evi-
dence of being insect-pollinated (Norstog 1987;
Cooper-Driver 1994; Proctor and Yeo 1996). Pre-
sumably insects feed on the protein-rich pollen
of the male cones and on a sticky, sugar-rich
feature of the female cone that catches airborne

pollen grains. In the course of foraging among
plants, the insects deposit pollen on the female
cones, allowing fertilization to begin.

The evolutionary pathway from the gymno-
sperms to the angiosperms has not yet been
completely mapped. We do know that gymno-
sperms are almost exclusively wind-pollinated,
whereas the majority of angiosperms evolved a
dependence on insects, birds, or mammals for
pollination. Interestingly, recent systematics
studies have shown that speciation in plants has
been greater in those lineages that are animal-
pollinated (Dodd et al. 1999). Those studies
support the theory that diffuse coevolution
between angiosperms and their pollinators con-
tributed to today's diversity of flowering plant
species (Takhtajan 1991).

Diffuse coevolution occurs when two groups
of organisms — in this case, flowering plants and
pollinators — interact in such a way that evolu-
tionary change in one group leads to evolution-
ary change in the other. Evidence for diffuse
coevolution in the plant-pollinator relationship
is suggested by the fossil record, which shows
rapid diversification within both angiosperm
and insect lineages between 75 and 50 million
years ago (Proctor and Yeo 1996). For example,
the length of bee mouthparts
increased during the time that
tubular flowers arose,- longer
mouthparts presumably allowed
access to nectar found at the
base of many tubular-flowered
species.

Nevertheless, pollination
biologists dispute the degree of
specialization in the coevolu-
tionary association between
plants and pollinators. Several
leading researchers believe that
the evolution of floral morpholo-
gies that attract specific pollina-
tors are the exception. Their
evidence is the observation that
flowers of many plant species are
visited often by a diversity of
insect types (Waser et al. 1996).
Opponents of this view argue
that visitation does not always
result in pollination, and it is

In the bilaterally symmetrical flowers of yellowwoods. the pistil and stamens
are tightly enclosed within the petals, permitting access only to bees, which
are both discriminating and reliable pollinators.

Flowering Plants and Their Pollinators 15

Prior to pollinator visitation, “spring-loaded” an-
thers are held by the lower petals. Pollinators disrupt
the petals upon entry, releasing the anthers, which
deposit their pollen on the insect’s underside. From
The Natural History of Pollination by Michael
Proctor, Peter Yeo, and Andrew Lack. 1996. Used by
courtesy of Timber Press.

pollinator preference that has driven diversifica-
tion in floral morphology.

The long-standing, coevolutionary associa-
tion between plants and pollinators is based on
a mutualism, a win-win situation for the par-
ticipants of a biological interaction. In this case,
plants benefit by getting their pollen trans-
ported between flowers, and pollinators benefit
by acquiring pollen, nectar, or oils from the
flowers that they visit.

A mutualism often requires con-
tinual adjustments by the partici-
pants to ensure a parity in benefits.

From the plant's perspective, the
number of fertilized ovules must be
high enough to justify the invest-
ment in energy required to attract
and reward pollinators. This invest-
ment can be measured in terms of
flower size and number, duration of
flowering period, and/or amounts
of pollen, nectar, or oil produced.

To ensure adequate return on this
investment, plants typically do not
provision each flower with rewards
high enough to satisfy the pol-
linator's needs in a single visit. The
goal is to offer a reward generous
enough to attract pollinators and
yet stingy enough that the pollina-
tor needs to visit several flowers

in order to meet its foraging requirements.
Increased flower visitation should increase the
likelihood of successful pollination.

Conversely, pollinators would ideally visit
only those flowers that provide an adequate
reward relative to the time and energy invested
in foraging. Assuming easy access to adequate
rewards, the most efficient approach would be
to forage randomly among species. In that case,
however, the plants would be the losers: the pol-
len from one plant species might end up in the
flower of an unrelated species, and the reproduc-
tive success of each species would be reduced.

The result of these conflicts in perspective
has been the evolution of strategic compromises
between plants and their pollinators. Examples
can he found throughout the Arboretum
grounds, enabling us to retrace major develop-
ments in these give-and-take relationships.
They have contributed substantially to the aes-
thetic appeal of the Arboretum and, indeed, of
gardens everywhere.

The magnolia family (Magnoliaceae), promi-
nently displayed near the Hunnewell Visitor
Center, is one of the most ancestral angiosperm
families in the living collections. Members of
the genus Magnolia possess a generalized floral
morphology that does not discriminate among
floral visitors: the flowers are radially sym-

The reflexed anthers of Kalmia latifolia in the left photo indicate an
unpollinated flower. The photo at right shows how the anthers are
released after pollinator visitation.

CAROLINA BIOLOGICAL SUPPLY COMi'ANY

ARCHIVES OF I HE ARNOLD ARBORETUM

16 Arnoldia 60/1

A truss of mountain laurel with some anthers still reflexed and yet to be
pollinated, and some released, indicating pollination.

Communication between flowers and pollinators is common. In Catalpa
spccioso the combination of dark brown splotches (most easily seen in
the rightmost flower) and yellow patches orient pollinators to the location
of the nectar.

metrical; the petals are many and large,- and a
central strobilus (cone) containing numerous
stamens and pistils rises above the petals. A
glance inside the flowers on a single tree reveals
the result of this open-door policy: a diverse
assemblage of flies, bees, and beetles can typi-
cally be found. Pollen is the only floral reward
offered — not an ideal arrangement from the
tree's viewpoint, since pollen is a primary food

source for some adult beetles
and flies. Consequently these
floral visitors are consuming
rather than transporting the
pollen, which reduces the repro-
ductive opportunities for the
tree; such is the downside to the
easy-access approach. However,
in most cases, some of the pollen
sticks to the insects' bodies while
they feed, to be deposited on the
stigmas of flowers visited later.

In some cases, certain visitors
are clearly inadequate as polli-
nators, a category that includes
the indiscriminate forager. A
visitor that acquires pollen from
the flowers of species A and
then visits the flowers of species
B makes a poor pollinator;
reproductive opportunities for
both plants have been lost. Pol-
len from A is wasted if it ends
up on B's flowers because fertili-
zation does not occur. Addition-
ally, the stigmatic surface of B
is clogged by A's pollen, and
this reduces B's reproductive
capacity. Some plants have
evolved a two-step solution to
this problem: first, they con-
trive to attract pollinators
capable of fidelity, and second,
they develop ways to keep out
all other visitors.

Walking up the Arboretum's
main drive we encounter yel-
lowwood (Cladrastis kentukea),
scholar tree (Styphnolobium
japonicum, formerly Sophora
iaponica], and bristly locust
(Robinia hispida), members of the legume fam-
ily (Fahaceae). Unlike the magnolias, these
plants have bilaterally symmetrical flowers
with the pistil and stamens hidden inside a tight
enclosure of petals. Only bees have the strength
and coordination to manipulate the petals and
gain access to the flower's interior and the nec-
tar it holds; and unlike beetles and flies, bees
show a good deal of species-level constancy

Che Chun-Tao & Ng Sze-Kei

Tke Arnold Arkoretum

NEWS

Symposium in Honor of Professor Shiu-ying Hu on the Occasion
of Her 92nd Birthday

David E. Boufford, Assistant Director for Collections, Harvard University Herbaria

Dr. Hu poses before panels that celebrate her long and distinguished

career in botany.

Shui-ying Hu, botanist emerita
of the Arnold Arboretum, was
honored at the Chinese University
ol Hong Kong on February
19, 2000, with a special sympo-
sium and birthday celebration
sponsored by the Ma Man Fai
Chinese Medicine Education
Foundation Fund.

Dr. Hu arrived in the United
States from China in 1946 to enter
graduate school at Radclifte Col-
lege. Her doctoral dissertation on
the genus Ilex (Aquifoliaceae) was
carried out at the Arnold Arbore-
tum under the direction of E. D.
Merrill, director of the Arboretum
1935—1946. Dr. Hu was an accom-

plished botanist before her arrival;
she had conducted fieldwork in
western Sichuan in the late 1930s
and early 1940s, at a time when
only a few men (notably, Armand
David, Joseph Rock, and E. H.
Wilson) had explored that region.

By the time Dr. Hu obtained
her doctorate, just three years after
her arrival, the American Philo-
sophical Society had granted her
funds to write an account of the
flora of China. In support of her
application, Karl Sax, Arboretum
director 1946—1954, described her
as “one of the most competent and
industrious students I have ever
known . . . ." Those qualities have

been obvious to all throughout
Dr. Hu’s career and have not
diminished in her “retirement,"
which is now of 25 years' dura-
tion. Nor has her interest in all
aspects of plants, particularly
those of China, waned. She entered
the new century still working
ten-hour days and reading proofs
of her 900-page book on the
food plants of China, which will
be published within the next
few months.

Harvard Heroes
Named

Robert E. Cook, Director

Each June for the past five years,
Sally Zeckhauser, Harvard's vice
president for administration
fVPA), has hosted a grand cer-
emony to honor as Harvard
Heroes the individuals in her
organization who have made a
special contribution during the
past year.

On June 14, I together with
many other Arboretum staff
attended this year’s ceremony, at
which three of our employees were
recognized for their extra efforts
over the past year. All three con-
tributed time and energy to a spe-
cial initiative organized by Sally

• continued on page 3

ELLEN S. BENNETT

Campaign Participants

Despite the twenty-degree drop in
temperature on May 9, 2()()(), spir-
its rose liigh at tlie Arboretum’s
capital camjiaign celebration. The
event acknowledged the commit-
ment and success of those involved
m the recently completed S8.25
million campaign. After a welcome
from Arboretum director Robert
E. Cook, guests were gratefully
recognized for their good work by
co-chair Noni Ames of the director’s
advisory board, campaign chair
Francis O. Hunnewell, and Harvard
provost Harvey V. Fineberg. Also
recognized was Fisa M. Hastings
who, as director of development
during the campaign, spearheaded Celebrating a successful campaign are, from left, Francis O. Hunnewell,
the fundraising. Lisa M. Hastings, Robert E. Cook, Mart- E. Vf ilson, and Harvey \'. Eineberg.

Celebrate

Former Director Recognized

Dr. Howard, photographed in 19'71 on the sornma of St. \'incent’s Soufriere,
preparing specimens of a plant new to botany and known only from this
location. Just two years later the volcano erupted, giving Lhicivniui hrncei,
which Dr. Howard named for his son, a very brief tenure in botany.

Richard A. Howard, former direc-
tor of the Arnold Arboretum and
professor of dendrology emeritus
of Harvard University, has recently
received two distinguished honors.

One, the 1999 Allerton Medal,
recognized his significant contri-
butions to the conservation of
tropical plant diversity. The
medal is awarded by the National
Tropical Botanical Garden based
in Kalaheo, Hawaii; the citation
acknowledges his “decades of
heroic service in the advancement
of tropical horticulture and the
understanding of tropical plants.”

More recently. Dr. Howard’s
botanical work in the Caribbean
islands was acclaimed at a sym-
posium on the flora of the
Antilles held recently at the
New York Botanical Garden. The tribute included a
much-relished painting of Cuhanola cJomiuigetisis by
the NYBG’s botanical artist Bobbi Angel.

Dr. Howard is the author of the six-volume Flora
of the Lesser Antilles as well as many other works on
tropical botany.

2

SPRING 2000

Archives of the Arnold Arboretum Karen Madsen

Karen Madsen

Arboretum Exhibit Awarded Two Medals

Julie Coop, Superintendent
of Grounds

Arnold Arboretum staff, past and present. The Arboretum’s New England
Spring Flower Show exhibit was designed, installed, and maintained by,
from left. Jack Alexander, Julie Coop, John Olmsted, Keiko Satoh, and
Tom For. A poster-sized photograph of illustrious past Arboretum staff is
behind them.

The Arnold Arboretum’s exhibit
at the 2{)()() New England Spring
Flower Show was honored with
two medals. The Garden Club of
America Bulkley Medal recognizes
a special exhibit in the fields of
horticulture, botany, or conserva-
tion that possesses exceptional
educational merit and increases
the knowledge and awareness of
the viewing public. The Massa-
chusetts Horticultural Society also
awarded the exhibit a Gold Medal
tor Horticultural Merit.

The intent of the exhibit was
to illustrate the collaborations of
some of the many talented people
associated with the Arboretum,
both past and present. These
gifted people work to bring plants
from the wild to the Arboretum grounds and beyond,
perhaps even to the viewing public’s own backyard.
Lilies, dawn redwoods, and other plants introduced
into cultivation by the Arnold Arboretum were fea-
tured along with informative text, illustrations, and
herbarium specimens. The focal point of the exhibit
was a large group photograph taken in 1916 of

Sargent, our first director; Wilson, renowned plant
collector; Faxon, botanist and illustrator of Sdva of
North America: Rehder, taxonomist extraordinaire;
and Camillo Schneider, a German plant collector and
dendrologist who, forced to abandon fieldwork in
China, sought asylum and employment at the Arbo-
retum during World War 1.

• from page !

to improve the quality of the workplace for all employ-
ees of VPA. John DelRosso is one of the exceptional
arborists who helps maintain the high quality of our
collection of woody plants. Sheila Connor is our
research archivist and heads our horticultural library
in Jamaica Plain. Candace Julyan heads up all our
educational programs for adults, children, and visitors
to the grounds.

At the ceremony all three individuals were person-
ally thanked by Neil Rudenstine, president of Harvard,
for their dedication to the University and its mission,
and for the special contribution that the Arboretum
makes to research and education. On behalf of the
entire staff, I express my personal appreciation to
Candace Julyan, John DelRosso, Sheila Connor John, Sheila, and Candace for a job well done.

ARNOLD ARBORETUM NEWS

Peter Del Tredici

Arboretum Staff
Changes

David Russo, facilities supervisor,
came to the Arboretum last March
from Harvard's planning and real
estate department, where he
served as building superintendent
for faculty and graduate students.

He brought with him to Harvard
twenty years’ experience as a car-
penter, five of those years in his
own carpentry business. As facili-
ties supervisor, Dave manages all
of the Arboretum's buildings,
both in Jamaica Plain and at the
Clase Estates in Weston. Much of
his job involves finding, schedul-
ing, and overseeing contractors,
but from time to time he finds an
occasion to keep up his cabinet-
building skills as well.

Sheryl Barnes joined the
Arboretum in April as web project
manager. In this new position
Sheryl will manage the websites of
the Arnold Arboretum (www. arbo-
retum.harvard.edu) and the Insti-
tute for Cultural Landscape Studies
(www.icls.harvard.edu). Sheryl’s
previous position was with the
Center for Health and the Global
Environment of Harvard Medical

School, where among other
responsibilities she managed the
center’s website. She has also
worked for the Massachusetts
Public Interest Research Group.
Sheryl is a graduate of Cornell
University with a double major
in biology and society and in
government.

The newest member of our
grounds crew is Bethany Grasso,
who started work as gardener in
early June. Most recently Bethany
worked for Perennial Gardens, a
garden design and installation
company in Roslindale. Earlier,

she gained a good deal of practical
experience through internships
serv'ed at the Hampshire College
Earm Center, the Arnold Arbore-
tum, and Longwood Gardens.
Bethany earned her bachelor of
science in plant and soil science.

with a concentration in sustainable
agriculture, from the University of
Massachusetts, Amherst. She is a
Massachusett-certified arborist.

Also of note on the grounds is
Tom Por’s move from gardener to
arborist. Tom, who hails from St.
Thomas, Ontario, served as an
Arboretum intern in 1997 and as
our apprentice in 199H.

Joe Melanson, who has been
a visitor information assistant in
the Arboretum’s education depart-
ment for the past four years,
recently acquired his professional
library degree. He will use his
skills and knowledge in his new
position as assistant archivist in
the library.

Within the education depart-
ment, Ellen Bennett has been
promoted from manager of horti-
cultural information to assistant
director of education. In her new
role, Ellen will oversee the adult
education program, children’s
education program, and visitor
services. Though she will continue
to oversee horticultural informa-
tion, many of the tasks associated
with her past position will move
to the visitor services assistants.

20th Annual Fall Plant Sale

Please join us for the 2()th Annual Fall Plant Sale, to be held this year
on Sunday, September 17, 2()()(), at the Case Estates in Weston.

An enticing variety of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous perennials selected
by Arboretum staff will be sold in and around the barn. The barn will
open to members at the sustaining level and above at 8:00 a.m., to all
members at 9:00 a.m., and to the general public at 10:30 a.m.

Other events of the day include a live auction featuring rare and
choice plants; a specialty sales tent with unusual plants donated by gen-
erous individuals and nurseries; and Society Row, where representatives
of more than 20 plant societies will sell plants and offer advice. Knowl-
edgeable plantspeople will be on hand to answer questions.

For more information about the plant sale or to become a member
of the Friends of the Arnold Arboretum, please call Karen O’Connell at
6l 7/524- 1 7 18 X 165. Members will receive the plant sale catalog in
August and will receive free plants and a discount on plant purchases
in the barn on the day of the sale!

E

SPRING 2000

ARCHIVES OF THE ARNOI D ARBORETUM

Flowering Plants and Their Pollinators 1 7

while foraging. Bees visit legume flowers for
their nectar, as this sugar-based solution fuels
their flight. Many legumes use "spring-loaded"
stamens to ensure that the bees they nourish
earn their meal. As a bee makes its way into the
flower to collect the nectar reward, the flower's
spring-loaded stamens are tripped, propelling its
pollen onto the bee's underside. When the bee
visits the next flower, the pollen is deposited on
the stigma as the bee enters, and pollination has
been effectively, and efficiently, achieved.

Legumes are not alone in using spring-loaded
stamens to affix pollen to visitors. Mountain
laurel (Kalmia latifolia), a member of the heath
family (Ericaceae) and a New England native,
can be found throughout the Arboretum. Over
evolutionary time, petals on the flowers have

Members of the Aesculus genus, including this horse-
chestnut, A. X planteriensis, maximize the size
of inflorescence display by retaining pollinated
flowers. Pollinators distinguish between virgin and
pollinated flowers on the basis of colored patches
on the petals.

fused to form a cuplike structure that offers a
steady landing surface for pollinators. Inspect
the flower closely and you will see that the
anthers are held in small depressions that ring
the inner periphery of the petal tissue. This cre-
ates tension on the filaments that hold the
anthers, as their other end is anchored lower
down in the center of the flower. Each stamen
therefore looks like a small catapult. The pres-
sure of a pollinator walking on the petal surface
sets off one or several of these catapults, and the
pollen is plastered onto the visitor's body.

Signals are the attraction strategy of choice
for several taxa in the Arboretum. Catalpa
speciosa (western catalpa), like other members
of the bignone family (Bignonaceae), can be
found on Bussey Hill just above the lilac collec-
tion. It produces large, white, tubular flowers
with a pronounced lower lip. Looking inside a
flower one notices two distinctive features: one,
a pair of broad yellow stripes that start near the
mouth of the tube and terminate at its base, and
two, some small, brownish-purple splotches
scattered throughout the tube. To our eyes it
is color and pattern beautifully arranged, but
to bees these are guides to that highly prized
reward, nectar.

In some taxa, signalling to potential pollina-
tors continues even after the flowers have been
pollinated. Red buckeye (Aesculus pavia), of the
horse-chestnut family (Hippocastanaceae), is
found growing along the main drive just beyond
the Cornus collection. It produces red tubular
flowers with yellow nectar guides that attract
pollination by bees, but here, after a flower is
pollinated, the guides "turn themselves off" by
changing from yellow to pink (Weiss 1995). To
understand the benefits of such a signal, con-
sider once again the perspective of the bees.

Many pollinating bees sip nectar continu-
ously in order to fuel the flight muscles that
carry them between the flowers they visit and
the brood they provision with pollen. Like all
animals, bees strive for maximum foraging effi-
ciency. After encountering several unrewarding
flowers on a single plant, a bee is likely to move
on to another nearby. As a result, the plant that
is snubbed loses reproductive opportunities.
By turning off the nectar guides of the flowers
that have already been visited, the red buckeye

ARCHIVES OF THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM

1 8 Ainoldia 60/1

The faintly darker patch on the petals of this Weigela
middendorffiana indicate that the flowers have been
pollinated.

directs pollinators to profitable flowers, thereby
enhancing their efficiency while improving
its own reproductive opportunities. Other taxa
in the Arhoretum that employ post-pollination
signaling either through color or morphologi-
cal changes in floral parts include flowering
weigela in Caprifoliaceae, Scots broom {Cytisus
scoparius) in Fabaceae, and goldenrain tree
{Koelreuteria paniculata] in Sapindaceae
(Weiss 1995).

Flowering plants are certainly not above prac-
ticing deception in order to attract pollinators.
Like restaurant owners, they live in a competi-
tive world where the biggest challenge is per-
suading the desired clientele to stop in and
where advertising may be a useful tool. Within
some taxa there is a positive correlation
between flower size and the amount of reward:
the bigger the flower, the more pollen or nectar
to be found. However, some plants don't always
back up their advertising.

Doublefilc vihurnum (Viburnum plicatum f.
tomentusum) is in Caprifoliaceae; it grows in
the vihurnum collection located near the Dana
Greenhouses. Snow-white flowers are produced
in flashy, flat-topped cymes that few human
visitors fail to notice. However, close inspection
of an individual cyme reveals that its showmess
resides in the ring of large (0.75 to 1.5 inches
wide) sterile flowers that surround an interior
cluster of unenticing fertile flowers. The pri-
mary role of the sterile flowers is to attract
pollinators — rather deceptively, since they offer
no reward. Much like restaurant customers
who find that the special of the day is no longer
being served, pollinators will nevertheless
indulge themselves in whatever rewards the
fertile flowers do offer before leaving.

A final example brings us back to the
Hunnewell Visitor Center. In my view,
Actinidia arguta (bower actinidia), a vine in
Actinidiaceae, boasts the most innovative polli-
nation mechanism found at the Arboretum. It
grows along the fence just south of the main
entrance. This species is primarily dioecious,
meaning that there are separate male and female
plants. Pollen is extracted from the male flow-
ers through an amazing process known as "buzz
pollination" (Buchmann 1983, Proctor et al.
1996). A visiting bee grabs the anthers with its
legs and then vibrates its wings while remaining
stationary. This generates an acoustic resonance
that causes pollen grains to pour out of the
anthers and onto the hee's body. When the bee
forages for nectar in a female A. arguta flower,
pollination is achieved.

This has by no means been an exhaustive
account of pollination mechanisms on display
at the Arnold Arboretum. Examples can easily
be found to illustrate the adaptive significance
of many other pollination-related flower charac-
teristics; the positioning of the ovary with
respect to the petals and sepals, inflorescence
architecture, and floral fragrance all have adap-
tive value in the context of pollination. Clearly,
successful pollination, a challenge faced by all
vascular seed plants, bas been solved in many
ways. The Arnold Arboretum provides in a
single location an unusually comprehensive
taxonomic collection that allows visitors to
observe the remarkable innovations that have

Flowering Plants and Their Pollinators 19

Deception can reduce metabolic costs associated with pollinator attraction.
Large sterile flowers draw pollinators toward the diminutive fertile ones of
Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum.

resulted from the mutualistic
relationship between plants and
their pollinators. Viewing the
living collections at the Arnold
Arboretum as a pollination biol-
ogy museum reminds us that
the diversity of flower shapes,
colors, and sizes that brighten
our gardens, entertain our
minds, and touch our spirits
have their origins in a relation-
ship that was initiated over 100
million years ago.

Literature Cited

Buchmann, S.L. 1983. Buzz pol-
lination in angiosperms.

Handbook of experimental
pollination biology, ed.

C.E. Jones &. R.J. Little.

New York: Van Nostrand
Reinhold, 73-113.

Cooper-Driver, G. 1994. Welwitchia rairabiiis: A Dream
Come True. Arnoldia 54(2|: 2-10.

Dodd, M.E., J. Silvertown, and M.W. Chase. 1999.

Phylogenetic analysis of trait evolution and
species diversity variation among angiosperm
families. Evolution 53: 732-744.

Leppik, E.E. 1960. Early evolution of flower types.
Lloydia 3: 72-92.

Norstog, K. 1987. Cycads and the origin of insect
pollination. American Scientist 75: 270-278.

Proctor, M., P. Yeo, and A. Lack. 1996. The natural
history of pollination. Portland, OR: Timber
Press, 179-180.

Takhtajan, A. 1991. Evolutionary trends in flowering
plants. New York: Columbia University Press,
171-184.

Waser, N.M., L. Chittka, M.V. Price, N.M. Williams,
J. Ollerton. 1996. Generalization in pollina-
tion systems, and why it matters. Ecology 77:
1043-1060.

Weiss, M.R. 1995. Floral color change: a widespread
functional convergence. American Journal of
Botany 81[1): 167-185.

David Gihlin was an intern and curatorial associate in
the Arboretum's plant records department. Since then,
he has earned a master's degree in conservation biology
from the University of Washington and is currently a
doctoral candidate at the University of Missouri where
he is studying the relationship between pollinators and
floral longevity.

ARCHIVES OF THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM

A Fresh Look at a
Traditional Favorite:
Rhododendrons

Richard Brooks

Rhododendrons have been used exten-
sively in New England landscapes for
nearly a century and a half. Everywhere
you go you see them: in parks and puhlic build-
ings, lined up in front of filling stations, in resi-
dential foundation plantings, and sometimes
even naturalized in woodlands. I think that
qualifies them as "traditional favorites."

But I would guess that 99 percent of the
rhododendrons commonly seen represent a very
small group — perhaps ten or a dozen — of "tried
and true" varieties, such as 'Roseum Elegans', or
the ubiquitous 'PJM', or the evergreen azalea
'Hino Crimson', or occasionally some of the
flamboyant Exhury hybrid deciduous azaleas.

Now I have nothing against these old-timers.
They have proven their mettle by surviving and
flourishing despite the vicissitudes of our noto-
rious New England climate. But they represent
only the tip of the iceberg — a small fraction of
the spectrum of size, form, foliage, and flower
that characterize this extraordinary genus.

The genus Rhododendron is one of the largest
in the plant kingdom. There are between eight

‘Bah’

‘Firestorm’

hundred and one thousand species that inhabit
the wild areas of the world, and from them have
been developed (and are still being developed)
literally tens of thousands of hybrids. They
range in size and habit from forty-foot trees to
spreading groundcovers only a few inches tall;
from leaves a massive fifteen inches in length to
a diminutive dime size; and flowers from large
trumpets to tiny stars, in nearly every color of
the rainbow.

In this article I will introduce a small sample
of this large and varied palette — plants that are
proven performers in New England's hardiness
zones 5 and 6 (and some even in zone 4) but are
virtually unknown and unused by landscape
professionals and home gardeners.

In landscape value these can he grouped into
several categories: First, plants that represent
the expanded range of flower color that is now
available. Second, plants of low-growing and
even dwarf stature that are more appropriate
for today's smaller properties. Third, plants
that extend the blooming season from early
April through late fuly or even August. And

Al l IMIOTOS HY nil AUTHOR

Rhododendrons 21

‘Wojnar’s Purple’

j ‘Calsap’

I

I ‘Casanova’

last, plants with special foliage interest
that makes them even more valuable dur-
ing the fifty weeks a year that they are not
in bloom.

A Fresh Look at Flower Colors

One fault found by many landscape profes-
sionals with the standard "ironclad" vari-
eties is that the bloom color — especially
the pinks and reds — is tainted with a
purplish or lavender cast. Rejoice! Many
hybrids with blooms in clear, unflawed
colors are now available. One of the most
outstanding of these is 'Bali', which has a
neat, dense, mounding habit, reaches three
to four feet in height and five to six feet in
diameter at maturity, and bears flowers of
a pale pink, lit with a yellow throat.
'Dexter's Champagne' has a more open,
rangy habit, which 1 can overlook for the
sake of its creamy blossoms, tinged pink.
'Janet Blair', with large, ruffled, pale pink
flowers, is acquiring a reputation as an all-
time great performer in the eastern United
States, equaling if not surpassing in vigor
and reliability another pink-flowered
rhododendron, the well-known and often
used 'Scintillation'.

Among the reds, 'Vivacious', bred at
the Vineland Station in Ontario, offers
cardinal-red blooms untainted with purple
and superb leathery foliage. 'Firestorm', an
introduction of the late Dr. Gustav
Mehlquist of Connecticut, blooms with
deep red flowers late in the season, usually
the first or second week in June. And a
sister seedling, 'Scarlet Romance', carries
the vivid color of 'Vivacious' into that
same period.

The old English cultivar 'Purple
Splendour' is still popular in milder cli-
mates for its intense, deep violet flowers,
but unfortunately it is not reliable in zone
5 and often fails even in zone 6. Happily,
we now have several hybrids that supply
the same regal color on a much hardier
plant. One is 'Jonathan Shaw', with a low,
densely branching habit; another is
'Wojnar's Purple', another Mehlquist intro-
duction, which grows somewhat taller.

1

22 Arnoldia 60/1

The old English hybrid 'Sappho' draws rave
reviews for its snow-white flowers with a star-
tling hlotch, or flare, of deep purple, hut it is
hopelessly tender for much of New England. Its
hardier counterparts are 'Calsap' and 'White
Peter', both with a fairly tall hut densely branch-
ing habit.

Yes, Virginia, yellow rhododendrons really do
exist, although until recently none were reliably
hardy in the Northeast. But we now have a
number of yellow- and near yellow-flowered
evergreen rhododendrons that are reliably hardy
in zones 5 and 6. 'Arctic Gold' and 'Big Deal',
both introductions of Weston Nurseries in
Hopkinton, Massachusetts, form reasonably
dense, medium-growing shrubs with excellent
foliage. 'Vinecrest', another introduction
from Ontario, has light yellow blossoms that
emerge from peach-colored buds on a taller,
more open plant.

'Capistrano', one of the last introductions of
that master hybridizer, the late David Leach,
forms a dense, low-growing mound with deep
green foliage and flowers of a no-nonsense yel-

'Edmond Amateis’

Rhododendron degronianum subsp. Yakushimanum, bovee
dwarf form.

low. 'Casanova', also from Leach, has a similar
habit and pale yellow flowers spotted with
apricot-orange, opening from near-red buds.
'Santa Fe', somewhat taller growing, blooms in
an unusual shade of orange-pink.

For white-flowered cultivars to set off this
rainbow array of colors, one could hardly
improve on two more hybrids from Dr. Leach:
'Edmond Amateis', which carries huge trusses
of white flowers highlighted by a touch of red in
the center on a vigorous, stiff, upright plant; and
'Dolly Madison', whose pink buds soften to
white upon opening, with a more spreading and
open habit of growth.

A Fresh Look at Smaller Rhododendrons

We've all seen new houses with "foundation
plantings" of cute little rhododendrons plunked
down along the front under the windows. They

Rhododendrons 23

'Dorothy Swift’

I

'Percy Wiseman '

'Tow Head'

look great for two or three years, and the
owners are delighted with the color they
provide every spring. But rhododendrons
have a way of growing, and in time the
kinds that are commonly used in this way
can get very large indeed. Before you know
it, those cute little mounds are engulfing
the house and blocking out the view. You
can cut them hack, of course, but you'll be
faced with the same problem again in a few
more years. If you must provide a founda-
tion planting (and I'm suggesting that there
are alternatives), at least use lower-growing
rhododendrons; they will provide all the
benefits of evergreen foliage and colorful
bloom without frequent pruning. Such
rhododendrons abound in today's nursery
catalogs, and many of them are based on
the species Rhododendron yakushimanum
(now properly R. degronianuin subsp.
yakushimanum).

The species "Yaks" form a neat, dense,
self-branching mound, from one to two feet
tall at ten years of age. The leaves are held
by the plant five or six years, sometimes
even longer (versus the two or three years
that the old ironclads retain their leaves),
and display a thick, felt-like coating of fine
hairs (indumentum) on the underside. The
flowers open white from pink buds.

Plant breeders have gone wild over this
species, crossing it with many other kinds
in an attempt to capture its desirable traits
of habit and foliage in hybrids with differ-
ent colored blossoms. 'Hachmann's Polaris'
retains the pink color in the flower instead
of fading to white,- 'Dorothy Swift', another
introduction from Dr. Mehlquist, features
the same colored blossoms as the species in
a somewhat larger growing plant. (Most
"Yak" hybrids are larger growing than the
species.) 'Percy Wiseman' is already popular
for its profuse peaches-and-cream flowers.

For really tight spaces there are dwarf
plants, some even suitable for the rock gar-
den: 'Ginny Gee' forms a spreading mound
only 18 inches tall and two to three feet
wide at maturity and smothers itself in
bloom every spring. 'Tow FFead' brings pale
yellow blossom color to this group.

24 Ainoldici 60/1

‘ April Gem’

A Fresh Look at an Extended
Blooming Season

Most rhododendron fanciers are familiar with
Rhododendron mucronulatum, the so-called
"Korean Azalea" (actually not an azalea at all,
hut a small-leaved rhododendron that happens
to be deciduous); it opens the flowering season
in early to mid April. A few years ago, this and
'PJM' were nearly the only April-flowering
rhododendrons commonly available. Now early
bloomers are available in a range of colors —
'April Snow', another Weston introduction,
with pure white, double, star-shaped flowers;
'April Song', still another from Weston, with
soft pink flowers; 'April Gem', a Mehlquist
hybrid, with fully double, white flowers like
miniature gardenias; and 'Landmark', from
Weston, with nearly red single flowers.

A brief digression: I'm often asked what the
distinction is between azaleas and rhododen-
drons. Botanically speaking, all azaleas belong
to the genus Rhododendron. They constitute
two of the eight suhgenera into which taxono-

'Summei Snow', photographed the last week in June

Alexander’

mists have divided the genus: the deciduous
azaleas (suhgenus Pentanthera] and the so-
called evergreen azaleas (subgenus Tsutsusi],
Both groups are distinguished from other
rhododendrons by several characteristics: their
leaves and stems never have scales, as do such
small-leaved rhododendrons as 'PJM' and R.
mucronulatum; their flowers usually (but not
always) have five stamens, unlike the other
rhododendrons, which usually have ten or more
stamens; and the hairs on azalea leaves are
always simple, never branched, unlike the hairs
that constitute the indumentum on species
such as R. yakushimanum.

Having established what an azalea is, let's
now consider extending rhododendron bloom
beyond Memorial Day. Usually we don't look
for much except in the late-flowering rosebay.
Rhododendron maximum. But the flowers of R.
maximum are small and not very showy and

Rhododendrons 25

Rhododendron makinoi

‘Teddy Bear’

tend to be hidden by the new leaves, which
form much earlier. Now rhododendrons are
available with large, impressive flowers that
appear long after the midseason kinds are hut
a memory. Two examples are 'Summer
Snow', a David Leach hybrid with snowy
white flowers, and 'Summer Glow', with
vivid pink flowers.

Bloom can be extended even into late sum-
mer with some recent deciduous azalea intro-
ductions, bred from several late-flowering,
native American species, fust a sampling:
'Millenium', near-red bloom in early to mid
July; 'Golden Showers', peach buds that open
yellow, turning creamy white, in mid fuly;
'Pennsylvania', light pink, hlooms in late fuly
to early August. These azaleas have two addi-
tional virtues. Many of them are fragrant, and
their foliage is much more resistant to mil-
dew than the older Exbury hybrid azaleas,
which often look pretty shabby by the end of
our interminably hot and humid summers.

For prostrate groundcovers, Polly Hill's
evergreen azalea introductions can hardly be
surpassed. Their mature height is less than a
foot, and they spread to cover an area two to
three feet in diameter. A couple of examples
are 'Alexander', flowering in late lime, the
color of ripe watermelon, and 'Late Love', a
light pink.

A Fresh Look at Rhododendron Foliage

Varied foliage types and sizes can provide
many diverse textures in the green landscape
before and after the relatively brief blooming
season. Rhododendron makinoi has long, nar-
row, almost spiky leaves. R. kiusianum, the
Kyushu azalea from Japan, has delicate sprays
of tiny, glossy leaves; its flowers, as an added
bonus, come in a range of colors from white
through pinks and lavenders to near-red.

The new growth of some forms of Rhodo-
dendron degronianum are handsomely colored
by a powdery tomentum (dense matted hair).
In 'Teddy Bear' the persistent indumentum
on the leaf undersurface is a bright cinnamon
color. In 'Golfer' the white tomentum cover-
ing the new growth persists for most of the
summer, making a vivid contrast with the
glossy dark green of the older leaves.

26 Ainoldia 60/1

Rhododendron ponticum 'Vaiiegatum'

Rhododendron ponticum ‘Goldflimmei’

Finally, there are even rhododendrons with
variegated foliage: Rhododendron ponticum
'VariegatLim', with gray-green leaves edged in
white, unfortunately not reliably hardy in zone
5 hut fine in milder parts of zone 6 and along
the Atlantic coast and Cape Cod, and
'Goldflimmer', which has a completely different
leaf pattern, green-streaked and mottled yellow.

Some Cultural Pointers

Planted in too much sun, a rhododendron can
resemble a variegated shrub. The old ironclad
varieties are often planted in full sun, and yes,
many of them tolerate the exposure — hut toler-
ance does not constitute preference. They may

bloom prolifically, but they always
look stressed: the foliage tends to a
yellow instead of deep green, and the
annual growth is short and stunted.
A rule of thumb is that the larger
the leaf, the more shade the plant
prefers. Rhododendron maximum, for
instance, grows well in almost full
shade. On the other hand, the small-
leaved types, like 'PIM' and both
deciduous and evergreen azaleas need
plenty of sun to grow and bloom well.

Besides the amount of sun and
shade, the most important cultural
factors to consider are the following.
First, plant rhododendrons in well-
drained, open-textured, acid (pFl 4.5
to 6.0) soil that contains copious
quantities of coarse organic matter.
(Remember that soil near a foundation,
especially in older buildings, may
be alkaline due to leaching of lime
from mortar.)

Second, plant them shallow. Rhodo-
dendrons have a naturally shallow root
system, and if the roothall is covered
with soil, the roots can suffer from lack
of oxygen. The top of the roothall
should actually be above the surface of
the surrounding soil.

Third, provide a year-round mulch
of coarse organic matter to insulate
the shallow roots from extremes of
heat and cold, to conserve soil mois-
ture, and discourage weeds. Pine needles, rotted
woodchips, chopped oak leaves and pinebark
are all appropriate for mulch, but be sure not to
pile it against the stems of the plant, which will
encourage disease. And finally, ask your growers
and suppliers for these less-than-common
rhododendrons and begin enjoying them soon.

Dick Brooks, a past president of the American
Rhododendron Society, was awarded the Gold Medal of
that organization in 1998. In 1999 he received the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s lackson Dawson
Memorial Award for skill in the hybridization and
propagation of hardy woody plants.

ARNOLD ARBORETUM

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

BULLETIN

OF POPULAR INFORMATION

Series 4. Vol. II JULY 9, 1934 Number 5

Rhododendrons, what a privilege it would be, if we could call back
as we walk through the collection, the men who have contributed to the
development of our garden rhododendrons. They would make an interesting
and varied assemblage — Dean Herbert, the Earl of Carnarvon, Sir ]. D. Hooker, blunt
Anthony Waterer, lohn Fraser, gentle Peter Collinson in his Quaker garb, and Baron
Ungern Sternberg. For the rhododendrons of our gardens are quite literally something
new under the sun,- there is nothing just like them in nature. Aristocratic cosmopolites,
they came into being in Victorian England when species from the Old World and
the New were sympathetically gathered by plant collectors and intelligently blended
by a few hybridizers.

The contributing species are all mountain lovers. From the lower slopes about the
Mediterranean and Black Seas comes Rhododendron ponticum; higher up in the
Caucasus are the hardier R. caucasicum and R. Smiinowii. Our own southern moun-
tains contributed the hardy and attractive R. catawbiense which occurs by thousands
of acres on the upper slopes of the southern Alleghenies. Near the North Carolina
boundary among the open balsam woods and natural meadows which form the summit
of Roan Mountain, it reaches as far as the eye can see, growing in scattered groups in
the open meadows and forming a dense undergrowth beneath the balsams. It was from
this very locality that it was first collected for European gardens by John Fraser, over
a hundred years ago. Fraser was a Scotchman, who as a very young man, like many
another Scotchman, had gone to London to seek his fortune. He eventually became one
of the most successful of those early plant collectors who ransacked the American con-
tinent to provide novel and beautiful plants for European gardens. He had phenomenal
success m Russia where he became a favorite of Catharine the Great. After her death,
by Imperial ukase, he was sent back to America with orders to furnish rare and novel
plants for the imperial collections. "Accompanied by his eldest son, John, he embarked
in the year 1799 for the southern states of North America, where he prosecuted his
researches in various unexplored parts of the continent. On the summit of the Great
Roan or Bald Mountain, on a spot which commands a view of five states, it was Mr.

28 Arnoldici 60/1

Fraser's good fortune to discover and collect living specimens of the new and splendid
R. catawbiense, from which so many beautiful hybrid varieties have since been obtained
by skillful cultivators." *

Another American species, the rosehay, R. maximum, has been little used by the
English hybridizers, unfortunately so for American gardens, since it is one of the hardi-
est of the lot. It is of particular interest to New Englanders for it is occasionally found
native as far north as Sebago Lake and southern New Hampshire. It was among the
American plants introduced into England by the Quaker botanist Peter Collinson. The
religious bond between English and American Quakers kept up a lively interchange
between the two countries. Quakers had always been interested in gardening; George
Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, had specified that the "nature of herbs, roots,
plants, and trees" should be taught in Quaker schools. What more natural then, but that
packets of seed and pressed plants and much garden information should pass back
and forth between the two countries. In this way R. maximum was sent from the New
World to the Old and in Peter Collinson's "Commonplace Book for June 26, 1756" we
find the entry, "The great mountain laurel or rhododendron flowered for the first time
in my garden."

One other species, the showiest of the lot, R. arboreum, came from the foothills of
the Himalayas. It contributed splendor to the garden rhododendrons for it is a great
shrub-like tree with large flowers of bright red, varying in different strains from blush
pink to a black crimson. Unfortunately, it brought in a tropical aversion to cold along
with all this tropical splendor. R. arboreum itself can barely be grown out-of-doors even
in England; it was not until it had been hybridized with hardy American species that a
plant was produced which could withstand the English winters. English hybridizers,
however, have continued to use R. arboreum and other lovely but tender species in their
work. The result is a glorious group of flowering shrubs but one which Americans must
cross the ocean to see. Only a few of the thousand or more named varieties will stand
our hot summers and cold winters. Among the pinks we can recommend "Mrs. C. S.
Sargent" and "Henrietta Sargent" in deep pink and "Lady Armstrong" and "Roseum
elegans" in rose pink. The hardiest reds are "Charles Dickens," and "H. W. Sargent." In
dark purple the best are "Purpureum grandiflorum" and "Purpureum elegans."

Most of these ironclad varieties are the creations of one man, Anthony Waterer, an
English nurseryman who became a sort of godfather to American gardeners. His particu-
lar affection for Americans came about in an interesting way. When Andrew Jackson
Downing laid out the grounds about the National Capitol, he ordered plants from
Waterer. The plants were received but before payment was made Downing had died.
His friend and neighbor, Henry Winthrop Sargent, when settling the estate found
Waterer's unpaid hill. By the influence of his college classmate Charles Sumner, he got
a special bill through congress and Waterer was eventually paid. Now, Anthony Waterer
was a forthright, John Bull sort of a man, as strong in his likes as in his dislikes. Sargent's
action led to a lifelong friendship, one which was large enough to include Sargent's

* Condensed from the account by Sir William Hooker, in the "Companion to the Botanical Magazine."

Rhododendrons, A Brief History 29

friends and his friend's friends as well. It was Henry Winthrop Sargent who brought
Anthony Waterer and his rhododendrons to the attention of his cousins, H. H.
Hunnewell and Charles Sprague Sargent. It was this friendship which led to the great
rhododendron collections at the Hunnewell estate in Wellesley, at Professor Sargent's
home in Brookline, and at the Arnold Arhoretum.

In growing rhododendrons it is necessary to rememher their likes and dislikes. They
hate a limey soil. They dislike hot sun in the spring and summer, cold winds in winter.
They like partial shade and a soil which is well drained hut moist at the roots. The situ-
ation provided for them in the Arnold Arhoretum is almost ideal. The bold ridge of hem-
locks to the south screens them from the sun and helps to keep the soil moist at the
roots. Even there they could be grown in greater perfection if they were more sheltered
from winter winds and from adventuresome small boys. This latter pest is a very real
problem in growing rhododendrons at the Arboretum. Anyone who was ever a hoy does
not blame the urchins for wanting to play about in the Bussey Brook and to crawl up
through the rhododendron beds among the giant hushes. Yet anyone who knows rhodo-
dendrons and their needs knows that this crawling is very hard on the bushes. Twigs
snap off and sunshine strikes at the roots. The passing of hundreds of pairs of little feet,
and little knees as well, wears out the very soil. The rich, cool mulch which has so care-
fully been built up is scuffed away and bit by bit the collection succumbs.

Of late years rhododendrons here and elsewhere in New England have been attacked
by the lacewing fly. These bizarre little creatures are scarcely larger than the head of a
pin. Under the microscope they appear like humpbacked monsters dressed in lace.
Monsters they are in action as well as appearance, for they gather under the rhododen-
dron leaves and suck its juices. They can be successfully controlled by using an oil
spray but their attacks are kept to a minimum if the rhododendrons are planted in
semishade. The insects dislike the shade; the shrubs prefer it, therefore such a situation
is doubly preferable.

One of the Caucasian species, the handsome R. Smirnowii, thwarts the lacewing fly
by clothing its leaves below with a mat of woolly hair. So protective is this covering that
even the hybrids between R. Smirnowii and the other species are practically immune.
Fortunately, for the next generation of American gardeners, hybridizers are at last at
work creating new varieties for this country, varieties which will be winter hardy and
summer hardy, which will at least discourage attack from the lacewing fly and which
will, nevertheless, compare with present-day English varieties in the size and beauty of
their flowers.

Edgar Anderson

A geneticist at the Missouri Botanical Garden and professor of botany at Washington University in
St. Louis for most of his career, from 1931 to 1935 Edgar Anderson (1897-1969) oversaw the care of
the Arnold Arboretum's living collections and conducted its relations with the public. An interesting
and prolific writer, two collections of his essays are in print. Plants, Man and Life and Landscape
Papers. As regards small boys and lacewing flies, the former appear to have found other pursuits but
the latter remain.

TERRY HUN l UNDATED. ARCHIVES OF THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM

In Pursuit of Ironclads

Karen Madsen

Rhododendrons were celebrated embellishments of nineteenth-century England's
great estates, but these star performers did not find a place in New England gar-
dens until hybridizers solved a dilemma: the hardy species lacked good color,
and species with good color lacked hardiness. The American Rhododendron
catawbiense possessed hardiness, but bore flowers of "a disagreeable purple rose." Spe-
cies with desirable color, such as the deep red Himalayan R. arboreum, lacked hardiness,
even in much of Britain. Over the century European plantsmen developed hundreds of
hybrids with R. catawbiense as the primary hardy parent. In the 1850s Anthony Waterer

of Knap Hill nursery in Surrey began hybridizing rhododendrons for color, but especially
for hardiness. David Leach described Waterer's achievement in Rhododendrons of the
World (1961), "For their time [his hybrids] represented a triumph of the hybridist's art:
the principles of heredity in plant breeding were not then in use; there were but a hand-
ful of species available as parents,- and the English climate did not test the full limit of
hardiness which Waterer had imparted to his creations with such remarkable success."
A visitor described Knap Hill (seen in the photo above) in 1892.

The Knap Hill nursery is the most extensive, as it is the oldest, establishment in England
in which the cultivation of American plants has been made a specialty. Its extent exceeds
200 acres, of which more than 60 acres are allotted to the cultivation of American
plants. . . . Running straight through the nursery is a very long carriage-drive connecting
two public roads, and this drive Mr. [Anthony] Waterer generously permits the public to

Ironclads 3

use, with certain reservations as to dogs, etc. Thousands of people go every year to Knap
Hill to see the wonderful display made by the Rhododendrons and Azaleas. Whit-Monday
is quite a gala day, the crowd being so great that the workmen of the nursery have to act
as patrols to keep the visitors in order. To understand all this one must see the plants for
himself. I had no idea that the display was so magnificent ... Of course, when it is remem-
bered that these plants have been a specialty in this nursery for more than a century, that
the best varieties have nearly all been raised there, and that the Waterers have always been
what is called Rhododendron mad, the extent and interest of the collection are to some
degree accounted for. ..."

— Visitor, 1892, Garden and Forest V(227): 304-306

A pioneer in rhododendron culture in New England, H. H. Hunnewell of Wellesley,
Massachusetts, first wrote of planting rhododendrons in his diary of 1856, when hardy
meant summering in the ground hut wintering indoors, like figs. Each year he recorded
conditions and performance and shared his knowledge freely and enthusiastically. In
1896 he found reason to congratulate himself.

fune [1896]. In looking back over the horticultural records that I have been in the habit of
making in this journal for more than forty years, I find I have invariably at this season
expressed my admiration of our beautiful show of rhododendrons, though until of latter
years my plants were small and so limited in number that they have made a very modest
appearance compared with the thousands in my collection at the present time, many of
which are more than fifteen feet in height and fifty feet in circumference. . . .

At the H. H. Hunnewell estate, the lavender-rose ‘Everestianum’ , an old favorite developed by
Anthony Waterer at midcentury. An 1892 letter to Garden and Forest reported that in early June
the magnificent trusses of Hunnewell’ s rhododendrons were "distinguishable miles away.’

ALFRED RF.HDER, 1900. AIU.'HIVES OF THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM

32 Arnoldia 60/1

It is a singular fact that this shrub and the Kalmia latifolia, both natives of this country,
should be so little cultivated here; for among hardy plants they are undoubtedly the most
ornamental, and the rhododendron especially stands at the head of the list of rare and
desirable shrubs in England, — and well it may, for it combines more qualities than any
other shrub during the entire year, with its gorgeous trusses of a dozen or more flowers of
every shade imaginable of white, purple, and crimson, its magnificent evergreen foliage,
and, lastly, its noble habit of growth. . . .

I have heard it whispered about that I have too many rhododendrons — as if one could
have too many diamonds! In reply I say it has been my aim and desire for half a century to
possess the largest and best collection of this shrub of any one in the country, and I have
succeeded, and feel proud of my success. It has been my hobby, I confess, and I have
worked hard for it; but it has not prevented my giving attention to other things and
having a liberal supply of other shrubs, though they attract very little notice from my
numerous visitors compared with the rhododendrons.

— Notes on Rhododendrons, 1896, Life, Letters and Diary of Horatio Hollis Hunnewell,
ed. Hollis Horatio Hunnewell, privately printed, 1906

Most Americans discovered rhododendrons in 1876 when Anthony Waterer brought
1,500 plants in 80 varieties to the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. (He presented
most of those plants to C. S. Sargent, and in the 1880s sent what he thought to be his
hardiest varieties to the Arnold Arboretum for testing.) The Philadelphia display was an
eye-opener; gardeners were smitten, Americans ordered hundreds of thousands of plants
from England and began hardiness trials in earnest. Lists of the hardiest hybrids appeared
frequently in garden magazines, not least in C. S. Sargent's weekly. Garden and Forest
(1888-1897), and from 1911 the Arhoretum's Bulletin of Popular Information.

Expectations were very high and hopes even higher; year after year promising new
hybrids appeared. But weather took its toll on most of those candidates, and near the end
of his life Sargent lost patience: "More money has been wasted probably in this country
during the last fifty or sixty years in attempting to cultivate broad-leaved evergreen
Rhododendrons, for which with few exceptions the climate is not really suited, than on any
other plants (1926)." Nonetheless in the 1920s a short list of reliably hardy catawbiense
hybrids emerged, earning the tag ironclad: 'Album Elegans', 'Album Grandiflorum',
'Atrosanguineum', 'Delicatissimum', 'Everestianum', 'Mrs. Charles S. Sargent',
'Roseum elegans', 'Purpureum Elegans', 'Purpureum Grandiflorum', and a few others.

Three-quarters of a century later, five original Waterer plants on that list still grow in
the Arboretum at the base of Hemlock Hill: 'Album Grandiflorum' and 'Purpureum
Grandiflorum' planted in 1886; 'Album Elegans' and 'Purpureum Elegans', 1891; and
'Atrosanguineum', 1896. Not on the list are four other survivors from the nineteenth
century: 'Bicolor', 'Delicatissimum', 'Mrs. Harry Ingersoll', and 'Parsons Grandiflorum'.
The latter was bred at Knap Hill but introduced by the only American nursery to
hybridize rhododendrons in the nineteenth century, the Long Island firm of Samuel
B. Parsons. Not until the 1920s, after the passage of Quarantine No. 37, when imports
were banned, prices rose, and supply diminished, did other American plantsmen turn
to hybridizing these American plants. Sargent would he cheered by the results.

Album Grandiflorum (1686)

Bicolor ( 1891)

Atrosanguineum (1896)

Mrs. Harry Ingersoll (1891) Purpureum Elegans (1891)

BoiaBical ExcmioDS.

Botanists wishing to visit anv of the celebrated locali-
ties in Burlington or Atlantic Counties. N. J.. can make
favorable arrangements with me to act as guide. I
know the best localities for most of the rare plants ot
this region, such as Schizaea pusilla, Narthecium
Americanum, Breweria Pickeringii. and many others.

Botanical Specimens.

Those wishing to obtain fresh specimens of the
Pine Barren plants can obtain them at very
reasonable rates of me. Send me a list of those
you want, and I will quote price on such as I can
collect

A Box of Wild Flowers.

On receipt of 75 cts. I will send to any address,
post-paia, a box of rare wild flowers in perfect
condition for botanical specimens.

F. L. Bassett, Botanist,

HAMMONTON, N. J.

HOUGH'S “AMERICAN WOODS’

A publication illustrated hy actual specimens
showing different views of the grain. Write
for information before making Holiday pur-
chases, and inclose 10 cts. for specimens.
The work now covers most of the woods of eastern
U. S., and the interesting woods of the Pacific Slope are
now in hand ; the first mscicie ready for delivery.

Address Romeyn B. Hough, Lowville, N. Y.

CLIMBING |!'■eye•'»'■•Cha^ningdecora-

'^"* *•* ^* * ■ ^" tion for house, church or
pBDM schoolroom. Used at receptions, dinners.

leas. etc. Beautiful Holiday Gift. In
packages, by mail, 20 sprays. Jt; postage, xoc. Send
for Illustratea Circular. Maidenhair Fern.

CLlMBlNfl FERN CO.* 13 School St., Boston, Hsm.

SEND YOUR NAME.

The Best List of Books

in Botany, Entomology,
Ornithology, Biology and
Zoology, Natural History;
with allied studies,
for Naturalists
and Others.

BRADLEE WHIDDEN,

Publisher and Bookseller,

18 Arch Street, . Boston, Mass.

You have a hobby? Good. If not,
choose one, and Now. Study the Birds, the
Plants, the Insects, the Rocks — anything in
Nature — out of doors. You will never
regret this good advice, and will learn.
You will want a few Books; get the Best,
always, and write to Whidden, as above.

Th

A Weekly Revi

Feuttdfd
to cts. a copy

“It is impos
in the August Author^ “ lo get a day-by-day
knowledge of American literature without
taking in The Critic. I read it regularly.’

New volumes begin January and July.

THE CRITIC CO..

387 Fourth Avenue, New York.

C Choice Seed.j";c, p.icket. Circularlree.

mrysanthemumS

T. H. SPAULDING, Orange. N. J. ^1#

5 a current recora 01 wnai is newesi
best for use in gardens and for ornament in home
grounds.

It is taken and read bv city and suburban residents
of taste and wealth, and there is no paper whose indi-
vidual readers have greater purchasing power than
those of GARDEN AND FOREST. It is, therefore,
one of the very best mediums for the advertisement
eve^hing required in a modem, well-appointed home
in city or countiy. The advertisements of trees, shrubs
and plants, real estate, books, schools, routes of travel,
and of all articles required for the comfort, convenience
and luxury in families of means and refinement, may
be Inserted in its columns to advantage.

Copies of GARDEN AND FOR^ are rarely de-
stroyed. Therefore, advertisements in its columns
have a lasting value not possessed by those in ordinary
periodicals.

GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO.,
Tribune BinLotNC, New York.

OUT-OF-DOORS FOR WOMEN

AN ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY MAG.AZIXE.
Send IOC., and ask for our list of Rare Cacti Bulbs, etc.

Mrs. 0. L. ORCUTT, Editor,

ORCUTT, CALIFORNIA.

SOUTHERN

Timber and Mineral Lands.

At present prices is the cheapest property in America.

ROBERTSON, ^Lai^^and
Cincinnati, O.

Small Tracts.

LEWIS' LEAF CHARTS, No. J.

Life-size pictures uf the leaves of Oaks of the Black
Oak type- Price, 50 cts. e.ich. For sale by the author,
GRACE ANNA LEWIS, Media, Pa. Agents, with un-
exceptional references, wanted for the rlorthem and
Middle Slates.

TREE SEEDS.

MESSBS. FR. SlIRCHHOFF & CO.
are open to buy Tree Seeds in large quantities. Send
samples and lowest quotations to
P. O. Box 3326. JOHANNKBURG. S. A, R.

FARMER ON THE STRAWBERRY

^ little book written by our L. J. Farmer, who lias spent his life among
small fruits. A complete practical treatise; price, 25c. Every person ordering will
i-eceive six Lady Thompson Strawberry Plants, if they mention this paper. aS” The
first person who urdei s Irom each Stale will receive S* worth ot pl.ints (our choice) free.
If you love fruits, semi for our catalogue of plants and trees, tret*. Highfst Aw,trds on
Strnwberrin at the H'orhfs Fair.

THE L. J. FARMER NURSERY CO., P. 0. Box X, PULASKI, N. Y.

Garden and Forest.

The best garden paper in America.

This is the season when its advice and directions are needed
by all who cultivate trees, shrubs, flowers and vegetables, and are
interested in the care of home-grounds.

“A year’s reading of Garden and Forest is an education.” — Boston Evening
Transcript.

Beaatlfnlly Illustrated. Published Weekly. a Vear.

SPRING OFFER.

For three months of the spring planting season, beginning April ist,

ONE DOLLAR.

Garden and Forest Publishing Company,

TRIBUNE BUILDING. NEW YORK.

DEC 1 3 203Q

G!^AY li£^?eARIU?l

n '1 V . u

amoidia

GARDEN AND FOREST (1888-1897); PART ONE

Volume 60 • Number 2 • 2000

Arnoldia (ISSN 004-2633; USPS 866-100) is
published quarterly by the Arnold Arboretum of
Harvard University. Second-class postage paid at
Boston, Massachusetts.

Subscriptions are $20.00 per calendar year domestic,
$25.00 foreign, payable in advance. Single copies of
most issues are $5.00; the exceptions are 58/4-59/1
IMetasequoia After Fifty Years) and 54/4 {A Source-
book of Cultivar Names), which are $10.00. Remit-
tances may be made in U.S. dollars, by check drawn
on a U.S. hank; by international money order; or
by Visa or Mastercard. Send orders, remittances,
change-of-address notices, and all other subscription-
related communications to: Circulation Manager,
Arnoldia. The Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway,
Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts 02130-3500.

Telephone 617/524-1718; facsimile 617/524-1418;
e-mail arnoldia@arnarb.harvard.edu.

Postmaster: Send address changes to
Arnoldia Circulation Manager
The Arnold Arboretum
125 Arborway

Jamaica Plain, MA 02130-3500

Karen Madsen, Editor
Andy Winther, Designer

Editorial Committee
Phyllis Andersen
Ellen S. Bennett
Robert E. Cook
Peter Del Tredici
Gary Roller
Stephen A. Spongberg
Kim E. Tripp

Copyright © 2000. The President and Fellows of
Harvard College

Covers: Advertisements assembled from issues of
Garden and Eorest.

Inside front cover: A group of young Pinus ponderosa,
probably one hundred feet high, growing in the
Yosemite Valley where they were photographed by
W. H. Rollins. Originally published in Garden and
Eorest. 1895.

Inside back covet: Three venerable, windswept
Cedrus libani ssp. atlantica (Mount Atlas cedar),
photographed in Algeria by Maurice L. de Vilmorin.
Published in Garden and Forest. 1896.

Page

1 Preface

4 Garden and Forest (February 29, 1888) 1: ii

6 Garden and Forest: The Botanical Basis of It All

Stephen A. Spongberg

9 New or Little Known Plants. Rosa IVlinutifolia
(1888)

Sereno Watson

1 0 An Interesting Rediscovery (1891)

1 1 from Notes on the Forest Flora of Japan. — II
[Floras of Japan and Eastern America Com-
pared] (1893)

C. S. Sargent

14 from The Knees of the Bald Cypress (1890)
Letters to the Editor
1 7 from The Tupelo Tree ( 1 890)

19 A High-Grade Paper: Garden and Forest and
Nineteenth-Century American Forestry

Char Miller

19 A Slaughtered Giant (1890)

20 from The Axe in its Relation to Ornamental
Trees (1890)

Editorial

23 Wanted, a Tract on Forestry (1891)

Letter to the Editor

24 Value of Mountain Forests ( 1890)

/. B. Harrison

26 A New Jersey Pine Forest (1888)

C. S. Sargent

27 /rom The Sihlwald. — I &. II (1890)

Gifford Pinchot

30 from Notes on the Forest Flora of Japan. — XXIII
[The Avenue of Cryptomeria at Nikko] (1893)
C. S. Sargent

32 A Museum Specimen of Sequoia gigantea ( 1 892)
Editorial

34 The Forests of the National Domain (1895)
Editorials

38 Notes from Garden and Forest

39 “Master of a Felicitous English Style": Mulliam
Augustus Stiles, Editor of Garden and Forest

Phyllis Andersen

42 from New Dangers to Public Parks (1897)
Editorial

44 Remembering Bernice G. Schubert, 1913-2000

Richard A. Howard

PRACTICAL POPULAR. SCIENTIFICALLY EXACT.

^GAR^PEN„

*3' /N N [)

FORE ST

A-JOURNAL-OFHORTICULTURE,
LANDSCAPE-ART- ANDFORESTRY

JANUAKY I I M6 ■ « W w ijaimil

INDISPENSABLE to all who
love gardens or the literature
of gardens ; to all who own
country places or take pleasure in
rural scenery ; to all who desire
a broader knowledre of trees,
shrubs, fruits and flowers. Gar-
den AND P'oREST Stands for the
protection of our forests, for the
preservation of natural beauty,
for a purer taste in the design
and decoration of public and pri-
vate grounds, and is universally
pronounced the best horticultural
journal ever published for Ameri-

cans.

For the enlightened owners of gardens and
woodlands this journal is invaluable. — New
York Tribune.

Its character is at once dignified and
pleasing, and its contents are scholarly and
scientific in the exact sense. — Chicago Evening
youmal.

It continues on its high level — its highest
level, for it has no peer. It appeals, as mere
literature, to every cultivated person, and is
full of information for the lover of Flowers
and Trees.— At Y. Evening Post.

The foremost journal of its class, keeping in
touch with every advance in the scientific,
artistic and practical phases of horticilture
and arboriculture. — Boston Herald.

Published weekly. $4.00 a year.

Specimen copy free on application.

GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO,,

'XVllDuno BxAlldiriKi Yorlc.

Preface

Much of my time and attention during the year has been
devoted to the establishment of a weekly publication intended
to extend and popularize the knowledge of trees and their cul-
tivation, and of gardening and garden-botany. There existed no
journal or periodical bulletin, published in this country, in
which the results of the experiments carried on in the Arbore-
tum, and the mass of facts about plants could be printed
promptly and regularly, so that they could reach the large num-
ber of students now interested in this subject. The first issue of
Garden and Forest appeared on the 29th of February, and
there is already reason to believe that this journal will aid
materially in increasing the educational value of the Arbore-
tum and in extending its influence.

— Charles S. Sargent, 1888 Report to the President of
the University

This issue of Arnoldia and the next are devoted
to that publication, Garden and Forest, A
Journal of Horticulture, Landscape Art and
Forestry (1888-1897). Founded and "conducted" hy
the Arnold Arhoretum's first director, C. S. Sargent,
funded hy him and hy the same Boston Brahmins who
had underwritten the Arboretum, and published and
edited in New York, it was not officially an Arboretum
publication. Nonetheless, true to Sargent's intent, its
512 issues comprise a trove of information on the
Arhoretum's plant collections. But Sargent's ambi-
tions for the journal extended much farther than the
Arboretum, encompassing the entire plant world and
stretching even to the welfare of the nation. An 1891
flyer called it "indispensable not only to the practical
Horticulturist, Botanist, Landscape-Gardener and For-
ester, hut to every owner of a Country or Suburban
Home who desires sound instruction in all branches
of ornamental and economic planting." It continued:

Garden and Fc^rest contains from week to week articles
showing how grounds can be laid out to the best advantage;
how lawns should be made and kept; what trees and shrubs are
effective for decoration and suited to the diverse climates of the
American Continent, and how these should be planted and
cared for. It endeavors, by instruction or suggestion, and by
constant reference to pertinent principles of good taste, to aid
those who desire to beautify their homes. It aims also at arous-
ing intelligent interest in the care and management of public
places, such as Parks, School-grounds, Cemeteries, etc., and at
furthering the efforts made for the improvement of highw-ays
and the beautifying of roadsides. The department devoted to

Forestry treats of preservation and management of our forests,
subjects of vital and urgent importance to the nation's welfare.
Garden and Forest is alone in this field.

With all that, the recital does not mention that
its weekly seven-to-eleven pages also broached
agronomy, entomology, and pathology, reviewed
books and recent periodicals, listed exhibitions and
expositions, and even covered the retail flower mar-
ket. What was once said about Sargent himself can be
said about his magazine: nothing connected with
plants was alien to it.

We are devoting this issue and the next to Garden
and Forest because the Library of Congress, working
with horticultural archivist Sheila Connor, has put
the entire contents of Garden and Forest online
(http://lcweb.loc.gov/preserv/prd/gardfor/
digitizegf.html) — the first effort in its "digital
reformatting program," a new method of making
fragile publications available to a wide readership. To
enhance the online text, our director, Robert E. Cook,
has solicited essays on its coverage of botany, forestry
and forest conservation, landscape art, and horticul-
ture, and archivist foseph Melanson is approaching
the halfway mark in his compilation of a detailed and
cumulative subject index that will greatly improve
access to its contents.

The primary subjects of this issue of Arnoldia are
botany and forestry as covered in Garden and Forest.
Essays discussing the significance and influence of
that coverage are accompanied by excerpts from the
magazine. These are followed by an essay on the role
of its editor, the little known, often forgotten William
Stiles. Landscape art and horticulture will be the sub-
jects of the next issue's essays, by Ethan Carr and Mac
Griswold, also accompanied by several excerpts. The
story of the Library of Congress' digitization project —
the magazine's "journey into cyberspace" — will be
related by project manager LeeEllen Eriedland. A word
of explanation may be helpful: excerpts from Garden
and Forest are printed on a tinted background, and
brackets indicate editorial interpolations.

Garden and Forest is a journal of tremendous his-
torical interest, but also of surprising relevance to
contemporary issues. We hope this brief immersion in
a century-old magazine proves as absorbing to read as
it was to edit.

What AdvArs Say.

As indicative of the value of Garden
AND Forest as a medium of business an-
nouncement, attention is invited to the fol-
lowing extracts from recent letters of some
regular advertisers :

Evergreen, Wis,

My advertising in Garden and Forest
last year cost me seventy-five cents for
each customer mentioning Garden and
Forest ; the average of most of the lead-
ing agricultural papers was ninety cents.

GEORGE PINNEY.

Germantown, Phila.

We have always found Garden and
Forest one of the best advertising medi-
ums for our business. We consider that,
in the interest of gardening. Garden and
Forest should have every encourage-
ment. THOS. MEEHAN & SONS.

15 John Street, New York.

We take pleasure in saying that we have
reason to be satisfied with the result of
our advertising in Garden and Forest.

JAS. M. THORBURN & CO.

Bordentown, N. J.

I should consider it a misfortune to be
left out of the advertising columns of
Garden and Forest. I consider it the
best of the horticultural journals which 1
patronize.

EDMUND D. STURTEVANT.

Cambridge, Mass.

We have invariably found in Garden
AND Forest a medium most valuable to
our trade, reaching a circle of high class
purchasers, and in consequence assuring
the most satisfactory results.

SHADY HILL NURSERY CO.,

E. L. Beard, Pres’t.

United States Nurseries, Short Hills, N. J.

Garden and Forest reaches the very
classes interested in horticulture, which are
always likely buyers. W. A. MANDA.

Reading Nursery, Reading, Mass.

We would state that Garden and
Forest has proved the most advantage-
ous medium to us in direct paying results
of any that we have used. Our repetition
of our yearly contract, we believe, would
indicate our opinion of the paper.

JACOB W. MANNING.

Specimen copy free on application.

GARDEN AM FOREST PUBLISHING CO,

Tribune BuUdlns, New Yorlt.

II

Garden and Forest

February 29, 1888

GARDEN AND FOREST:

An Illustrated Weekly Journal of Horticulture, Landscape Art and Forestry.

GARDEN AND FOREST will be devoted to Fdorticulture in all its branches, Garden Botany, Den-
drology and Landscape Gardening, and will discuss Plant Diseases and Insects injurious to vegetation.

Professor C. S. Sargent, of Fiarvard College, will have editorial control of GARDEN AND FOREST.

Professor Wm. G. Farlow, of Harvard College, will have editorial charge of the Department of Cryp-
togamic Botany and Plant Diseases.

Professor A. S. Packard, of Brown University, will have editorial charge of the Department of Entomology.

Mr. Wm. A. Stiles will be the Managing Editor.

GARDEN AND FOREST will record all noteworthy discoveries and all progress in science and
practice within its field at home and abroad. It will place scientific information clearly and simply before
the public, and make available for the instruction of all persons interested in garden plants the conclu-
sions reached by the most trustworthy investigators. Arrangements have been made to figure and describe
new and little-known plants (especially North American) of horticultural promise. A department will be
devoted to the history and description of ornamental trees and shrubs. New florists' flowers, fruits and
vegetables will be made known, and experienced gardeners will describe practical methods of cultivation.

GARDEN AND FOREST will report the proceedings of the principal Horticultural Societies of the
United States and the condition of the horticultural trade in the chief commercial centres of the country.

GARDEN AND FOREST, in view of the growing taste for rural life, and of the multiplication of
country residences in all parts of the United States, especially in the vicinity of the cities and of the larger
towns, will make a special feature of discussing the planning and planting of private gardens and grounds,
small and large, and will endeavor to assist all who desire to make their home surroundings attractive
and artistic. It will be a medium of instruction for all persons interested in preserving and developing the
beauty of natural scenery. It will co-operate with Village Improvement Societies and every other organized
effort to secure the proper ordering and maintenance of parks and squares, cemeteries, railroad stations,
school grounds and roadsides. It will treat of Landscape Gardening in all its phases,- reviewing its history
and discussing its connection with architecture.

GARDEN AND FOREST will give special attention to scientific and practical Forestry in their vari-
ous departments, including Forest Conservation and economic Tree Planting, and to all the important
questions which grow out of the intimate relation of the forests of the country to its climate, soil, water
supply and material development.

Original information on all these subjects will be furnished by numerous American and Foreign
correspondents. Among those who have promised contributions to GARDEN AND FOREST are:

Mr. Sereno Watson, Curator of the Herbarium,
Harvard College.

Prof. Geo. L. Goodale, Harvard College.

" Wolcott Gibbs, "

" Wm. H. Brewer, Yale College.

" D. G. Eaton, "

" Wm. J. Beal, Agricultural College of Michigan.
" L. H. Bailey, Jr., "

" ]. L. Budd, Agricultural College of Iowa.

" B. D. Halsted, "

" F. W. Hilgard, University of California.

" J. T. Rothrock, University of Pennsylvania.

" Chas. E. Bessey, University of Nebraska.

" Wm. Trelease, Shaw School of Botany, St. Louis.
" T. 1. Burrill, University of Illinois.

" W. W. Bailey, Brown University.

" E. A. PoPENOE, Agricultural College, Kansas.

" Raphael Pumpelly, United States Geological
Survey.

" James H. Gardiner, Director New York State
Survey.

" Wm. R. Lazenby, Director of the Ohio Agricul-
tural Experiment Station.

" W. W. Tracy, Detroit, Mich.

" C. V. Riley, Washington, D.C.

Mr. Donald G. Mitchell, New Haven, Conn.

Garden and Forest 5

" Frank J. Scott, Toledo, O.

Hon. Adolphe Leue, Secretary of the Ohio Forestry
Bureau.

" B. G. Northrop, Clinton, Conn.

Mr. G. W. Hotchkiss, Secretary of the Lumber
Manufacturers' Association.

Dr. C. L. Anderson, Santa Cruz, Cal.

Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted, Brookline, Mass.

" Francis Parkman, Boston.

Dr. C. C. Parry, San Francisco.

Mr. Prosper f. Berckmans, President of the American
Pomological Society.

" Charles A. Dana, New York.

" Burnet Landreth, Philadelphia.

" Robert Ridgeway, Washington, D.C.

" Calvert Vaux, New York.

" J. B. Harrison, Franklin Falls, N. H.

Dr. Henry P. Walcott, President of the Massachusetts
Horticultural Society.

Mr. C. G. Pringle, Charlotte, Vt.

" Robert Douglas, Waukegan, 111.

" H. W. S. Cleveland, Minneapolis, Minn.

" Chas. W. Garfield, Secretary of the American
Pomological Society.

" C. R. Orcutt, San Diego, Cal.

" B. E. Fernow, Chief of the Forestry Division,
Washington, D.C.

" John Birkenbine, Secretary of the Pennsylvania
Forestry Association.

" JosiAH Hoopes, Westchester, Pa.

" Peter Henderson, New York.

" Wm. Falconer, Glen Cove, N.Y.

" Jackson Dawson, Jamaica Plain, Mass.

" Wm. H. Hall, State Engineer, Sacramento, Cal.

" C. C. Crozier, Department of Agriculture,
Washington, D.C.

The Rev. E. P. Roe, Cornwall, N.Y.

Dr. C. C. Abbott, Trenton, N. J.

Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer, New York.

" Mary Treat, Vineland, N.J.

Dr. Karl Mohr, Mobile, Ala.

Hon. J. B. Walker, Forest Commissioner of New
Hampshire.

Mr. Wm. Hamilton Gibson, Brooklyn, N.Y.

" Edgar T. Ensign, Forest Commissioner of
Colorado

" E. S. Carman, Editor of the Rural New Yorker.

" Wm. M. Canby, Wilmington, Del.

" John Robinson, Salem, Mass.

" J. D. Lyman, Exeter, N.H.

" Samuel Parsons, Jr., Superintendent of Central
Park, N.Y.

" Wm. McMillan, Superintendent of Parks, Buffalo,
N.Y.

" Sylvester Baxter, Boston.

" Charles Eliot, Boston.

" John Thorpe, Secretary of the New York Horticul-
tural Society.

" Edwin Lonsdale, Secretary of the Philadelphia
Horticultural Society.

" Robert Craig, President of the Philadelphia
Florists' Club.

" Samuel B. Parsons, Flushing, N.Y.

" George Ellwanger, Rochester.

" P. H. Barry, Rochester.

" W. J. Stewart, Boston, Mass.

" W. A. Manda, Botanic Gardens, Cambridge, Mass.
" David Allan, Mount Vernon, Mass.

" Wm. Robinson, North Easton, Mass.

" A. H. Fewkes, Newton Highlands, Mass.

" F. Goldring, Kenwood, N.Y.

" C. M. Atkinson, Brookline, Mass.

Dr. Maxwell T. Masters, Editor of the Gardener’s
Chronicle.

Mr. Geo. Nicholson, Curator of the Royal Gardens, Kew.
" W. B. Hemsley, Herbarium, Royal Gardens, Kew.

" Wm. Goldring, London.

Mr. Max Leichtlin, Baden Baden.

M. Edouard Andre, Editor of the Revue Horticole,
Paris, France.

Dr. G. M. Dawson, Geological Survey of Canada.

Prof. John Macoun, "

M. Charles Naudin, Director of the Gardens of the
Villa Thuret, Antibes.

Dr. Chas. Bolle, Berlin.

M. J. Allard, Angers, Maine &. Loire, France.

Dr. H. Mayr, University of Tokio, Japan.

Prof. D. F. Penhallow, Director of the Botanical
Gardens, Montreal.

Mr. Wm. Saunders, Director of the Agricultural
Experiment Station, Ontario.

" Wm. Little, Montreal.

Single numbers, 10 cents. Subscription price. Four Dollars a year, in advance.

THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO., Limited,
Tribune Building, New York
D. A. MUNRO, Manager

6 Arnoldia 60/2

Glcditsia japonica. One of the 285 botanical drawings made by C. E. Faxon for Garden and Forest. From
volume 6, page 165.

Garden and Forest: The Botanical Basis of It All

Stephen A. Spongberg

On February 29, 1888, the weekly peri-
odical Garden and Forest, A Journal
of Horticulture, Landscape Art and
Forestry, was inaugurated. Rather oddly, the
statement outlining the purpose of the new pub-
lication, along with an extensive list of future
contributors, was relegated to a page in the
advertising section that preceded the main text.
It was evident, however, that the journal had
been inspired by similar publications in
England, including the long-running Journal of
Horticulture, Cottage Gardener, and Country
Gentleman’s Companion. In particular, its for-
mat and content mirrored in many respects that
of The Gardener’s Chronicle, which had begun
publication in 1841.

Somewhat oddly, the first article to appear in
Garden and Forest was an obituary. Asa Gray,
the preeminent Harvard botanist, had died a
month earlier on January 30. The obituary sum-
marized briefly the long and extremely distin-
guished career that had earned for Gray (and for
American botany along with him) the respect of
the international scientific community. Ameri-
can botany was no longer the exclusive domain
of Europeans; American scientists, under Gray's
leadership, had established their own scientific
traditions. It was through his studies of the
American flora, particularly his comparisons of
Japanese plants to their close relatives in North
America, that Gray had achieved international
recognition. These observations, demonstrating
the close similarity between the floras of eastern
North America and eastern Asia, had lent cred-
ibility to his defense of Darwin's writings and
played a crucial role in the development of botany
and of its sub-discipline, phytogeography.

But it should not surprise us that Charles
Sprague Sargent began the first issue of Garden
and Forest with a glowing tribute to Asa Gray
for Sargent had been Gray's protege, and it was
thanks to him that Sargent had been asked to

prepare the Report of the Forests of North
America (Exclusive of Mexico) for the Tenth
Census of the United States (1880) — an impor-
tant stepping stone in his career. Equally impor-
tant, Gray had nominated and campaigned for
Sargent to he named the founding director of the
Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and,
simultaneously, the director of the Harvard
Botanic Garden, positions Sargent had accepted
in 1872. As a consequence of these positions and
of his natural talents and interests, Sargent had
become an accomplished botanist and adminis-
trator and had established strong relationships
with botanists worldwide,- and following in
Gray's footsteps, he would add significantly to
botanical scholarship during his fifty-five year
tenure at the Arnold Arboretum. Sargent had
discussed with Gray his intention to found Gar-
den and Forest and had looked forward to his
mentor's continuing advice and his contribu-
tions to the periodical.

It was clearly obvious that Garden and Forest
was to be a botanical publication: a cursory
glance at the indices published for each volume
shows the dominance of plant names (in botani-
cal Latin form). Sargent realized that it was a
knowledge of botany that was to inform the
development of all the other diseiplines he
intended the journal to foster: horticulture,
landscape art, and forestry. In the first issue Max
Leichtlin, a German botanist and horticulturist,
wrote about "New Plants from Afghanistan,"
and George L. Goodale, first director of
Harvard's Botanical Museum, reviewed a key to
the forest trees of Kansas and the latest edition
of Asa Gray's Elements of Botany. Other con-
tributors included the noted field botanist
Cyrus Guernsey Pringle and William Trelease,
first director of the Missouri Botanical Garden,
who co-authored a column entitled "Plant
Notes." In the April 4 issue of the same year
an editorial entitled "The Study of Botany by

8 Arnoldia 60/2

Shortia galacifolia (Oconee bells), drawn by C. E. Faxon. In the
first volume of Garden and Forest, C. S. Sargent wrote that “of all
the plants studied and described and classified by Asa Gray, this
little herb most excited his interest. " Sargent’s story of the loss
and rediscovery of the plant appears in volume 1, pages 506-507.

Horticulturists" stressed the importance of a
strong basis in botanical knowledge for any
horticulturist; Asa Gray's successor at the her-
barium in Cambridge, Sereno Watson, contrib-
uted a column entitled "New or Little Known
Plants: Rosa minutifolia-/' and William G.
Farlow, another of Gray's appointees at Harvard,
wrote on nitrogen fixation by plants in his
article, "Tubercles on Leguminous Roots."

Each issue also provided references to the cur-
rent botanical and horticultural literature in a
section on "Recent Plant Portraits." In the May
2, 1888, number, another regular column made
its first appearance; "Notes from the Arnold
Arboretum." This feature was of special impor-
tance to Sargent, and the first contribution was
authored by his assistant at the Arboretum,
John George lack. Over the succeeding ten years
this column would document the development
of the Arboretum, focusing particularly on the

many new plants discovered by the
Arboretum's agents, many of which
were introduced into cultivation by
the Arboretum.

One of the most significant series
of botanical articles to appear in
Garden and Forest resulted from
Sargent's 1892 sojourn in lapan,
which inaugurated the Arnold Arbo-
retum's mission to explore the floras
of eastern Asia. Entitled "Notes on
the Forest Flora of Japan," this series
first appeared on January 18, 1893,
and concluded in the December 27
issue of the same year. In 1894, the
publishing firm of Houghton, Mifflin
and Company collected these articles
in one volume entitled Forest Flora of
Japan, one of Sargent's most enduring
publications, and of special interest as
the first treatise in English on the
then little-known trees of Japan. In
these essays Sargent built on the pio-
neering work of his mentor Asa Gray
by elaborating on the close relation-
ships of the floras of eastern Asia and
eastern North America.

Closer to home, the pages of Gar-
den and Forest provided news about
botanical discoveries and advances in
North America. New genera and species were
described in its pages, such as the malvaceous
genus Robinsonella, initially with two species
{R. cordata and R. divergens] from Mexico, and
articles on regional floras were commonplace.
Among the latter were Carl Purdy's "The Flora
of the California Coast Range," which appeared
in three parts between May and June of 1896,
and E. N. Plank's extensive "Botanical Notes
from Texas," which appeared in twenty-five seg-
ments between January 1893 and May of 1895.

Specific plant groups were also featured in
articles that recounted the taxon's discovery
and naming, its native habitat, range, and ecol-
ogy, as well as its usefulness in cultivation.
Sargent's "Notes on Cultivated Conifers,"
appeared in thirteen issues of volume ten,-
Michael S. Behb contributed a five-part series
entitled "Notes on Some Arborescent Willows
of North America" between September and

The Botanical Basis 9

NEW OR LITTLE KNOWN PLANTS.
Rosa minutifolia.

OUR wild Roses have an ill reputation among botanists
for the uncertainty which often attends the determina-
tion of their species. But there are some, fortunately, about
which there can be no doubt, and we have given the figure of
one which carries its distinctive characteristics obtrusively
to the front and cannot be mistaken. Not only is there no
other American Rose like it, but it stands alone in the
genus ... It has been found only on the peninsula of Lower
California, near All Saints (Todos Santos) Bay, about 40 miles
south of San Diego, where it was discovered in 1882, form-
ing low, dense thickets upon the dry hillsides bordering the
shore. . . . Evidently the flower in its wild state cannot be
commended as well suited to the florist's needs, but from its
habit of growth the plant may well prove a decided ornament
to the lawn and garden in our more southern States, where it
would doubtless be hardy.

S[ereno] W[atson].

[Garden and Forest 2 (1888): 103. Engraving by C. E. Faxon]

December of 1895; and of a more practical
nature R. H. Price wrote on the "Classification
of Varieties of Peaches" in January of 1897.

The list of botanical themes goes on: bio-
graphical sketches of famous botanists of the
past, including one in the May 1894 issue on
Stephen Elliott (for whom the rare genus
Elliottia had been named); an esoteric five-part
series by W. R. Gerard on "Plant Names of
Indian Origin," which appeared in June and July
of 1896; and even features as technically chal-
lenging as John George Jack's "Some Unusual

Androgynous Flower-clusters," which
ran in June of 1895. In fact, the scope
of the articles that were published in
Garden and Forest spanned the entire
corpus of botanical science as it was
known in the late nineteenth century.
Taken together this literature com-
prises a remarkable trove of informa-
tion that is not found elsewhere in
botanical literature and that in many
ways remains relevant even today, as
well as of great historical value.

On December 29, 1897, the five
hundred and fourteenth issue of Gar-
den and Forest included an announce-
ment that it was to be the magazine's
last. This last issue brought the total
number of pages published during
Garden and Forest’s ten-year life to an
impressive five thousand six hundred
and sixty-eight! The reason for termi-
nation was financial: "This experi-
ment . . . has shown conclusively that
there are not persons enough in the
United States interested in the sub-
jects which have been presented in the
columns of Garden and Forest to
make a journal of its class and charac-
ter self-supporting." This was a sorry
commentary on the dearth of interest
among the wider American population
in issues concerning botany, forestry,
conservation, and landscape design.

Since the demise of Garden and
Forest, no attempt has been made to
re-institute the kind of interdiscipli-
nary dialogue it had provided for a
brief ten years. The several profes-
sional disciplines it addressed have evolved and
diverged, becoming more and more distinct and
isolated from one another. Even today a journal
similar to Garden and Forest might face finan-
cial difficulties, but many would welcome a
new vehicle for exchanging information and
ideas among all the professions that are funda-
mentally plant-based.

Stephen A. Spongberg is Executive Director of The Polly
Hill Arboretum in West Tisbury, Massachusetts, and
Curator Emeritus of the Arnold Arboretum.

10 Ainoldia 60/2

AN INTERESTING REDISCOVERY.

Mrs. J. G. SMYTH, of Greenville, South Carolina, sends us fresh flow^ers of
Lonicera flava, gathered hy herself on Paris Mountain, probably in the
very spot where this plant was last seen growing wild by any botanist. This was

in the year 1810, when fohn Fraser, a Scotch
collector, paid a visit to Paris Mountain and
gathered seeds or roots of this plant and
sent them to England. From the descen-
dants of these plants of Fraser's kept in gar-
dens has been preserved the knowledge of
this beautiful species. Last year a figure and
description of Lonicera flava [yellow hon-
eysuckle] were published in this journal
(vol. iii., 187, f. 187), and the interest this
excited in what appeared to be a "lost
plant" led our correspondent to investigate
Paris Mountain, a low outlying spur of the
Blue Ridge which rises from the plain close
to Greenville. Her search was successful,
and on the 17th of April Mrs. Smyth found
the Honeysuckle in flower, and now sends
us specimens with this note;

The plants were found, and this was the only place, on the north side of the moun-
tain, a hundred and fifty or two hundred feet from the top or highest point of the
mountain, which is 2,054 feet above the level of the sea. The Lonicera was growing
in a very rocky place, about fifteen or twenty feet square, a place which looked,
except for the many arid large rocks scattered over it, as if it might have been a cleared
spot. All around and about it the original foliage of the forest had never been dis-
turbed, tall Oaks, and Chestnuts, and the thick undergrowth of Azaleas and Rhodo-
dendrons forming a dense shade. The soil is rich and black from the long
accumulation of leaf-mold, damp and rich, and just such a soil as the Rhododendron
grows and thrives in. The stems are not more than two feet high, but 1 thought would
have grown longer if there had been any support for them to cling to and run on. The
roots send out long runners, and these send up shoots from every little point, so that
in trying to get a root one might pull up yards and yards before it would break.

Lonicera flava is one of the rarest of American plants, and although it has been
known from the very beginning of the century, there is apparently no evidence
that it grows anywhere except in this one spot on Paris Mountain. Mrs. Smyth's
most interesting discovery removes another from the now short list of plants
known to our early botanists, but unknown to their successors. Now that
Darbya, Shortia and Lonicera flava have been found again, Gordonia Altamaha
[now Franklinia alatamaha] and Illicium parviflorum [now 1. floridanum, anise
tree] are the only prizes left among species known to have existed to reward the
botanical collector in the south Atlantic states. It is a curious fact that both of
these plants, like Lonicera flava, have been preserved in gardens for nearly a cen-
tury, although all recent efforts to find them in their native haunts have failed.

[Garden and Forest 4 (1891): 253-254]

Lonicera flava illustrated for Garden and Forest
by C. E. Faxon.

The Botanical Basis 1 1

from NOTES ON THE FOREST FLORA OF JAPAN— II.

Travelers in japan liave often insisted on the resemblance between
that country and eastern America in the general features of vegetation.
But with the exception of Yezo, which is still mostly uninhabited and in a
state of nature, and those portions of the other islands which are above
3,000 feet over the level of the ocean, it is difficult to form a sufficiently
accurate idea of the general appearance of the original forest-covering of
Japan to be able to compare the aspects of its vegetation with those of any
other country, for every foot of the lowlands and the mountain valleys of
the three southern islands have been cultivated for centuries. And the foot-
hills and low mountains which were once clothed with forests, and might
be again, are now covered with coarse herbage (principally Eulalia) and are
destitute of trees, except such as have sprung up in sheltered ravines and
have succeeded in escaping the fires which are set every year to burn off the
dry grasses. Remoteness, bad roads, and the impossibility of bringing down
their timber into the valleys have saved the mountain forests of Japan, and
these may still be seen, especially between 5,000 and 8,000 feet over the
level of the sea, in their natural condition. But these elevated forests are
composed of comparatively few species, and if it were not for the planta-
tions of Conifers, which the Japanese for at least twelve centuries, it is said,
have been making to supply their workers in wood with material, and for
the trees preserved or planted in the temple grounds in the neighborhood
of towns, it would be impossible to obtain any idea at all of many of the
Japanese trees. But, fortunately, the priests of Buddha have planted and
replanted trees for a thousand years about their temples, which are often
surrounded by what now appear to be natural woods, as no tree is ever cut
and no attempt is made to clear up the undergrowth. These groves are
sometimes of considerable extent and contain noble trees, Japanese and
Chinese, which give some idea of what the inhabitants of the forests of
Japan were before the land was cleared for agriculture.

The floras of Japan and eastern America have, it is true, some curious fea-
tures in common, and the presence in the two regions of certain types not
found elsewhere, show their relationship. But such plants are usually small,
and for the most part rare or confined to the high mountains. Diphylleia,
Buckleya, Epigaea and Shortia show the common origin of the two floras;
but these are rare plants in Japan as they are in America, with the excep-
tion of Epigaea [trailing arbutus], and probably not one traveler in ten thou-
sand has ever seen them, while the chief elements of the forest flora of
northern Japan, the only part of the empire where, as has already been said,
comparison is possible — those which all travelers notice — do not recall
America so much, perhaps, as they do Siberia and Europe.

The broad-leaved Black Oaks, which form the most distinct and con-
spicuous feature in all the forests of eastern America, are entirely absent
from Japan, and the deciduous-leaved White Oaks, which, in Japan, form a
large part of the forest-growth of the north, are of the European and not of
the American type, with the exception of Quercus dentata, which has no

12 Arnoldia 60/2

related species in America. The Chestnut Oaks, which are common and
conspicuous, both m the northern and southern parts of eastern America,
do not occur in lapan, and the Evergreen Oaks, which abound in the south-
ern part of that empire, where they arc more common than any other group
of trees, are Asiatic and not American m their relationships. . . .

The illustration gives some idea of the general appearance of the great coniferous forests "^ich cover the
highlands of central Japan. In the foreground, Lake Yumoto, famous for its thermal springs, nestles 5;000 feet
above the sea among the Nikko Mountains. The forests which rise from the shores of the lake are principally
comprised of Hemlock (Tsuga diversifolia), among which are Birch (Betula Ermanni , Abies Le

Pterocarya, Cercidiphyllum and the Mountain Ash [Sorbus]. In the dense shade by the shores of the lake
grow dwirf forms of the Indian Azalea, Elliottia paniculata, our Canadian ^

great masses of Rhododendron Metternichii, which in these forests replaces Rhododendron Catawbiense of
th^Appalachian Mountains, the dwarf Ilex rugosa, Clethra, here at the upper limits of its distribution, Panax
horridMdevil's club], and the dwarf Blueberries which inhabit mountain slopes in all northern countries, as
well as the ubiquitous Bamboos.

The Botanical Basis 13

The forests of the two regions possess in common Magnolia and
Aesculus [horse-chestnuts], which are more abundant in species and
individuals in America than in Japan. The Rhuses, or Sumachs, are very
similar in the two regions, and so are the Witch-hazel and the arborescent
Aralia. Cornus macrophylla [now C. controversa] of Japan is only an
enlarged Cornus alternifolia [pagoda dogwood] of eastern America, and the
so-called Flowering Dogwoods of the two countries are very much alilce.
The Japanese Walnut is very like the American Butternut, while, rather
curiously, the Japanese Thuja [red cedar] and the two Chamaecyparis, the
Piceas [spruce] and Abies [fir], resemble species of Pacific North America,
a region whose flora has little affinity with that of eastern Asia. Torreya is
common to the two regions; in America it is one of the most local of all our
trees, while in Japan it is abundant in the mountainous regions of the cen-
tral and southern parts of the empire.

Apart from the characters which distinguish related genera and species
of Japanese trees from their American congeners there are many aspects of
vegetation which make the two countries unlike. The number of broad-
leaved evergreen trees is much greater in southern Japan than it is in the
southern United States, there being fifty species of these trees in the
former, and only twenty in eastern America (exclusive always of southern
Florida), and the general aspect of the groves and woods at the sea-level,
even in the latitude of Tokyo, is of broad-leaved evergreens. The number of
evergreen shrubs in proportion to the entire flora is much greater in Japan,
too, than it is in America, and plants of this character grow much further
north in the former than in the latter country. The small number of spe-
cies of Pinus in Japan, and their scarcity at the north, is in striking contrast
to the number and distribution of this genus in eastern America, where
there are thirteen species, to only five in Japan (including one shrub). In
Japan the Hemlock forms continuous and almost unbroken forests of great
extent on the mountain-slopes, which are over 5,000 feet above the sea,
while in eastern America this tree is rarely found except scattered in small
groves or as single individuals through the deciduous-leaved forests. . . .
The wild Grape grows in the damp forests of Yezo with a vigor and to a size
which the American species do not attain, even in the semi-tropical cli-
mate of the southern Mississippi valley. Actinidia arguta climbs into the
tops of the tallest trees, and nothing is so un-American or so attracts the
attention of the American traveler in Japan as the trunks of trees clothed
to the height of sixty or eighty feet with splendid masses of the climbing
Hydrangeas (H. petiolaris and Schizophragma), or with the lustrous ever-
green foliage of the climbing Evonymus. Wistaria is represented, it is true,
in eastern America, but here it is nowhere very common or one of the chief
features of vegetation as it is in Japan; and the Ivy, a southern plant only in
Japan, and not very common, helps to remind the traveler that he is in the
Old and not in the New World.

[Garden and Forest 6(1893): 38-39]

C.S.Slargent]

14 Arnoldici 60/2

THE KNEES OF THE BALD CYPRESS:

A NEW THEORY OF THEIR FUNCTION.

To the Editor of Garden and Forest:

Sir. — From time to time, during and sinee my first visit to our southern tier
of states in 1876, I have examined, sketched and photographed the roots of the
Deciduous Cypress — the Taxodium distichum of Richard. I was attracted to the
tree because of the singular beauty of its form and foliage and by the unusual
boldness with which it raises its great, gray, smooth column, sometimes over a
hundred feet, perpendicularly, above and upon what an engineer would pro-
nounce a most dangerous foundation — loose submerged sand, the saturated
morass or the soft alluvium of low river margins. But notwithstanding this seem-
ing insecurity, I have never found a healthy Cypress that had fallen before the
fierce hurricanes that sweep through the southern forest-lands.

The surprising and characteristic temerity of the tree is accompanied by
another striking peculiarity — it almost invariably, in soft soils, throws upward
from the upper surface of its roots conspicuous protuberances that are known as
"Cypress knees."

These seemingly abnormal growths have attracted much attention, and for
more than half a century have furnished an enigma to the solution of which
scientific travelers have addressed themselves. . . .

In 1887 I had the good fortune to find a number of Cypress-trees under such
unusual conditions that their aforetime subterranean anatomy could be studied
without obstruction, and I reached a conclusion respecting the use to the tree of
the protuberances . . . Some recent publications on the subject, by widely and
favorably known authors, have, however, ascribed to the Cypress-knees the sole
function of aerating the sap of the parent tree, and this idea bids fair to become
embedded in botanical literature. . . .

Stretches of the shore of Lake Monroe, in central Florida, are closely set with
large Cypress-trees. They grow in various kinds of bottom — clay, mud and sand.
Those of which I shall here speak stood in sand so loose that when the level of
the water was lowered the waves readily washed it away and carried it into the
depths of the lake. Some vertical feet of the root-system was thus finely exposed.
After several days spent in examining a score or more large trees that had been
thus denuded I became convinced that the most important function of the
Cypress knee is to stiffen and strengthen the root, in order that a great tree may
anchor itself safely in a yielding material. . . .

The accompanying picture is from a photograph that I made in 1887 of the
lower portion of a tree that rises some seventy feet above the shore line of Lake
Monroe. The original surface of the sand was near the level of the higher roots.
The picture shows the manner in which this peculiar species throws out horizon-
tal roots from its conical (usually hollow) buttressed base. At different distances
from this conical base these horizontal roots project strong branches more or less
perpendicularly into the earth. Where such perpendicular "flukes" branch from
the main horizontal "shank," it will be seen, there is formed a large knob, which
is the "knee" under discussion. This knee, when fully developed, is generally
hollow, comparatively soft, gnarled, and very difficult to rupture, so that it has
the quality of a spring that becomes more rigid as it is extended or compressed
out of its normal shape. When in a hurricane the great tree rocks back and forth

The Botanical Basi.' 15

Denuded roots of the Bald Cypress, showing knees and underground structure.

on its base, and with its immense leverage pulls upon this odd shaped wooden
anchor instead of straightening out in the soft material as an ordinary root might,
thus allowing the tree to lean over and add its weight to the destructive force of
the storm, it grips the sand as the bower-anchor would do, and resists every
motion. The elasticity at the point of junction allows one after another of the
perpendicular flukes attached to the same shank to come into effective action,
so that before being drawn from the sand or ruptured the combined flukes present
an enormous resistance. . . .

Finally, I may perhaps be permitted to add an observation regarding the roots
of other trees that trench upon the same soils affected by the Cypress and often
take advantage of the anchors it sets so boldly m treacherous bottoms. These
trees project their cable-like, flexible roots in every direction horizontally, inter-
lacing continually until a fabric is woven on the surface of the soft earth like the
tangled web of a gigantic basket. . . . Such communities of trees, provided with
ordinary roots, advance against and overcome enemies where singly they would
perish in the conflict. The cyclone, the loose sand, the morass — these are the
enemies they contend with, as it were, in unbroken phalanx, shoulder to shoul-
der, their shields locked, their spears bristling against the foe; but the graceful
plumed Cypress, the knight-errant of the sylvan host, bearing with him his trusty
anchor — the emblem of Hope — goes forth alone and defiant, afar from his fellows,
scorning the methods of his vassals, and planting himself boldly amid a waste of
waters, where no other tree dare venture, stands, age after age, erect, isolated, but
ever ready to do battle with the elements. Twenty centuries of driving rain and

16 Arnoldia 60/2

snow and fierce hurricane beat upon his towering form, and yet he stands there,
the stern, gray and solitary sentinel of the morass, clinging to the quaking earth
with the grasp of Hercules, to whom men were building temples when his war-
denship began.

New York, Jan. 2d. Robert H. Lamboin

[Garden and Forest 3 (1890): 21-22]

THE KNEES OF THE BALD CYPRESS.

To the Editor of Garden and Forest:

Sir. — I have read the interesting essay of Dr. Lamborn in your issue for January
8th with great pleasure. My own observations on the knees of the Cypress do not
seem to me reconcilable with Dr. Lamborn's hypothesis. The objections which
they raise to it are as follows:

1st. The trees on the sandy uplands need the assumed support quite as much,
if not more, than those which grow on the neighboring loam — often clayey — of
the inundated bottoms, yet these upland forms always lack the excrescences.

2d. While a slight upward growing protuberance would doubtless strengthen
the root, the tall column exhibited by many knees would have no value in this
regard.

3d. The summits of the knees normally attain a height which brings them
above the level of the water in the growing season; when they cannot attain this
elevation the tree fails to develop. When, by the subsidence of the land at an
earthquake, or the artificial flooding of the area by dams, the crests of the knees
are brought under permanent water, the condition is fatal to the plant.

4th. The fact that the Cypress-knees serve as respiratory organs is made the
more probable by the existence of sharp upward flexures of the roots of the
Tupelo (see "Effect of permanent moisture on certain forest trees" in Science
(xiii., 176; March, 1889). These flexures, as there shown, are horseshoe-shaped
curves of the whole root, which, like the Cypress-knees, rise above the level of
permanent water. On the Tupelo these structures are clearly of no advantage
as anchors. Dr. Wilson and others have shown that similar structures exist in
many plants.

I was aware that roots extended downward from the base of the Cypress-knees,
but it seemed to me that the position of these roots was to be attributed to dis-
turbance in the circulation and growth, brought about by the development of the
knees rather than that the knees gave rise to the vertical roots.

Although 1 cannot at present agree with Dr. Lamborn in his main view, his
paper seems to me a very important contribution to a discussion which promises
to throw much light on the laws of plant development.

Harvard University. N. S. Shaler

[Garden and Forest 3 (1890): 57

Editor’s note: It appears that both correspondents were incorrect. C. A. Brown
and G. N. Montz wrote in Baldcypress: The Tree Unique, The Wood Eternal
(1986): "The concept that baldcypress knees are pneumatophores has not been
accepted experimentally, but the knees have been shown to conduct respiration.
The height of knees cannot, in all cases, be correlated to the average high water
levels. Only knees attached to low, conical trees may be used to determine the

The Botanical Basis

17

average height of floodwaters in a given swamp. Knees, when present, may aid in
strengthening of the hasal support, hut they apparently do not function as anchor-
ing devices for the trees since those without knees are wind-resistant. Knee for-
mation is considered to he a response to the aero-hydroperiod. Based upon all
studies to date, we conclude that storage of starch (which can he converted hack
into glucose as needed) is the major function of haldcypress knees."]

THE TUPELO TREE.

HE forests of eastern America contain few trees more interesting to the

J- botanist or of greater ornamental value than the Tupelo, Pepperidge, Sour
Gum or Water Gum, as one of the American representatives of the small genus
Nyssa is popularly called in different parts of the country. This genus was so
named hy Linnaeus for a water nymph, because the species known to him, inhab-
itants of our far southern states, grow usually in shallow ponds or deep swamps
overflowed for a considerable part of each year. Its nearest American relatives are
the Cornels [dogwoods], from which Nyssa differs principally in its five instead
of four-parted flowers, which are rarely perfect, but produce their male and
female organs separately, while the flowers of the Cornels are perfect, and, in its
alternate leaves, the leaves of our Cornels being opposite except in the case of a
single species.

The distribution of the genus is exceptional and interesting. Three species, or
four, according to the opinion of some excellent observers, inhabit different parts
of eastern North America from Maine to Texas. . . . This is not the place, and it
is not our intention, to discuss at this time the limits of the different American
species, which have puzzled botanists ever since they have known them, the
confusion beginning with Linnaeus himself, who included two very distinct spe-
cies under his original description. It is our purpose merely to call attention to
one of the species still little known or appreciated by planters as an ornamental
tree. This is the Nyssa which is generally distributed through all the eastern por-
tions of the United States south of the southern part of the state of Maine and
central Michigan. Nyssa aquatica appears to be the correct botanical name for
this tree, although it is only in the extreme south that it grows in water. [The
specific N. aquatica is now used only for that southern population and N.
sylvatica for the more northerly and abundant populations.] Near the coast of the
northern states it always grows by the borders of swamps in low, moist ground;
and in the interior, especially on the lower slopes of the high Allegheny Moun-
tains, where it attains its greatest size, it is found at considerable distances from
the water-courses and associated with the Oaks, Magnolias, Hemlocks, Hicko-
ries and Ashes which form the principal part of the forest-growth. Here the
Tupelo grows sometimes to a height of considerably more than a hundred feet,
with a tall, stout trunk three or four feet in diameter, and short slender branches,
contracted in their development by its neighbors in the forest. Near the coast it
is always a much smaller tree, especially in the southern states, and it is rare to
find it more than fifty feet high except in the mountain forests or in those of the
lower Ohio valley — a region of exceptional and extraordinary tree-growth. . . .

The Tupelo was introduced into England in 1808 by John Lyon, an English
plant-collector who traveled widely in North America early in the century. It was
doubtless sent earlier to Erance, as it is hardly possible that Michaux could have

1 8 Ainoldici 60/2

The value of the Tupelo as an ornamental tree is shown in our illustration representing a group of
these trees growing naturally near a small pond in the town of West Medford, Massachusetts, and
made from one of the excellent tree portraits for which we are indebted to Mr. Henry Brooks.

failed to introduce such a distinct and beautiful tree into the plantations of his
native land. Whether this is true or not it is certain that no American tree is now
more rarely seen in Europe, and a really fine specimen outside of America is not
easily recalled. . . . The roots are remarkably stout and long, with few rootlets, so
that the trees are never easy to move unless they have been grown in the nursery
and specially prepared for transplanting. It is easily raised from seed, however,
the seedlings are easily transplanted, and if they are set while still young where
the trees are to grow permanently, no difficulty will be experienced with them.
Even large plants dug up in the swamps can be successfully moved if extraordi-
nary care is taken in the operation, but for the ordinary cultivator it is best to
depend on small, nursery-grown plants when they can be obtained.

The Tupelo should he more often seen in ornamental plantations than it is at
present. The habit of this tree when allowed sufficient room in which to grow is
striking and interesting and quite unlike that assumed by any other of our hardy
trees. The foliage is abundant and lustrous, and in the autumn it assumes a bril-
liancy and splendor of coloring unrivaled by that of our other trees. It is one of
those trees which always attract attention^ — in the winter by its peculiar habit,
m summer by the beauty of its foliage and in autumn by its coloring. . . .

[Garden and Forest 3 (1890): 485-486]

A SLAUGHTERED GIANT.

OUR illustration shows a Sequoia gigantea with chop-
pers at work inside the cleft cutting their way through
the trunk. This is not a tree of the first size, being less than
twenty-five feet in diameter and about twenty at the point
where it was cut. In point of beauty and symmetry it was one
of the best of the surviving Big Trees. It stood until a year ago
in the Tule River forest, Tulare County, California, and was
sold by the private owner of the land to certain persons who
wished to exhibit it. The plan was to take a section of the
trunk, hollow it out to a shell and then divide it into conven-
ient and portable pieces, so that it could be carried about
and set up as a show. The project fell through, however, for
lack of funds, and the section of the slaughtered tree never
got beyond Visalia, in the county where it stood. It is now
stored in that city. Let us hope that the original owner of the
tree and its destroyers may some day realize that it will
never again make such an exhibition of grandeur and grace
as it did while towering above the spot where it began life as
a seedling a thousand years ago.

[Gaiden and Forest (1890) 3: 570]

A High-Grade
Paper: Garden and
Forest and
Nineteenth-Century
American Forestry

Char Miller

Stephanne B. Sutton made no
grand claims in her 1970 biogra-
phy of Charles S. Sargent for
Garden and Forest, the weekly
horticultural magazine he published
between 1888 and 1897. While ac-
knowledging that it was a "first-rate
publication," deftly edited by the tal-
ented journalist William A. Stiles, and
conceding that it was "an immediate
success," she also contrasted the effu-
sive praise it received with its lack of
"popularity"; the plaudits may have
been "gratifying," but a larger circula-
tion would have eased the journal's
incessant "financial crisis." Small in
number, its readers included "people
who worked with plants — foresters,
nurserymen, botanists, landscape
designers, and others whose opinions
mattered" in scientific and political
arenas. By its coverage of matters
botanical, the "magazine did its small
part to raise the horticulturist from
amateur to professional standing"; its
words, "when quoted in a politician's
speech or in the column of a popular
newspaper . . . carried authority."'

Yet neither small circulation nor
brief existence diminishes the maga-
zine's historical significance: it was
arguably the most important late-
nineteenth-century forum for discuss-
ing the role of science in human
affairs. Those who wrote about horti-

20 Ainoldia 60/2

from THE AXE IN ITS RELATION TO
ORNAMENTAL TREES.

IT is a curious fact that Americans, who have destroyed
more trees wastefully and foolishly than the people of any
other country, and have stood and seen their forests, the envy
of the rest of the world, swept away with hardly a voice
raised in protest, are more unwilling than other people to use
the axe in cases where the cutting of trees is really essential.
A hundred square miles of forest may be swept by fire from
some mountain range through the carelessness of an idle
hunter, a mountain stream may be ruined, and the fertility
of a smiling valley threatened. It is all taken as a matter of
course, and is looked on as one of those unfortunate occur-
rences which the community is powerless to prevent. The
lorests of the national domain are robbed of their timber, and
the public is satisfied with the simple acknowledgment of
the general government that it has not the power or author-
ity to protect its own property against the organized bands of
plunderers who have been preying on it for a quarter of a cen-
tury or longer. This indifference to trees when they are com-
posing elements of the forest is a marked feature in American
character, and is all the more marked from its contrast with
our feelings about trees individually, especially trees which
we have planted ourselves or have seen planted. When a tree
is cut in one of the parks of this city there is a protest raised
against the so-called barbarity of the act by a hundred voices
which are silent about the destruction of the Adirondack
forests. The protest in the one case is as much the result of
ignorance and indifference as the silence in the other; and it
is as necessary to use the axe, if the beauty and value of
ornamental plantations are to be maintained, as it is to save
the forests on the headwaters of important streams. . . .

[Editorial. Garden and Forest 3 (1890): 545]

culture or landscape design or forestry
were not just reporting on the latest
discoveries in their respective fields,
but were also participating in a larger
cultural debate about the appropriate
role of expertise in scientific research
and in shaping public policy. This
debate had profound national conse-
quences, eventually broadening the
responsibilities of the federal govern-
ment and influencing the intellectual
contours of modern America.

Contributors to Garden and Forest,
for example, used the journal to boldly
propose a new agenda for political
action in the United States. Nowhere
was this more evident than in the
magazine's advocacy of the emerging
science of forestry, of which Sargent
was a staunch supporter. Editorials
calling for the preservation of the
nation's forested estate and editor
Stiles' aggressive solicitation of
articles by foresters who shared these
sympathies established Garden and
Forest as the voice of those who
sought closer federal supervision of
public woodlands.

This demand was a tough sell, as its
staff and writers recognized: Ameri-
cans had little interest in federal land
management, and no taste at all for
the regulation of resource exploitation
by a powerful bureaucracy, especially
during a period when the Industrial
Revolution was consuming vast quan-
tities of timber. To change public
opinion, they would have to disseminate
counterarguments, a task that Garden and For-
est supported with evident enthusiasm. In its
ten volumes, the journal published an astonish-
ing number of articles related to forestry — more
than 450; together, they helped educate a popu-
lace that hitherto was ignorant about this sci-
ence and its social significance.

Europeans, by contrast, knew a lot about the
subject, benefitting from political cultures —
either monarchical or republican — that assumed
considerable power over public and private
property: they had long experimented with for-

est management and had developed professional
schools to promote research and educate forest
managers. Americans who worried about the
rapid disappearance of their forests were encour-
aged to study European models, first by George
Perkins Marsh's pathbreaking Man and Nature:
The Earth as Modified by Ffuman Action (1864),
and later by Garden and Forest. In looking east-
ward, they resembled reformers in other fields
who over the next seventy years would partici-
pate in a vibrant transatlantic exchange of ideas;
these Americans — whether concerned about
urban social services or devastated landscapes —

Forestry 2 1

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The Protection of Woodlands

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By HERMANN FURST,

Translated by Dr. John Nisbet, of the Indiana Forest
Sei*vice.

” A thorough and conscientious work ; one that
arouses reflection, and is therefore worthy of caretul
reading.*’ — Garden and Forest.

8vo, cloth, illustrated with colored plates, $3.50.

For sale by all booksellers, or, postpaid, upon receipt
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readily accepted European prescriptions for resolving
social ills through governmental intervention.^

Almost every number of Garden and Forest, for
example, included news from abroad. One squib that
editor Stiles inserted announced that a Societe des
Sylviculteurs de France et des Colonies had been formed
"for the purpose of diffusing the knowledge of silvicul-
ture and increasing the popular interest in this art." Why
bother with such a minor event in France? Because the
new organization's ambitions mirrored those of the
American magazine's patrons and other readers. Stiles
also made space for lengthy reviews of books that
described the latest European advances in forestry sci-
ence and devoted many columns to enthusiastic first-
hand accounts of tours of forests in Russia and Italy,
England, Germany, and France. Priority was given, how-
ever, to learned assessments of the transferability of the
European experience to the New World. One of those
who so argued was Gifford Pmchot, who while studying
at L'Ecole nationale forestiere in Nancy, France, wrote a
series of articles on European forestry for Garden and
Forest. In one that compared various governmental for-
estry systems in Europe, he pointed out that the "prin-
ciples which underlie not only German, hut all rational
forest-management, are true all the world over," Gifford
Pinchot observed, "but the methods into which the
same principles have developed are as widely dissimilar
as the countries in which they are being applied." That
being the case, there was one European country that
"may best claim our attention" — Switzerland. Its "his-
tory of forestry ... is of peculiar interest to the people of
the United States," he suggested, "because in its begin-
nings may be traced many of the characteristics of the
situation here and now, and because the Swiss, like the
Americans, were confronted by the problem of a con-
crete forest-policy extending over the various states of a
common union.

Other authors reached similar conclusions, and like
Pinchot exemplified the opportunities inherent in cross-
cultural fertilization: Garl A. Schenck, a German-born
and -trained forester who managed George Vanderbilt's
vast forests at Biltmore, North Garolina, also established
the first American forestry school there in 1898; that
same year Bernard Fernow, his countryman, became the
first head of Gornell's School of Forestry after serving as
the third chief of the U.S. Bureau of Forestry from 1886
to 1898. Pinchot, along with his family, underwrote the
Yale School of Forestry in 1900. Throughout their
careers as foresters and educators, each man was sensi-
tive to the difficulty of importing cultural institutions.

22 Arnoldia 60/2

NJATIVE TREES,

The largest and best stock in America furnished by the dozen, hundred or
thousand, at extremely low prices. I am selling agent for Harlan P. Kelsey's North
Carolina Nursery, and will send descriptive catalogue on application.

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Landscape Architect, Pittsburg, Pa.

but each knew that
the development of
forest management in
America would ini-
tially depend on Euro-
pean ideas. ■*

Fernow and Pinchot
in particular beat the
drum for an augmented
governmental presence
on public lands, a posi-
tion that Sargent seconded strongly in his edito-
rial campaign for forest reservations. Moreover,
their writings had educational value for a grow-
ing cadre of professional foresters that was just
beginning to carve out a distinct niche within
the field of landscape management. "If I say that
forestry has nothing whatsoever to do with the
planting of road-side trees, that parks and
gardens are foreign to its nature . . . that scenery
is altogether outside its province," Pinchot
asserted in Garden and Forest in 1895, "I am
making a conservative statement with which
every forester will agree." Its connections with
"arboriculture and landscape art" derive from
the fact that "it employs to a certain extent the
same raw material . . . hut applies it to a wholly
different purpose." American foresters, like
their European counterparts before them, were
staking out their turf.^

This assertion of professional specialization,
when linked to the slow but significant growth
of public support for an increased federal inter-
vention in forestry management, was invaluable
in developing a political movement devoted to
conserving natural resources. It is of lasting
significance that this new ethos of conservation,
which would dominate early twentieth-
century political discourse in America, found
its first sustained and vivid expression in Gar-
den and Forest.

Endnotes

' S. B. Sutton, Charles Sprague Sargent and the Arnold
Arboretum (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1970), 131-133.

^ George Perkins Marsh, Man and Nature: The Earth
as Modified by Human Action (New York: Charles
Scribner, 1864); Donald I. Pisani, "Forests and
Conservation, 1865-1890," in Char Miller, ed.,
American Forests: Nature, Culture, and Politics,

(Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997), 15-34,-
Daniel T. Rogers, Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics
in a Progressive Age (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1998); Char Miller, "Wooden Politics: Bernhard
Fernow and the Quest for a National Forest Policy,
1876-1898," in Harold K. Steen, ed.. The Origins of
the National Forests (Durham: Forest History
Society, 1992), 287-301.

^ Garden and Forest (hereafter, GePF) 4 (1891): 22.

GePF 10 (1897): 397; 8 (1895): 319; Carl A. Schenck,
"Private and Public Forestry," Ge)F 10 (1897): 232-
233, 242-243, 252, 262; Bernard Fernow, "European
Forest Management," GePF 1 (1888): 454-455; "Why
We Need Skilled Foresters," GePF 8 (1895): 131;
Gifford Pinchot, "The Forest," GePF 3 (1890): 374,
386; "Forest-policy Abroad," 4 (1891): 8-9.

^ Char Miller and James G. Lewis, "A Contested Past:
Forestry Education in the United States, 1898-1998,"
Journal of Forestry 97 (1999): 38-43; Gifford Pinchot,
"The Need for Forest Schools in America," GeOF 8
(1895): 298. Sargent and Pinchot publicly disagreed on
one aspect of the professionalization of forestry,
namely, the use of military officers as forest guards on
the nation's forests. Sargent favored training military
officers in the principles of forestry, while Pinchot
believed that only a professional civilian service
was appropriate. GePF 3 (1890): 581; 3 (1891): 9; 4
(1891)150: 9; 4 (1891): 34-5. As intense as their
disagreements would become, they were convinced
that the federal government must patrol these
valuable public lands; their care could not be left to
the states or corporations.

.Acknowledgment

I am grateful to lames G. Lewis for his research

assistance on this project.

Char Miller is professor and chair of history at Trinity
University. He is co-author of The Greatest Good: 100
Years of Forestry in America (1999), editor of American
Forests: Nature, Culture and Politics (1997) and of Water
in the West (2000); he is also author of a forthcoming
biography of Gifford Pinchot.

Forestry 23

WANTED, A TRACT ON FORESTRY.

To the Editor of Garden and Forest;

Sir. — The necessity of forestry reform is admitted by all intelligent
people who take time to examine the question, but no reform can make
much headway until the people at large become convinced of its neces-
sity. The prime need, then, in every such cause is to instruct them as
quickly as possible in that which so greatly concerns their welfare.

The two great avenues to the human mind are through the eye and the
ear, and of these the first is, no doubt, the most important. That which
we see makes, on the whole, the greatest impression. Such object-
lessons, therefore, as that contemplated by the Adirondack League Club,
referred to in your issue of February 18th, will, of course, be a vast help
in forming a healthy public opinion concerning the management of our
national forests. The fine example of the city of Fynn [Massachusetts],
which is now engaged in acquiring a vast and varied tract of adjacent
woodland, embracing some 1,400 acres, to be held as a public forest and
park for the use of the people forever, is another splendid object-lesson,-
the enterprise of the little village of Freedonia, New York, which has had
the wit to seize the park idea by the right handle and forestall the future
by boldly laying out two parks in the very heart of the town. These and
other similar examples help along the causes with which they may sev-
erally be classified far more rapidly than can the very best of preaching.
May such tangible teaching increase.

Yet there is a large and important work to be accomplished through
the "foolishness of preaching." The press has done and is doing much.
Still it occurs to me that there is need of, or at least room for, special
work through such tracts as that one which assisted the great
rehoisement of certain districts of France. There, the forests having dis-
appeared through heedless cutting, and the turf been gradually destroyed
by the sharp hoofs and the hungry gnawing of the flocks, great and
increasing damage from floods began to overwhelm the valleys. To
reclothe the heights and restore the equilibrium was found to be impos-
sible until the people — the peasantry who had votes — had been won
over. A prize was offered for the best short work adapted to teaching
them these lessons, the little book "Studies of Master Peter" being the
successful competitor. Some similar work, all the better if shorter,
which could be widely disseminated among our rural populations
would, I am confident, accomplish much toward producing a right popu-
lar view of the vast forest-interests of our land. Who will write one?

Dorchester, Mass. S.

(Mr. B. E. Fernow, Chief of the Forestry Department at Washington, has
already written some leaflets for general distribution, but we cannot
have too many of them nor have them prepared from too many points of
view. — Ed.)

[Garden and Forest 4 (1891): 106]

24 Arnoldia 60/2

VALUE OF MOUNTAIN FORESTS.

The first and most important function of mountain forests is the preservation
of the mountains themselves by clothing them w^ith soil. The relation of moun-
tain forests to the soil out of which they grow is curious and interesting. The soil
now produces the trees, but the forest has produced the soil which now nourishes
it. There was a time when there was no soil on the mountains of New Hampshire,
nor on any portion of the Appalachian System — when the mountains were only
ridges, slopes and summits of bare rock. They were composed wholly of mineral
substances, of matter entirely inert and incapable of supplying food to vegetable
organisms. There was not an atom of soil on the rocks of the whole region, and no
vegetable growth of any kind. Then when conditions permitted. Nature began a new
order of things here with some of the lowest forms of vegetable life, resembling the
lichens of our time. Some of these could grow here and there on the rocks, and what-
ever could grow would die and decay, but would not wholly perish. Some slight par-
ticles of its fibre or substance would remain undestroyed through all the changes of
decomposition, and in the course of centuries or thousands of years a thin film of
soil was accumulated here and there sufficient to nourish vegetation of a little
higher character and organization than had belonged to the pioneer organisms.

How great the distance from that far beginning to the first trees! And very poor
and inferior trees the earliest ones were, when they did appear, compared with those
which make our forests now; but they were the best that the still scanty soil would
sustain. Ever since the leaves of the first trees began to fall the trees have been
slowly adding to the deposit of soil which now covers the rocks, and which has
reached the depth and productive potency required to sustain the noble forests of
our own time.

The great stratum of fertile, life-producing soil which now lies folded around the
shoulders of the hills is the result and accumulation of patient ages of dendral toil.
Nature has wrought incessantly, through mighty cycles of time, to clothe the desert
rocks with life and beauty, and in the untainted air of these lofty slopes and plateaus
she now grows forests which are like the columned aisles of vast cathedrals. Ships
which cleave the waves of every sea, and the cottages and palaces of mighty cities,
with myriads of structures for man's varied industries, have been builded of the
materials supplied by our mountain forests. The superior quality of the timber now
grown, and the vast quantities in which it is produced, are effects of the wonderful
fertility which the soil has attained. It is richer than ever before, but it has not
reached the limit of possible productiveness. There is no such limit, indeed, and if
our mountain forests were rightly managed they would forever increase in fertility
and the quality of their timber would be thereby gradually improved.

A forest is the only crop, so far as I know, which can be produced perpetually on
the same ground without diminishing in any degree the fertility of the soil. It is a
remarkable fact that a forest not only does not impoverish the soil out of which it
grows, but that it actually enriches it. As the soil is thus improved it responds by
producing superior timber. A mountain forest would yield better timber, and more
of it, at the end of a thousand years of proper management than at the beginning and
proper management means and includes the cutting of every tree when it reaches
its best estate.

Forestry 25

Farming in Mountain Regions.

The entire effort at farming in mountain forest-regions in this country is often a
most destructive and suicidal mistake. Much of the ground that has been cleared for
cultivation in such regions is so steep that if forest-conditions are once destroyed
upon it the soil is certain to be washed away. It has always been manifest to intelli-
gent observers that such land is suited to the perpetual production of timber, and of
that crop alone. In many instances in our state land has been cleared and "farmed"
with very slight returns which would be much more valuable than it now is if it
were still clothed with forest. The yield of farm products in such cases is scanty and
uncertain. In some places the land is too high and cold for successful cultivation.
There are frosts late in spring and early in autumn, and sometimes in every month
of the brief summer, and the soil is soon exhausted. It would be difficult to find
anywhere an instance of more obvious natural adaptation to a particular function
than our whole mountain forest-region exhibits in its fitness for permanent benefi-
cial use after forest-conditions have been fully destroyed. It would have been much
better if some of our "abandoned farms" had never been cleared. In some parts of
our country vast values have been permanently blotted out by clearing and culti-
vating mountain land, and those states will be poorer for all time to come by reason
of the resulting destruction and removal of the soil of considerable areas of their
mountain regions.

Ruin by Fire.

The most fatal agency in destroying the soil of a mountain forest-country, and in
wrecking the mountains themselves, is that of fire, and in the history of most moun-
tain forest-regions the operation of this agency has been closely connected with the
attempts to cultivate the soil to which I have just referred. In various regions of the
Appalachian mountain system many of the farms have been cleared simply by burn-
ing the timber and brush left on a tract after it has been lumbered over, and the first
crop is planted in the ashes. In a few years the soil is exhausted or washed away, and
the farmer goes a little farther up or down the valley, or across the stream which
runs through it, and repeats the operation. But the injury to the mountains which is
caused by the destruction of the soil of these limited tracts which have been cleared
for cultivation is trivial when compared with the losses which have resulted from
the forest-fires having their origin in these clearings.

When we consider the rapidly increasing density of the population of our coun-
try, and the great advance in the value of all fertile lands, especially in the eastern
states, it is obvious that the complete destruction of the soil of any considerable area
is a very serious matter. There are few kinds of losses or misfortunes affecting
property which are so calamitous as this. It is a crime against posterity, a permanent
subtraction from the wealth and the capabilities of the country. The soil is, to a very
great extent, the country itself. A burned city can be rebuilt, and the system of
insurance distributes the loss widely. But there is no insurance on the soil of our
mountain forests, and when it is once thoroughly burned it will require mighty
cycles of time to restore it. Its producing capacity for ages, and all the "promise
and potency" of a perpetual succession of valuable crops, are at once reduced to
nothingness.

— From the Report of J. B. Harrison, Commissioner of Forests for New Hampshire
[Garden and Forest 3i (1890): 613-614]

26 Ainohlia 60/2

A NEW JERSEY PINE EOREST.

The illustration upon page 164 represents a pure forest of Pitch Pine iPinus
rigida) in Ocean County, New Jersey. It is situated about twelve miles from
the sea coast, and forms a part of the extensive and interesting domain which sur-
rounds the Laurel House at Lakewood, to the proprietors of which establishment
it belongs.

This forest is interesting from several points of view. It is extremely pictur-
esque and beautiful. It occupies ground which only fifty years ago was employed
for farming purposes; and it is one of few forests composed of a single species of
tree which can he seen in the Northern States, where a number of different trees
are usually associated together in forest growth. The Pines in this Lakewood

Forestry 1l1

forest have an average height of fifty feet; and their trunks an average diameter
of ten inches. They stand so close together that grasses and undershruhs cannot
survive in their dense unbroken shade. The forest floor is deeply carpeted with
moss, however, and altogether this forest reminds one more of one of the planted
Pine forests of northern Europe than anything we rememher to have seen before
in the United States. The rapid and vigorous growth of this young forest upon
poor and comparatively worthless lands shows, moreover — and this is its chief
interest — the way such lands along the Atlantic seaboard, north of Virginia, can
be used to the best advantage. And finally it illustrates the possibility of protect-
ing, by means of a little trouble and foresight, such forests from burning up in
the fires which annually rage, unchecked, over great tracts in the New Jersey
coast region. . . .

The Pitch Pine is not one of the most valuable Pine trees of the United States.
Its wood is coarse grained, full of resin, and not very strong. . . . Before southern
pine was brought to this market the pitch pine of New Jersey was the only avail-
able material in many parts of the State for timbers and flooring; and there are
still houses in some counties where floors and floor-timbers are known to have
been in constant use for more than a century. But it is for firewood and for char-
coal that the pitch pine is most valuable,- and the nearness and accessibility of
these New Jersey Pine forests to great centres of population give them special
importance as sources of fuel supply, which no other forests of this character in
the country possess. Much land within three or four hours by rail of this city and
of Philadelphia, now utterly unproductive and rapidly deteriorating through the
fires which sweep over it every year, can be made highly productive and profit-
able by means of the Pitch Pine. People who own land of this character will see
much to interest and instruct them in these Lakewood forests, and in those in
the town of Orleans, on Cape Cod, in Massachusetts.

C.S.Slargent]

[Garden and Forest 1 (1888): 166]

THE SIHLWALD.— I.

IT was my good fortune recently to pass a month in the Sihlwald, as that
portion of the forest-property of the City of Zurich is called, which stretches
for some five miles along the narrow valley of the Sihl. It is not often that a for-
est is so favorably situated both geographically and as to the conditions which
determine the value and fertility of timber-lands,- and while there are many
peculiarities in its management which mark it as distinct from the great body
of European forests, it exhibits so full a knowledge of forestry applied to such
excellent conditions and so admirable an adaptation of means to ends, that if it
fails of being typical of that which is, it may assuredly challenge attention as the
illustration of that which ought to be. Further, since during the last fiscal year it
yielded to the city a net revenue of more than eight dollars per acre, a short
account of it may serve to emphasize the fact, so often lost sight of, that the pro-
tection of forests is not an end, but a means, and that the whole question of for-
estry has a very definite and important financial bearing. It has, therefore, seemed
that a few words upon the Sihlwald might not be without interest to the readers

28 Arnoldia 60/2

of Garden and Forest, and I purpose, after describing it briefly in the present
paper, and sketching the management of the forest in a second, to touch upon it
in a final one as a piece of municipal property . . . That precious condition of the
surface which the French and German unite in describing as "forest-soil," so
slow in forming and so quick to disappear wherever the full sunlight is allowed
to reach the ground, has here been produced in perfection by centuries of forest-
growth. It is perhaps to this factor, next to the abundance of humidity, that the
high annual yield of wood in the Sihlwald is due.

The growth which covers the soil thus fortunately suited to its needs is a
mixed high or seedling forest, in which the deciduous trees largely predominate.
Under the law of the rotation of forest-crops, not so well known as that which
determines an analogous success in agriculture because it acts over vastly
longer periods, the character of the mixture has undergone a gradual change,
until, in the course of two centuries and a half, the percentage of coniferous
trees has declined from sixty-one to fourteen, and the deciduous forest has taken
their place. . . .

Scattered along between this forest and the Sihl . . . are placed the saw-mill,
handle factory and injection plant, whose presence as integral parts of the equip-
ment of the forest, chiefly distinguishes the management of the Sihlwald from
that of other similarly situated European woodlands.

THE SIHLWALD.— II.

IN the organization of a normally stocked forest the object of first importance
is the cutting each year of an amount of timber equal to the total annual
increase over the whole area, and no more. It is further desirable in any long
settled community that the forests be so managed as to yield a measurably con-
stant return in material. Otherwise difficulties in the supply of labor and the dis-
posal of the produce make themselves felt, and the value of the forest to its owner
tends to decrease. This is especially true in the case of the Sihlwald, whose mills
derive their raw material exclusively from the forest to which they belong, and
whose supply of labor is limited to the men whom it furnishes with steady
employment. Either excess of deficit in the annual production implies loss.

In order to attain this steadiness of yield it is obviously necessary that a cer-
tain number of trees become fit to cut each year. The Sihlwald has accordingly
been so "organized" that areas of equal productive capacity are covered by stocks
of every age, from last year's seedling to the mature tree. . . . The working plan
for the Lower Sihlwald, then, prescribes for the forest . . . the operations of what
Dr. Schlich has called in his Manual of Forestry "The Shelter-wood Compart-
ment System." It may not be without interest to follow the life history of a com-
partment in which this system is carried out.

After the mature trees had been felled and removed from the area which fur-
nished the yield of the Lower Sihlwald last year the thick crop of seedlings which
had grown up under their shelter was finally exposed to the full influence of the
light and air. The felling and rough shaping of the timber, the piling of logs and
cord-wood and the trampling of the men had combined with the crisis of expo-
sure to destroy the new crop in places and create a few small blanks. Fiere, as

Forestry 29

View in the Sihlwald

soon as the disappearance of the snow had made it possible, groups of the kinds
of seedlings necessary to preserve the mixture or destined to increase the propor-
tion of the more valuable species were planted. The operation, necessarily an
expensive one, is justified by the greater resistance of a mixed forest to nearly all
the calamities which may befall standing timber. Simultaneously with the plant-
ing the Willows, Hazels and other worthless species were destroyed, as well as
the "pre-existing seedlings," whose larger growth, according to the disputed
theory held at the Sihlwald, would damage their younger neighbors more by their
shade than their greater volume would increase the final yield of timber. The
incipient forest, then, practically uniform in age and size and broken by no blanks
which the growth of a year or two will not conceal, is fairly started on the course
of healthy development, which it is to continue undisturbed until it reaches the
age of fifteen years.

At this point occurs the first of a series of thinnings which follow each other
at intervals of seven or eight years, until the trees have entered the last third of
their existence. There is, perhaps, no silvicultural question more in dispute than
this of the time and degree of thinning which will yield the best results in qual-
ity and quantity of timber. The method pursued at the Sihlwald, consecrated by
habit and success, gives ample space for the healthy development of the crown
from a very early age without admitting light enough through the leaf-canopy to
sustain an undergrowth until the the trees are nearly ready to give place to their
descendants. Such shrubs or seedlings as still appear, thanks to a shade-hearing

30 Arnoldia 60/2

temperament, are systematically cut out. It may be strongly doubted whether
such a policy might safely be applied on soil less moist than that of the Sihlwald;
but here, at least, the trees reach the age of sixty years, tall, straight, clean-holed,
and in condition to make the best of the last part of the period of maximum
growth, which a large number of measurements have shown to occur in general
between the ages of seventy and ninety years. A heavy thinning now comes to
the assistance of the best specimens of growth, and they are left to profit by it
until seven years before the date fixed for their fall. Then begin the regeneration
cuttings, whose object is to admit through the leaf-canopy an amount of light,
varying with the temperament of each species, whose mission is to give vitality
to the seedlings which the trees, stimulated themselves by their more favorable
situation, now begin to produce in considerable quantities. To this end the light
which falls from above has a powerful auxiliary in that which the system of fell-
ing each year in a long narrow strip admits from the side, and so admirable is this
double method that the time which elapses between the beginning and the end
of a regeneration is but half the average for less favored localities. This applies
only to the deciduous trees. The time required by the conifers is much longer, and
the incomplete regeneration which they furnish is supplemented by planting in
the blanks already mentioned. But for the self-sown seedlings of both classes the
amount of light is gradually increased, the trees which shelter them are at length
wholly removed, and the cycle of growth repeats itself. . . .

Nancy, France. Gifford Pinchot

[Garden and Forest 3 (1890): 374, 386]

from NOTES ON THE FOREST FLORA OF JAPAN.— XXIIL

. . . THE most generally planted timber-tree of Japan is the Sake, Cryptomeria
laponica, and its wood is more universally used throughout the empire than that
of any other Conifer. It is one of the common trees of temple-gardens and road-
side plantations, and, when seen at its best, as in the temple-groves at Nikko or
Nara, where it rises to the height of a hundred or a hundred and twenty-five feet,
with a tall shaft-like stem tapering abruptly from a broad base, covered with
bright cinnamon-red bark and crowned with a regular conical dark green head, it
is a beautiful and stately tree which has no rival except in the Sequoias of Cali-
fornia. Great planted forests of the Cryptomeria appear all over Hondo on broken
foot-hills and mountain-slopes up to an elevation of nearly three thousand feet
above the sea, low valleys and good soil being usually selected for such planta-
tions, as the trees need protection from high winds. The plantations decrease in
size and luxuriance in northern Hondo, and the cultivation of the Sake does not
appear to be attempted north of Hakkodate where there is a grove of small trees
on the slope of the hill above the town. The wood is coarse-grained, with thick
layers of annual growth, dark reddish heart-wood and thick page sap-wood; it is
easily worked, strong and durable, and is employed in all sorts of construction.
The bark, which is carefully stripped from the trees when they are cut down, is
an important article of commerce and is used to cover the roofs of houses. A large
round bunch of branchlets covered with their leaves hung over the door of a shop
is the familiar sign of the dealer in sake.

Forestry 31

Japan owes much of the beauty of its groves and gardens to the Cryptomeria.
Nowhere is there a more solemn and impressive group of treees than that which
surrounds the temples and tombs at Nikko, and the long avenue of this tree,
under which the descendants of leyasu traveled from the capital of the Shoguns
to do honor at the burial-place of the founder of the Tokugawa dynasty, has not
its equal in stately grandeur. This avenue, if the story told of its origin is true,
can teach a useful lesson, and carries hope to the heart of the planter of trees who
will see in it a monument more lasting than those which men sometimes erect
in stone or bronze in the effort to perpetuate the memory of their greatness.
When the body of leyasu was laid m its last resting-place on the Nikko hills his
successor in the Shogunate called upon the Damios of the empire to send each a
stone or bronze lantern to decorate the grounds about the mortuary temples. All
complied with the order but one man, who, too poor to send a lantern, offered
instead to plant trees beside the road, that visitors to the tomb might be protected
from the heat of the sun. The offer was fortunately accepted, and so well was the
work done that the poor man's offering surpasses in value a thousand-fold those
of all his more fortunate contemporaries.

Something of the beauty of this avenue appears in the illustration, although,
without the aid of colors, it is impossible to give an idea of the beauty of the
Cryptomeria. The planted avenue extends practically all the way from Tokyo to
Nikko, but it is only when the road reaches the foot-hills that it passes between

?>1 Arnoldia 60/2

rows of Cryptomerias, the lower part being planted, as is the case with the other
great highways of Japan, with Pine-trees; nor, as it has often been stated, is this
avenue continuous, for whenever a village occurs or a roadside tea-house, which
are scattered all along the road, there is a break in the row of trees, and it is only
in some particular spots that a long view of continuous trees is obtained. The
railroad, which follows parallel and close to the avenue for a considerable dis-
tance and then crosses it just before the Nikko station is reached, is a serious
injury to it. The trees, as will be seen in the illustration, are planted on high
banks made by throwing up the surface-soil from the roadway; they are usually
planted in double rows, and often so close together that sometimes two or three
trees have grown together by a process of natural grafting. Young trees are con-
stantly put in to fill gaps, and every care apparently is taken to preserve and
protect the plantation. How many of the trees originally planted when the
avenue was first laid out in the beginning of the seventeenth century are left it is
impossible to say, but I suspect that most of those now standing are of much later
date. One of the tree;s close to the upper end of the road which had been injured
by fire was cut down during our visit to Nikko. The sturnp, breast-high above the
ground, measured four feet inside the bark, and showed only one hundred
and five layers of annual growth. Few of the trees in the avenue were much
larger than this, although in the neighborhood of the temples there are a few
which girt over twenty feet; these were probably planted when the grounds were
first laid out.

The two [most valuable timber-trees in Japan], Chamscyparis and the Cryp-
tomeria, are now almost unknown in a wild state. They may, perhaps, be found
growing naturally on some of the southern mountains which we did not visit;
wherever we went, however, we saw only trees that had been planted by man,
although some of the plantations had evidently lived through several centuries.

C.S.Slaigent]

[Garden and Forest 6 (1893): 443]

A MUSEUM SPECIMEN OF SEQUOIA GIGANTEA.

section of a trunk of one of the California Big Trees is now almost ready to

-tjLhe set up in the Jesup collection of American woods in the Museum of Natu-
ral History in this city. Like the other specimens of this collection, this one is
four and a half feet in long, measuring with the grain, but it is rather more than
twenty feet in diameter, and when fully prepared the great wheel will be set up
on its rim as the beautiful specimen of Redwood is near by. The tree grew on land
now owned by the King's River Lumber Company, near Sequoia, Fresno County,
California, a long day's ride up the mountain from Visalia. To make transporta-
tion possible it was split into twelve sections, the centre-piece being round, and
eleven other radiating from it. It is an admirable specimen, with perfect grain and
apparently no wind-checks, although through one of the sections there is a nar-
row decayed tunnel something like eighteen inches long and an inch or two in
width. Outside of this, however, the trunk is perfectly solid, and this decay prob-
ably came from some injury to the trunk, which may have been bruised by a fall-
ing tree; and if we can estimate time by annual rings of growth the accident
happened at about the date when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. Mr. S. D. Dill,

Forestry 33

who has prepared all the specimens for this great exhibition, is now riveting the
segments of the giant trunk together with great iron bolts, so that it will be per-
fectly solid when it is finally ready for its position in the centre of the collection.

The tree from which this trunk section was cut was one of a few trees left
standing of a once magnificent Sequoia-grove, and the stumps about it show that
their growth was very large, one not far from this tree being forty feet m diam-
eter. The remains of the old mill which has turned these venerable trees into
lumber is still there, but other mills are at work cutting from 125,000 to 130,000
feet every day. It may be said that the Converse Basin tract of Sequoias, which
belongs to the King's River Lumber Company, is about ten miles back from the
place where this tree was cut, and Mr. Moore, the Superintendent of the com-
pany, estimates that there is enough of that one kind of timber on the tract to
keep these mills running at their present capacity for fifty years. When the trees
which stand high up on the slopes of canons are felled the logs are cut off into
proper lengths. They are then blown apart by dynamite into halves, quarters and
eighths, and a powerful steam-engine, with a steel cable, draws this split timber
down to a greased tramway of round peeled logs, over which they are shot away
to the mill, near the mouth of the canon. They are then sawed up into lumber of

Stump of Sequoia gigantea on land of the King's River Lumber Company

34 Arnoldia 60/2

proper sizes and floated down through a V-shaped flume from the mill to the rail-
road, sixty-two miles away. This flume is supplied hy a large reservoir in the
mountains. Although when dry the Sequoia is one of the lightest of American
woods, it is very heavy when full of sap, and will not float readily until it is sea-
soned, so that the timber needs to lie some time before it is floated out of the
mountain. The lumber looks very much like redwood, and is sold under this
name. Indeed, it is only distinguished from redwood by the eye of an expert.

This particular tree was called "Mark Twain," and girthed sixty-two feet at
eight feet from the ground and ninety feet at the surface. It was a straight, hand-
some tree some three hundred feet high, and without a limb for about two hun-
dred feet from the ground. Mr. Moore estimated that it contained four hundred
thousand feet of lumber, and the specimen cut, four and a half feet long, weighed
over thirty tons. It took two men about three weeks to cut it down. The axemen
chopped out deep notches on the opposite sides of the tree, leaving a compara-
tively narrow strip through the centre untouched. A notch was then cut at one
end of this centre-piece on the side toward which the tree was to fall . . . Two long
cross-cut saws were then welded together and the workrnen began to saw in hori-
zontally opposite the cut last mentioned, and wedges were driven in until the
tree toppled over . . . [The illustration] gives some idea of the size of the tree at
the ground. Fifty men of the Lumber Company's force are here seen standing out
on the sap-wood and bark of the stump, and the tools with which the giant was
overthrown lie in the centre, where there is easily room for a hundred more men.
Of course, the butt of the log that fell was sawn off above the bevel made by the
axes, and in a plane perpendicular to the axis of the log, so that the bottom of
the specimen in the museum represents a cut about ten feet from the ground.
A section of the log next above this has been secured as a specimen for the
British Museum.

Every lover of nature must be rejoiced at the fact that the National Govern-
ment has taken possession of several of the most extensive groves of Big Trees
that remain in California, so that they cannot pass into private hands and be
turned into lumber, a fate which has already befallen so many of these oldest and
noblest inhabitants of our mountain forests.

[Editorial. Garden and Forest 5 (1892): 541-542]

THE FORESTS OF THE NATIONAL DOMAIN.

The small company of forward-looking people who, in the face of almost
universal apathy, had been for years urging the necessity of some rational
system of management for the forests on our national domain, felt greatly
encouraged ten years ago when President Arthur was moved to mention the sub-
ject in one of his annual messages. We have no systematic forest-policy yet, not
even the beginning of such a policy, but we are no longer surprised or unduly
elated over the fact that men in places of high authority consider the matter
worth talking about, at least. President Cleveland, like his immediate predeces-
sors, in his message to Congress, which assembled last month, strongly advised
that some adequate protection should be provided for the areas of forest which
had been reserved by proclamation, and he also recommended the adoption of

Forestry 35

some comprehensive scheme of forest-management. He condemned the present
policy of the Government of surrendering for small considerations immense
tracts of timber-land which ought to be reserved as permanent sources of timber-
supply, and urged the prompt abandonment of this wasteful policy for a conser-
vative one, which should recognize in a practical way the importance of our
forest-inheritance as a vital element of the national prosperity.

The House of Representatives, too, has taken prompt action upon Mr. McRae's
bill, entitled. An Act to Protect Public Forest Reservations. The provisions of the
bill are simple. It authorizes the employment of the army to patrol these reser-
vations, as has been done effectively in the Yellowstone Park and in the Yosemite
Valley, and it empowers the Secretary of the Interior to make regulations in
regard to their occupancy, to utilize the timber of commercial value they contain,
and to preserve the forest-cover from destruction. It also empowers the Secretary
of the Interior to cut and sell timber on non-reserved lands under the same rules
as those made for the forest reservations, provided that it shall be first shown that
such cuttings shall not be injurious to the public interests. The bill had some
unfortunate features, but any system which regulates the use of public timber is
better than the indiscriminate plunder that has been going on hitherto, and the
authorization to use the military for protective purposes is altogether commend-
able. The bill was amended, however, to strike out, if we understand it correctly,
the provisions relating to non-reserved lands, and it restricts the sale of timber
on the reservations to trees that are dead or mature, thus limiting skilled forest
practice, instead of authorizing trained foresters to make their own selection,
and, worse than all, it grants free supplies of timber from the reservations to
miners and settlers.

It is to be hoped that when this measure comes before the Senate that its origi-
nal features will be restored. In its present form it does little more than to expose
the timber on the reservations to new dangers. ... If military protection is
assured, that is one step forward, but if such protection is made possible only
when the War Department shall consider it worth while, it is a very short step,
indeed. No doubt, any measure which gives the assurance of efficient policing of
the reservations, or efficiently controls the cutting of public timber, is to that
extent a gain, but we certainly want something more definite and decisive than
the McRae bill as it now stands. . . .

[Garden and Forest 8 (1895): 1]

WHAT is to be the fate of forests on the national domain, and how is the
much larger forest area of the country, now in private hands, to be man-
aged in the future, are questions which, a few years ago, would have excited but
trifling interest anywhere in the United States. The current issue of The Century
magazine shows that these matters are now subjects of serious study by many
thoughtful Americans. The editor of a great periodical is a good judge of what
subjects are of immediate popular interest, and the fact that The Century not
only makes a distinct proposition of its own for action in the matter of forest-
preservation, but devotes ten pages to setting forth the views of persons who,
from their official standing or personal knowledge, are qualified to say something

GARDEN

/\ N D

FOREST

A-JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE
HANDSCAPEARTAND-FORESTRYI

• lANl I ARY- 50 ■ 1895

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 m iiu iif jjiAJui^JuuuiJuujii' uulu t.wr j i ■ i vvj w um J/\l\U/\ivi <-'u i itti'fJU’iimmiuiiiiiiiiiiiifuijrjuMiiimuiiuJuuduiAUJii

lu iifju’iimmuuuimiux»juLurjuMiiimuiiJuyuud^^

Price Ten Cents.] Copyright, 1895, by Thb Garden and Forest Pubushing Cohpany, [$4.00 A YeaR, IN ADVANCE,

[few, Rare aiOeaill Flits.

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Catalogues on application. -^9

JOHN SAUL, Washington, D. C.

Pitcher & Manda,

(Incorporated)

SHORT HILLS, N. J.

HO, PLANTERS!

SEND for our large Wholesale List of Collected,
Native Ornamentals. Good plants; low prices.
Try us.— WM. H. HARRISON k SONS, Lebanon
Springs, N. Y., U. S. A. (Please mention this paper.)

The February “Century,”

READY FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1st,

WILL CONTAIN

— SYMPOSIUn ON

Prof. Sargent’s Scheme of Forest Preser=
vation by Military Control,

Edward A. Bowers,

U. S. Asst. Commissioner of Public Lands,

B. E. Fernow,

Chief of Division of Forestry,

Dept, of Agriculture.

J. T. Rothrock,

Pres. Penna. State Forest Commission.

CONTRIBUTED BY

Frederick Law Olmsted.
Verplanck Colvin,

Supt. Adirondack Survey.

Theodore Roosevelt.
Gifford Pinchot.

N. S. Shaler.

D. n. Riordan,

Pres. Arizona Lumber and Timber Co.

John riuir.

Cleveland Abbe,

Prof.of.\feteorology, U. S. Weather Bureau.

William J. Palmer.

George S. Anderson, Captain U. S. A., in charge of Yellowstone National Park.

DON’T MISS IT. READY ON FRIDAY. SOLD EVERYWHERE.

Forestry 37

worth hearing on the subject, is an evidence that we are gradually nearing the
time when indifference and lethargy in relation to this matter will give place to
an active realization of the fact that the prosperity of our country is directly con-
nected with the proper management of our forests.

Six years ago, when speaking of the nation's forests, it was urged in this jour-
nal that all forest-lands belonging to the Government should be withheld from
sale until an examination of these lands, and of the agricultural lands depending
upon them for water-supply, would show what tracts of timber could be put upon
the market without threatening important interests in the country below them.
For the protection of these forests against injury from man and beast, it was
advised that, pending this investigation, the guardianship of the forests on the
national domain should be entrusted to the United States Army and that this
examination of the national forests should be conducted by a commission,
appointed by the President, of men able to report upon the magnitude and qual-
ity of our forests, and upon their relations to other interests. No commission
was appointed, however; perhaps the time was not ripe for such a plan, modest
and moderate as it was; but certainly if such a commission had then been named,
we should now know more about our forests than we do. In The Century sympo-
sium a man so well qualified to speak as Mr. Bowers, the Assistant Commis-
sioner of Public Lands, declares that estimates of the amount of forest-land
owned by the Government vary between the lowest and the highest by twenty
millions of acres, which means that we have no absolute knowledge whatever.
And since no one can do more than make a rough guess at the area of these lands,
any surmise as to the amount of timber growing on any portion of them, or of
its value, or of the ease or difficulty with which these woodlands can be made
permanently productive, would be wilder still. It seems, then, that the need of a
board of investigation is quite as urgent to-day as it was when the proposition
was first made . . .

There seems to be little question as to the advisability of employing the army
as a police force while this investigation goes on. Captain Anderson, who has
been in command of the troops in the Yellowstone National Park, ought to be a
competent judge in this matter, and in his contribution to the symposium it is
stated that the soldiers of his command have served every purpose of a forest-
guard most satisfactorily. ... Of course, this service would only be temporary,
for the time is coming when a policy, which only means mere protection of the
woods from timber thieves and browsing animals and fire, must be replaced by
an active system of reproductive management such as is used in other industries
of this country and in the forests of other civilized nations.

[Editorial. Garden and Forest 8 (1895): 51]

Old trees in their living state are the only things that money cannot command.
Rivers leave their beds, run into cities and traverse mountains for it; obelisks and
arches, palaces and temples, amphitheatres and pyramids rise up like exhalations
at its bidding; even the free spirit of man, the only thing great on earth, crouches
and cowers in its presence. It passes away and vanishes before venerable trees.

— Walter Savage Landor.

38 Arnoldia 60/2

NOTES.

An old legend traces the origin of the Thistle as the
emblem of the Scottish kingdom to the far-away time
when the Danes were invading the country. On a dark
night, runs the story, as they were advancing to attack
an encampment of Scots, one of them trod on a Thistle,
and the thoughtless exclamation which followed awak-
ened the slumherers, who, springing to arms, defeated
their assailants. In gratitude for this deliverance
the flower of the Thistle was adopted as the national
emblem. [8(1895): 300]

In the Bulletin of the United States National
Museum, No. 39, Dr. Frederick D. Coville, botanist of
the Department of Agriculture, has recently printed
some clear directions for collecting specimens of plants
and information illustrating their aboriginal uses, which
will be found useful to both travelers and settlers who
have an opportunity to observe the habits of any of the
tribes of American Indians. [8(1895): 300)

The Idard Maple of Maine furnishes a large part of the
material used in the manufacture of shoe-pegs, although
the wood of the Canoe Birch is sometimes used for this
purpose. Shoe-pegs are sold by the bushel, and now range
from seventy-five cents to one dollar a bushel, $150,000
having been received, it is stated by a correspondent of
The Manufacturer and Builder of this city, last year by
the Maine shoe-peg factories. [5(1892): 228]

The destruction of the forests which has been going
on about the diamond mines near Kimberley, South
Africa, is believed by Dr. William Crookes to have seri-
ously modified the climate. The country within a radius
of a hundred miles has been stripped of wood to supply
timber for the mines. The forests were barriers against
the wind; they tempered the heat of the sun in a region
where the air is extremely dry, and their removal is
thought to account for the dust storms which have been
so frequent in that country this year. [10 (1897): 249-250]

Professor Roberts, of Cornell University, is sending
out circulars to notify whom it may concern that under
the Agricultural Extension Bill the college of agriculture
of that university has undertaken to assist, free of
expense, all teachers who wish to introduce what is
called "nature studies" into the public schools. Nature
study means nothing more than seeing familiar things in
a new light, and the Cornell faculty wish to encourage
the investigation of common objects so as to teach accu-
rate observation and the power of clearly expressing
what is seen. [10(1897): 150]

Professor McDougal gives some very good reasons in
the current number of Appleton's Popular Science
Monthly for the establishment of a botanical garden in
the West Indies, so that tropical plants could be studied

without going to Buitenzorg or some other garden on the
other side of the world. A laboratory and garden in the
West Indies could be reached from any important city in
our country in four or five days, and it would be much
more accessible for the European botanist even than are
those established among the antipodes. Such a garden
would be of direct benefit to a great number of working
botanists in America and furnish investigators and
graduate students of this country with unequaled facili-
ties for biological research. [9(1896): 510]

A thoroughly useful Farmers' Bulletin of about
twenty pages, just issued by the United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture, is entitled Washed Soils. How to
Prevent and Reclaim Them. Along the banks of the Ohio
and in many portions of the south hundreds of fields
have been washed and furrowed beyond the possibility of
profitable cultivation. FFow the destruction of forests has
caused these gullies, how to prevent them, and how by
cultivation, reforesting and covering up the ground with
grass this evil can be checked and cured is plainly set
forth in these pages. The illustrations are not artistic,
but they are helpful, and the methods of constructing
hillside ditches and terraces, the best preparation for
forests, with approved methods of planting and caring
for them, are all plainly set forth. The statements in this
little tract are so truthful, and the deductions so logical
and convincing, that every landowner who is not already
familiar with them ought to read and consider them.
[9(1896): 510[

The Northwestern Lumberman, in speaking of the
great flood in the Mississippi valley, says that the deluge
has so far subsided that lumber will soon begin to move
northward again over the overflowed region, but much of
it will be unfit for shipment because it has been under
water and is covered with silt. This dirt-covered material
will all need to be cleaned, and this will involve a vast
amount of work and expense. Where the cottonwood has
been covered with water it will be practically ruined, as
the dirt can hardly be washed out of its fuzzy fibres, and
the result of this is seen in the fact that the price of this
lumber has advanced one dollar a thousand. Lucky
manufacturers whose lumber piles have been above the
water will make the most of their advantages, and the
effect will be seen in the market for oak and ash as well
as for cottonwood. It will be several weeks before logging
can proceed in the bottom-lands with the mills restored
to running condition. There will be mud everywhere,
tramways washed out, bridges and trestles destroyed, so
that it will be midsummer before everything can be
restored to order, with mills running steadily, and weeks
more will elapse before the newly cut lumber is dry
enough to ship. [10(1897): 190]

"Master of a Felicitous English Style": William
Augustus Stiles, Editor of Garden and Forest

Phyllis Andersen

"When we think of it, we cannot but recognize that few people have written
about parks as Stiles wrote. Olmsted and Vaux, yes, and Whately. It was litera-
ture they wrote ... in addition to facts, Stiles had that literary touch, the pen-
etrative, imaginative quality that no horticulturist had whom I have ever known.
He claimed nothing original, the writings and sayings of Olmsted and Vaux
being his authority, but he illuminated ail they had given him with the lambent
flame of his literary genius." — Samuel Parsons Jr., 1 926

Charles Sprague Sargent was the self-
appointed "conductor" of the nine-
teenth-century journal Garden and
Forest.' Like all maestros he has been given
almost sole credit for the journal's achieve-
ments: its timely reports of horticultural
advances, its prescient warnings of threats to
forests and scenery, and its unique linking of
disciplines. Sargent did have significant exper-
tise in the many fields covered in Garden and
Forest, but he was less a savant than a manager
who knew how to pick a good team. Credit for
the graceful prose and for the eloquent advocacy
for public parks should go not to Sargent, but to
Garden and Forest’s editor William Stiles.
Stiles, an experienced New York journalist who
also enjoyed a distinguished career in public ser-
vice, was appointed managing editor by the
founders of the journal in 1888. The editorial
office of Garden and Forest was located in the
Tribune Building in New York, and Stiles con-
tinued in his long-established role of editorial
writer for the New York Tribune during his ten-
ure as editor of Garden and Forest. Sargent
"conducted" from his base at the Arnold Arbo-
retum m Boston, where he was director.

Stiles' role in Garden and Forest has not been
widely recognized, not because it was intention-
ally obscured by Sargent, who fully appreciated
both his editorial skills and his character, but
rather by routine library practice. The full mast-

head of Garden and Forest listing staff names
and positions, editorial mission, and contribu-
tors was positioned in the front of the publica-
tion in an advertising section. When the issues
were subsequently bound by libraries, the adver-
tising sections were commonly removed as hav-
ing no future value. Hence the information
about Stiles' role was lost, as well as the adver-
tisements, now recognized as historically
significant in their own right. What remained
was an abbreviated masthead on the first edito-
rial page listing Charles Sprague Sargent as
Conductor. Stiles' role was further obscured
by the fact that most of the lead editorials of
the journal, many of them authored by Stiles,
were unsigned.

William Augustus Stiles was horn in Decker-
town (now Sussex), New Jersey, on March 9,
1837. His father, Edward Augustus Stiles, was a
mathematician and educator who founded
Mount Retirement Seminary, a successful pre-
paratory school in northern New Jersey. His
mother was the former Eveline Belmont
Howell. William was educated at his father's
school and at Yale, graduating from Yale in
1859. He returned briefly to the Mount Retire-
ment Seminary to teach, but in 1864, hoping
that a sea voyage would improve his health, par-
ticularly the weak eyesight that was to plague
him all of his life, he traveled to California by

40 Arnoldia 60/2

way of the Isthmus of Panama. He briefly held a
teaching post in Oakland, but soon left to join
the corps of engineers laying out the new Union
Pacific Railroad line across the Sierra Nevadas.
However, his weak eyesight, further strained by
detailed mapmaking, forced him to return to his
father's farm in New lersey for a period of recu-
peration. Having formed an interest in plants
during his time in California, Stiles now began
a systematic study of plants, collecting in the
wild and cultivating nursery stock. Later, his
interests expanded to include forestry, agricul-
tural technology, and landscape gardening. He
also became interested in local politics during
this period and later ran for New Jersey state
offices several times. After a brief stint as a
gauger (or tax collector) in New York City he
began his career in journalism.

Samuel Parsons Jr., landscape architect for the
New York City Department of Parks in the
1890s, tells the story of an after-dinner speech
Stiles made to a group of Yale alumni in New
York in the late 1870s. According to Parsons,
Stiles' wit and intelligence so captivated
Whitelaw Reid, publisher of the New York Tri-
bune, that he engaged Stiles on the spot as an
editorial writer for the Tribune, a position he
was to hold until the end of his life.^ Jn 1883
Stiles also became the agricultural correspon-
dent for the Philadelphia Weekly Press, report-
ing on current research in agricultural methods.

Stiles' early writings for the Tribune estab-
lished him as a thoughtful and knowledgeable
spokesman for local issues. ("There was nothing
of the superficial smartness of the ordinary
newspaper man, but his articles were written in
a grave and judicious style, with a fine literary
quality."^) He quickly focused on public parks,
advocating additions to New York City's
parklands and objecting to what he saw as
misguided efforts to improve those already
established — particularly Central Park.

The early 1880s were a period of significant
controversy for Central Park. Like all large pub-
lic works projects the park had become a rally-
ing point for those seeking quick recognition in
local politics. The pent-up frustrations of those
not in sympathy with the Olmsted and Vaux
design resulted in a questioning of priorities.
They questioned the park's dedication to the

William Augustus Stiles (1837-1897)

passive enjoyment of scenery, asking what
classes of society were best served by this type
of park. Inappropriate intrusions in the form of
active recreation facilities and popular amuse-
ments were proposed. In his editorials Stiles
positioned himself as a staunch defender of the
Olmsted-Vaux vision. Frederick Law Olmsted
Jr. and Theodora Kimball, in the introduction to
their bibliography of works on Central Park in
Forty Years of Landscape Architecture: Central
Park, note the significance of Garden and
Forest’s coverage of park issues: "The history of
Central Park during the critical ten-year period
covered by Garden and Forest (begun in 1888
and edited by friends and warm defenders of the
Park) is so well reflected in its pages that per-
haps a disproportionate number of references —
all to editorials — in this periodical have been
here included."'*

Stiles and Olmsted had a long-standing pro-
fessional friendship. When Charles Sargent
became ill in early 1888, just before the launch
of Garden and Forest, Olmsted, who had con-
tributed $500 to the initial financing of the
journal, stepped in to offer advice and support to
the new editor. The correspondence between
Stiles and Olmsted, who had by then relocated
to Brookline, Massachusetts, reveals Stiles'

ARC HIVFSOl mr ARNOll) ARBORI TUM

William Augustus Stiles 41

WILLIAM STILES was assisted at Garden and Forest by
Mary B. Coulston. Coulston, who wrote the biographi-
cal entry for Stiles in Liberty Hyde Bailey's Cyclopedia of
American Horticulture (1902), is described by Bailey as sim-
ply "M. B. Coulston, formerly Assistant Editor of Garden and
Forest of Ithaca, New York." Coulston wrote a number of
signed articles on horticultural subjects for Garden and For-
est. While little is known of her early career, she figures later
as a significant participant in the early planning of Balboa
Park in San Diego, California. By 1902, relocated to
Livermore, California, Coulston was hired by the San Diego
Park Improvement Committee to be its secretary and to write
articles for the local newspapers supporting the improvement
of San Diego's City Park. She is described by her colleagues as
possessing extensive knowledge of parks in the United States
and Europe as a result of her position at Garden and Forest.
She is credited with bringing the New York-hased landscape
architect Samuel Parsons — a well-known advocate of
Olmsted and Vaux's vision for Central Park — to the attention
of the San Diego Park Committee, and with helping facilitate
his hiring as designer of what was to become Balboa Park. She
had apparently been well trained by Stiles, and perhaps
Sargent, to define the mission of urban parks as bringing rural
scenery to the city. Coulston died in 1904 while attending a
summer school session at the University of California at
Berkeley. Her friend Kate Sessions, the renowned California
horticulturist and garden designer, arranged to have her ashes
buried under a cedar of Lebanon tree in Balboa Park. *

' Mary B. Coulston's role in the planning of Balboa Park is described
in Richard W. Amero, "Samuel Parsons Finds Xanadu in San Diego,"
fouinal of San Diego History 44 (Winter 1998).

gratitude to Olmsted for his sugges-
tions of topics and authors for the
journal. Olmsted, like many others,
valued Stiles' views on the transfor-
mation of the field of landscape
gardening into the profession of
landscape architecture. In a letter of
advice to his son Ered Jr., Olmsted
reflected on his own role and that of
others in the emerging profession:

"It is as if the war had just begun
and my part had been to keep the
enemy in check until reinforce-
ments could arrive. These young
men, John [Olmsted], Harry
[Codman], [Charles] Eliot and
[Charles] Coolidge, with Sargent
and Stiles and Mrs. Van
Rensselaer, are the advance of the
reinforcements."^

In 1892 Stiles began to use the
editorial columns of Garden and
Forest and the New York Tribune to
call attention to a proposed speed-
way through Central Park along its
western boundary, a project he felt
was totally contrary to Olmsted
and Vaux's vision: "[This project]
would make an offensive exhibition
of the power of money to confiscate
for the pleasure of a few rich men
the ground which offers to the poor
of the city their only opportunity to
enjoy the sight of verdant fields."^

In 1895 the newly elected mayor of New
York, William L. Strong, appointed William
Stiles to the Board of Park Commissioners, a
politically powerful body with substantial influ-
ence over capital expenditures. Shortly after
Stiles' appointment, the speedway proposal was
resurrected, this time not in Central Park but
along the west bank of the Harlem River. An
engineering firm was to design it rather than
Calvert Vaux, who was then landscape architect
for the New York City Parks Department. This
was only one of a series of humiliating attacks
on Vaux from members of the Park Board who
continued to try to discredit him for his partici-
pation in stopping the Central Park speedway
proposal. Lacking the thick skin so useful to

those in public service, Vaux suffered under
these attacks. He needed a protector, and Wil-
liam Stiles gladly accepted the role, rallying sup-
port for Vaux from a significant number of
prominent New Yorkers. Vaux's son Bowyer said
that Stiles had "perhaps a keener appreciation"
of his father's genius than any other citizen.^

William Stiles died on October 6, 1897, at the
home of his sister Mrs. E. H. Davey. Never
married, he had remained close to his two sisters
and to the family property in northern New
Jersey. In the fulsome style of the period, the
obituary notices praised his contributions to the
protection of the parks of New York and to the
responsibility of government and civic leaders to

42 Arnoldia 60/2

serve the needs of the disadvantaged.
The memorial notice published in the
October 13, 1897, issue of Garden and
Forest, unsigned but undoubtedly
written by Charles Sargent, under-
scored Stiles' "inflexible purpose":

He has been more, however, than a
brilliant and successful editor of a
technical journal; keen love of nature
and sympathy with the cravings of the
poor shut within city walls from the
sight and enjoyment of the country
made him fully understand the value
and true meaning of urban parks, and
for twenty years, always with that
modesty which was one of his strong-
est characteristics, but with inflexible
purpose, he has stood between the
parks of this city and men who at dif-
ferent times and under different pre-
tenses have tried to deface them. . . .
His death is a serious loss to the read-
ers of Garden and Forest and to every
one in the United States interested in
landscape-gardening, horticulture and
the care and protection of our national
and state forests.

Garden and Forest ceased publica-
tion in 1898. Despite the high quality
of its writing, its appeal to practition-
ers in many fields, its international
interests and noted contributors, the
magazine had always run at a loss;
Sargent had been covering its deficit
for years. But it may have been the loss
of Stiles that decided the issue, for
Sargent's major responsibility at that
time was building the scientific cred-
ibility of the Arnold Arboretum. The
magazine had been in many ways
Sargent's experiment. In addition to
reporting on "all progress in science
and practice" — horticulture, "garden
botany," dendrology, scientific and
practical forestry — it deliberately
linked these fields with landscape gar-
dening. It even stretched its mission to
link landscape gardening with archi-
tecture. Stiles' appointment as editor
of Garden and Forest gave it a lively,
stylish prose comparable to that of

NEW DANGERS TO PUBLIC PARKS.

IN praising the man whose recent death means a
heavy loss to the readers of this journal, and in
noting his long usefulness as the most keen-eyed
and devoted defender of the public parks of New
York, the daily papers have dwelt forcibly upon
the dangers which threaten these parks from the
"assaults of the ignorant and vicious." But the
parks are threatened by other dangers, newer than
these, more subtile and insidious, less easily recog-
nized as dangers, and therefore less likely to be
frankly and forcibly resisted. And the conscious-
ness of this fact greatly augments, among those
who keep close watch upon our parks, the regret
which every intelligent American must have felt
when he heard of the death of Mr. Stiles.

The ignorant and the vicious have long been
enemies of the parks — persons who deny their util-
ity because it cannot be translated into terms of
dollars and cents; those who are eager to injure
them for the sake of giving to the city something,
advantageous, perhaps, in its own way, which they
think of more "practical benefit"; who wish to
exploit them for their own profit or who plan to fill
them with ugly objects; who barbarously injure
their grass, trees, flowers or monuments for their
own mischievous pleasure; or who think they
know more about caring for them than their pro-
fessional superintendents, and therefore try to
"arouse the public" whenever a dying tree is cut or
any other needful and desirable work proposed.

These people represent the unintelligent, uncul-
tivated and unconscientious elements of the popu-
lation. They are now recognized as enemies of
the public, which in some degree is on its guard
against them. Teachers, champions and leaders are
still needed to defend the parks from their possible
attacks. But the public is now easily roused to
oppose their worst efforts; and it is probable that
no such bold assault upon Central Park will again
be attempted as the effort made a few years ago to
run a speedway through it, or the equally horrible
one to turn part of it into a barren parade-ground.
And the public may likewise be counted upon,
although not so confidently, to forbid the attempts
of individuals to dot it with penny-in-the-slot

William Augustus Stiles 43

machines or newspaper kiosks, or otherwise to
disfigure it and to pervert it from its true service
for the profit of personal greed under the pretense
of supplying special "conveniences" or "plea-
sures" to its frequenters.

The danger to our pleasure-grounds from engi-
neers necessarily employed upon them, but devoid
of the right artistic feeling and unwilling to abide
by the counsels of landscape-gardeners, has
recently been dwelt upon in these pages and may
for the moment be passed by. What we wish now
to point out is that it seems probable that more
and more schemes to further definitely intellec-
tual or aesthetic ends will be prosecuted without
due regard to the integrity and beauty of our parks
as works of landscape-art, and that the patrons of
science and literature and of art of other kinds are
likely to try to injure our great artistic creations
like Central and Prospect Parks. And this is, of
course, a very insidious danger, as the schemes
may be worthy in themselves, and the people who
urge them are those whom the public has been told
it should trust most implicitly in intellectual and
artistic matters.

It is at least a question whether the new Public
Library should have been allowed to claim the site
of the old reservoir on Fifth Avenue, which other-
wise would have been added to the area of Bryant
Park. The Metropolitan Museum should not have
been given a site within Central Park, but placed
beyond its limits, as the Museum of Natural His-
tory was upon its western borders. And the stand
which Mr. Stiles took, as Park Commissioner, in
opposing the desires of the Botanical Society —
which, if carried out, will seriously impair the
peculiar beauty of Bronx Park and its utility as a
public pleasure-ground — must convince all the
readers of this journal, who know of his devotion
to botany and horticulture and to the task of
spreading an interest in them among the people at
large, that here, too, a great mistake has been
made, and by just the kind of persons who ought to
be trustworthy guides with regard to the right con-
servation of the public's park-lands. . . .

[Garden and Forest 10 (1897): 439]

journals of a more general nature;
Century Magazine, Putnam’s Maga-
zine, North American Review. While
there were other magazines devoted to
horticulture and garden-making, they
were written and edited by horticul-
turists and nurserymen and lacked the
international scope and literary style
of Garden and Forest. "His mastery of
a felicitous English style and his pro-
found and sympathetic knowledge of
floral and arboreal life made him one
of the most instructive and charming
of contemporary writers; with refined
taste and sturdy integrity . .

Endnote.s

Note on sources: The basic facts of Stiles' life
were constructed from the extensive obituary
notices published at his death: New York
Tribune, 7 October 1897; New York Times, 7
October 1897; Garden and Forest, 13 October
1897. M. S. Coulston's biographical entry on
William Stiles in Liberty Hyde Bailey's
Cyclopedia of American Horticulture, 1902,
was also consulted, as well as correspondence
between Stiles and Frederick Law Olmsted
from early 1888 (Frederick Law Olmsted
Papers, Library of Congress).

* Garden and Forest was not the first
publication to be "conducted"; lohn
Claudius Loudon called himself the
"conductor" of The Gardener’s Magazine
(London, 1826-1844).

^ Mabel Parsons, ed.. Memories of Samuel
Parsons (New York: Putnam's, 1926), 127.

^ Parsons, 128.

■* Forty Years of Landscape Architecture:
Central Park (New York; Putnam's, 1928),
563.

^ Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. to Frederick
Law Olmsted Jr., 5 September 1890.

® Garden and Forest, 9 March 1892, 109.

^ C. Bowyer Vaux to fohn C. Olmsted, 8
December 1895, quoted in Francis R.
Kowsky, Country, Park, and City: The
Architecture of Calvert Vaux (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1998), 319.

* New York Tribune, 7 October 1897.

Phyllis Andersen is Director of the Institute
for Cultural Landscape Studies of the Arnold
Arboretum.

Bernice Giduz Schubert, 1913-2000

It is with an overwhelming sense of loss that
we record the death on August 14, 2000, of
Bernice Schuhert, botanist, editor, colleague,
and friend of the Arnold Arboretum, whose
career at Harvard encompassed a total of fifty-
three years, first at the Gray Herbarium and
later at the Arnold Arboretum.

Dr. Schubert was born on October 6, 1913, in
Boston. She graduated from the Massachusetts
College of Agriculture (now part of the Univer-
sity of Massachusetts, Amherst) in 1935 and
earned both an A.M. (1937) and a Ph.D, (1942)
from Radcliffe College. She was employed at the
Gray Herbarium part time while a student
(1936-1941) and later full time (1941-1949),
working as a technical assistant in plant tax-
onomy and, more importantly, as editorial aide
to Professor Merritt Fernald, then director of the
Gray Herbarium, on his two major works, the
eighth edition of Gray’s Manual of Botany
(1951) and Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North
America (1958), coauthored with Kinsey, plus a
decade of individual publications.

When Professor Fernald died, about three
months after publication of the Manual, Dr.
Schubert went to the Jardin Botanique de I'Etat
in Brussels on a Guggenheim fellowship where
she worked on Leguminosae of the Belgian
Congo and Ruanda Urundi. Upon her return to
the United States in November 1952, she was
employed in the Plant Introduction Section
of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in
Beltsville, Maryland. The first phase of her work
there involved the taxonomy of North and
Central American species of the genus
Dioscorea. In a second and related phase, she
cooperated with chemists of the National Insti-
tutes of Health in a search for plants with alka-
loids of potential use in treating high blood
pressure, collecting samples in Cuba, Puerto
Rico, Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico, and Brazil.
A summary publication coauthored with J. 1.
Willaman, "Alkaloid-Bearing Plants and Their

Contained Alkaloids," was issued in 1961 as
U.S.D.A. Technical Bulletin 1234.

In the fall of 1962 Dr. Schubert came to the
Arnold Arboretum, first as associate curator and
later as curator — an unusual appointment for a
woman at a time when there were no women on
the roster of Harvard's biology department, and
when curatorial appointments were the aca-
demic equivalent of associate or full professor.
In addition to her curatorial work, as senior lec-
turer she serv.ed as advisor to both undergraduate
and graduate biology students and, from 1969
through 1975, she was supervisor of the Harvard
University Herbaria building, an arduous task
with many interruptions and little appreciation.
And when my successor as director, Peter
Ashton, was delayed by visa problems, she filled
in as acting director of the Arboretum in Cam-
bridge from July 1 to September 30, 1978, bridg-
ing the gap with her usual competence and
outspoken distaste for administrative jobs.

Dr. Schubert's prime responsibility was as
editor of the Journal of the Arnold Arboretum,
a post she filled until 1975, after which she
chaired the editorial committee (now known as
the joint Arnold Arboretum-Gray Herbarium
publication committee). In 1984, to honor both
her retirement and her seventieth birthday, the
Journal staff dedicated number 3 of volume 65
to her. It was said then and can be repeated now
that during her tenure as editor, the Journal was
considered one of the best-edited botanical peri-
odicals of its kind, and she was known to all her
authors as a kind editor.

Over the course of her long career. Dr.
Schuhert received a great deal of recognition.
She was honored for her work on the genus
Begonia with the Eva Kenworthy Gray award of
the American Begonia Society and by a Silver
Medal of the Massachusetts Horticultural Soci-
ety. She was an honorary member of the
Sociedad Botanica de Mexico and a fellow of the
Linnean Society of London. Other memberships

Bernice Giduz Schubert 45

included the Societe Royale de
Botanique de Belgique; the Wash-
ington Academy of Sciences,- the
American Society of Plant Tax-
onomists; the International Asso-
ciation of Plant Taxonomy (where
she served as secretary of both the
Standing Committee on Stabiliza-
tion and of the Committee on
Nomina Ambigua); the American
Institute of Biological Sciences;
the Botanical Society of America,-
the New England Botanical Cluh,-
and the Society of Economic
Botany (where she served on the
Couneil). In 1978 she served on
the committee on Desmodieae for
the International Legume Confer-
ence held at Kew. A full listing of
Dr. Schubert's ninety-four publi-
cations will be given in Taxon.

Among them are twenty-nine
papers on Begonia, nineteen on
Desmodimn, twelve on steroids,
eleven on Dioscorea, in addition
to obituaries, book reviews, and
articles on miscellaneous other
subjects.

Dr. Schubert welcomed all visi-
tors to the Harvard University
Herbaria, offering a tour of the
Jamaica Plain collections or of the
botanists' graves at Mt. Auburn
Cemetery. She often entertained
in her apartment, a botanical
treasure-house of museum-quality
artifacts; the "wooden flowers of El Fortin" were
a partieular interest. For years her living room
was dominated by a full-size loom on which she
practiced weaving as a hobby. In her last years
she continued to entertain students and profes-
sional botanists at restaurants, still exercising
her talent for making each guest feel special.

My own sixty-year association with Bernice
Schubert began when we were fellow graduate
students in the Radcliffe laboratory of the Gray
Herbarium and it continued through our years
of retirement. I developed a deep respect and
appreciation for this remarkable woman whose
contributions to the Arboretum and the Her-

baria were unprecedented both in number and
variety, and this at a time when the careers of
most women in botany were limited to short-
term appointments to the Generic Flora of
the Southeastern United States project or as
research fellows, Mercer fellows, herbarium
assistants, or, vaguely, as botanists.

Her ashes are buried m Mt. Auburn Cemetery
where Asa Gray, Sereno Watson, Merritt L.
Fernald, Oakes Ames, Gharles Schweinfurth,
Reed Rollins, and other former Harvard bota-
nists are interred.

Richard A. Howard

46 Arnoldia 60/2

U.S. POSTAL SERVICE

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION
(Required by 39 U.S.C. 3685)

1. Publication Title: Arnoldia. 1. Publication No; 0004-2633. 3. Filing Date: 31 October
2000. 4. Issue Frequency: Quarterly. 5. No. of Issues Published Annually: 4. 6. Annual Sub-
scription Price: $20.00 domestic; $25.00 foreign. 7. Complete Mailing Address of Known
Office of Publication: Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, lamaica Plain, Suffolk County,
MA 02130-3500. 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters of General Business Office
of Publisher: Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain, Suffolk County, MA 02130-
3500. 9. Full Names and Complete Mailing Address of Publisher, Editor, and Managing
Editor: Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain, Suffolk County, MA 02130-3500,
publisher; Karen Madsen, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130-
3500, editor. 10. Owner: The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, 125 Arborway,
Jamaica Plain, Suffolk County, MA 02130-3500. 1 1. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and
Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1 Percent or More of Total Amount of Bonds,
Mortgages, or Other Securities: none. 12. The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of
this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes have not changed
during the preceding 12 months. 13. Publication Name: Arnoldia. 14. Issue Date for
Circulation Data Below: November, 2000. 15. Extent and Nature of Circulation, a. Total
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est to Filing Date: 91%. I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and
complete. Karen Madsen, Editor.

Tne Arnold Arnoretum

V 0 I . 6

NEWS

Arboretum Embarks on Strategic Planning Process

Robert E. Cook, Director

At the millenium, the Arnold
Arboretum finds itself at an unusual
place in its history. Over the past
decade, great improvements have
been made in the curation of the
living collections and the care of
the grounds. The Hunnewell Visi-
tor Center, our main administra-
tive building, has been fully
renovated and our other facilities
and equipment have been brought
to a high state of maintenance.

Our staff has grown in size with
new programs in education and
cultural landscapes, and we con-
tinue to mount international expe-
ditions for botanical exploration
and collecting. We are about to
begin construction on three major
landscape projects, the largest of
which will create a new collection
of sun-loving shrubs and vines
in a four-acre garden. Finally,
we have successfully completed
a fundraising campaign that
garnered nearly ten million dol-
lars. This, combined with the
remarkable performance of the
Harvard Management Company
over the past several years, has
more than doubled the value of
our endowment.

It is, therefore, an ideal time
to stop, take a breath, and decide
where we would like to go in the
next two decades. Several years
ago our staff assessed our pro-
grams as part of a long-range
planning effort. Many of the ideas
that surfaced during this process

have taken programmatic form.
Some have been more successful
than others, and many have broad-
ened the activities of the Arbore-
tum staff beyond a narrow focus
on woody plant research and
education.

Because of our strong financial
and administrative position, it is
appropriate that a strategic plan-
ning process examine a wide range
of options while bringing a criti-
cal perspective to the assumptions
and constraints that have tradi-
tionally governed the operations
of the Arboretum. We should
determine what our core values are
and how these might fuel a set of

ambitious goals for the coming
quarter century.

We have concluded that this
will require external assistance, and
we have identified a consultant, the
Technical Development Corpora-
tion of Boston, with excellent expe-
rience in facilitating critical
self-examination and providing
guidance on developing long-range
plans for nonprofit organizations.
We anticipate a process that will
begin this fall and yield a final
document by May of 2001.

I thank all the friends of the
Arboretum whose loyal support and
generous contributions have given
us this wonderful opportunity.

A Visit to Cuba's Cienfuegos
Botanical Garden

Peter Del T redid, Director of Lit

It was my unbelievably good
fortune to spend eight days this
August at the Cienfuegos Botani-
cal Garden in Cuba. My trip was
sponsored by Harvard University's
David Rockefeller Center of Latin
American Studies, which asked
me to evaluate the current condi-
tion of the garden and to provide
the staff with technical assistance
in garden maintenance and plant
propagation.

The garden, which in Harvard
circles is known as the Atkins
Garden, was founded in 1899 as a
partnership between a Boston-

iug Collect iotn

based sugarmill owner, Edwin F.
Atkins, and Harvard University,
in particular, professors George L.
Goodale and Oakes Ames. In its
early days, the garden was chiefly
devoted to studying plants of
economic importance (especially
sugar cane) and was funded
entirely by Atkins. In 1920, he
arranged for a long-term lease of
the garden to Harvard and estab-
lished an endowment to fund
research m tropical economic
botany by Harvard professors and
students. As well as being inter-

• continued on page 2

ELLEN S. BENNETT

EDITOR

Staff of the Cientuegos Garden.

The former Harvard Biological Laboratorv- building.

• from page I

csted in economic plants, Atkins
was deeply interested in trees and
personally supported the develop-
ment of an arboretum by sending
many trees to the garden from
nurseries in Florida. At the time
of his death in 1926, the arbore-
tum was a well-established part of
the garden.

When the garden was founded,
it was only eleven acres in size.

It grew steadily in size in direct
proportion to the Atkins family
interest in the project, eventually
reaching a maximum of 221 acres
in 1938. A small laboratory facil-
ity was built in 1924 (which also
housed the library) to facilitate the
research use of the collections.
Harvard continued to opetate the
garden until 1961, when the
Cuban government nationalized
the Atkins sugar plantation and
mill and took control of the gar-
den. They renamed it the
“Cienfuegos Botanical Garden”
and placed it under the adminis-
tration of the Cuban Academy
of Sciences.

The first official post- 1961
contact between the Cienfuegos
Botanical Garden and Harvard
University occurred in November
of last year, thanks to the con-
certed efforts ol the David
Rockefeller Center and members
of the Atkins family. Around the
time of my visit this past summer,
a strong e-mail communication
channel made preparations for the
trip relatively easy. The current
director. Dr. Lazaro Ojeda, was
extremely helpful, and the lateness
of the hour notwithstanding, was
at the garden to greet my wife
Susan (who acted as my translator)
and me. We lodged in the
immaculately maintained "Casa
Catalina,” a dormitory built in
1938 to house visiting scholars.
Planting season was in full swing

while we were there, so we got to
see the garden in all-out opera-
tion, including nursery, curatorial,
and maintenance functions.
Despite a scarcity of resources
(especially gasoline), the garden is
maintained to a high level, and
new plants are being added con-
tinuously. The palm collection is
particularly impressive with about
267 species in 66 genera growing
on the grounds. Also noteworthy
are the collections of bamboo, figs,
and legumes.

Just as interesting as the collec-
tions was our dialogue with the
staff on a wide variety of issues

that affect botanical gardens —
conservation and education as well
as the more traditional topics of
maintenance and propagation. My
wife and I came away with deep
respect for the staff s dedication to
their work and with the knowl-
edge that the garden’s future will
be bright. Indeed, this coming
November (perhaps as you are
reading this article) the
Cienfuegos Garden, in honor of its
hundredth anniversary, will be
hosting a special international
symposium on "Challenges Facing
Botanical Gardens in the Twenty-
First Century.”

2

60/2 2000

Peter Del Tredki Peter Del TredKi

Arboretum Holds Oldest Franklinias

Pamela Thomjison, Adult Education Coordinator

A survey conducted by Historic
Bartram’s Garden and the John
Bartram Association reveals that
the two oldest documented
Iranklinia trees in the world, dat-
ing from 1905, are growing at the
Arnold Arboretum. These trees,
known botanically as Franklinia
alatamaha. are descendants of a
tree of Bartram’s original collec-
tion at Historic Bartram’s Garden
in Philadelphia, which was given
to the Arboretum in 1884 by
Philadelphia city councilman
Thomas Meehan, a former gar-
dener at Bartram’s Garden. Both
trees can be found on Chinese
Path on Bussey Hill.

In 1 998, as part of a
tricentennial celebration of bota-
nist and explorer John Bartram,
the John Bartram Association
launched an international
franklinia census to determine
how many are growing and where,
as well as to locate the oldest
specimens. By May of this year,
2,046 franklinias were reported
from 35 states and the District of
Columbia and 8 foreign countries.
In New England, Massachusetts
reported 92 specimens; Connecti-
cut has 56; Rhode Island, 15;

New Hampshire, 3; Vermont, 2;
and Maine, 1.

Although several people
reported franklinias thought to be
about 100 years old (on New
York’s Long Island, the Connecti-
cut coastline, and in the Philadel-
phia area), the Arboretum was
able to document the age of its
specimens. That any of these trees
exist today is due to John Bartram
and his son William, who first
discovered the plant in the wild in
1765 and had the foresight to
propagate the plant for their gar-

den and to distribute cuttings.

The tree has not been found in the
wild since 1 803.

Beyond dates and locations
of trees, the census data create a
resource for those wishing to grow
franklinia. To determine the opti-
mum growing conditions, the sur-
vey requested information on soil,
drainage, exposure, and more. The
consensus is that franklinias favor
a clay soil with excellent drainage,
prefer to be situated among other
plantings in south-facing loca-
tions, and thrive in sun to part
shade. Most of the franklinias
reported are six to ten feet in
height with a trunk circumference
of one to five inches. The majority
range in age from one to ten years

old. The Arboretum’s largest
plant is 19.99 feet in height and
spread and 10.78 inches in diam-
eter at breast height.

To find out more about the
history and availability of the
franklinia, visit Historic Bartram’s
Garden at www.libertynet.org/
bartram.

The 2000 Arboretum interns: Standing in rear, Otto Hasilo, Grant Jones,
Dino Rossi, Andrew Pulte; seated at center, Alice Kitajima, Phil Kopt,
Andrew Maciaszek, Maria Liszkay, Mary Sullivan; front, Virginia
Harding, Andrew Heffner, Eva Novoa, Katalin Heja. Not pictured:

Sheila Rabideaux.

ARNOLD ARBORETUM NEWS

3

KirstmBehn kustm Behn

New on the Institute for Cultural Landscape Studies Website
www.icls.harvard.edu/current.htm

The Future of Farming on Protected Landscapes. This edited version of a roundtable held at the
Arnold Arboretum prohles discussion participants and their farms, and focuses on preserving the com-
plex social and economic processes that produce farm landscapes:

• Land, the Most Visible Farm Asset: Land Protection in a Changing Farm Economy,
Preserving Farm Regions, Affordability & Property Rights

• Farm Operations, the “Work” in “Working Landscapes”: Farmer Recruitment & Farm
Finances, New Farm Markets & Products (including environmental quality & education!)

• Farmers & Nonfarmers: Farm Neighbors, the Nonfarming Public

Natural Science and Cultural Landscapes. The Institute is looking for ways to tap into relevant work
in the natural sciences, particularly ecology. The first items to be posted are talks by Arnold Arboretum
director Robert E. Cook:

• Is Landscape Preservation an Oxymoron?

• Do Landscapes Learn? Ecology's “New Paradigm” and Design in Landscape Architecture

The site will also explore the changing ways in which scientists have defined an “ecosystem,” the
tangled history of the far newer term “ecosystem management,” and the broader bistort’ of connections
(or the lack of them) between science and landscape management.

w ww.icls.harvard.edu/events.htm

Check this page for upcoming events sponsored by the Institute and others, as well as for readings and
publications related to past and upcoming events. Fall 2000 Institute events have included:

• A session on farmland at the Massachusetts statewide historic preserv’ation conference

• A series of field walks and talks called Reading the Landscape of New England

• A free public lecture. Open Space in Boston: Let’s Not Suburbanize From VC'ithin

To contact the Institute for Cultural Landscape Studies, please leave a message at 617-524-1'^ 18 xl''5
or email icls@arnarb.harvard.edu.

Letters of Participation Awarded

The Arnold Arboretum offers three letters of participation through the adult education program. These
letters provide students with a focus of study and documentation ol courses taken at the Arboretum. More
information about the letters of participation is located in the Arboretum's catalog of programs and events.
Since the fall 1997 issue of Arnold'ta, a number of people have completed the requirements for letters of
participation. Ciongratulations to each!

Letters of participation have been earned by:

'X'oody Plant Propagation
Paula Berardi
Robert Cappuccio
Miriam Hawkes
Larry Lee Jones
Susan Lemont

Temperate Woody Plant
Materials

Paula Berardi
Robert Cappuccio
Dorick Corbo
Laura llorky
Larry Lee Jones

Historic Landscape
Preservation

Linda DesRoches
Terri Rochon
Priscilla Williams
Dale Wfilson

60/2 200

New Staff

Michael Dosmann has joined the
Arboretum as a Putnam Fellow in
the living collections department.
His primary responsibilities will
be the planting design and selec-
tion for the new shrub and vine

garden. He will also participate in
various projects on the grounds as
well as pursue his own research
using the living collections.

Michael received his bachelor
of science in public horticulture
from Purdue University and his
master of science in horticulture
from Iowa State University (ISU)
in 1996 and 1998, respectively.

As the Garden Club of America’s
Martin McLaren Fellow for 1998-
1999, he worked at the Royal
Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Royal
Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and
the school of plant science. Uni-
versity of Reading. He comes to
us from ISU’s department of hor-
ticulture where he was employed
as a research assistant. Michael’s
interests in horticulture and
botany span woody plant ecology
and systematics, and ornamental
plant selection and evaluation.
And, like most plantsmen, he
keeps his eyes open for the rare,
unusual, and interesting.

Karen Pinto’s staff assistantship
will be shared between the admin-
istration department and the

Institute for Cultural Landscape
Studies. She comes to us with
fourteen years’ experience at
Harv'ard, in the Graduate School
of Public Health and Medical
School; she has also worked in the
fields of law and human services.

Nancy Sableski, our new
children’s education coordinator
and a Jamaica Plain neighbor, has

been visiting the Arboretum for
over twenty years, often to paint
landscapes. She holds a BFA with
honors in painting from the Mas-
sachusetts College of Art and a
master’s degree from Simmons
College School of Social Work.
Nancy became a volunteer school
guide in the Arboretum’s field
studies program in April, 1998;
she was later hired as school pro-
grams assistant. Most recently, she
coordinated the Boston Urban
Gardeners’ education program.

Her volunteer work now involves
coordinating the fall “Artists in

the Arboretum" show for Jamaica
Plain Open Studios.

Steve Schneider is the Arboretum’s
apprentice for 2000-2001. This
year-long position allows him to
rotate through the three areas of
the living collections department:
curation, greenhouses, and

grounds. Originally from Quincy,
Massachusetts, Steve earned his
bachelor of science in biology
from Northeastern University in
May 2000. He is not, however, a
new face at the Arboretum: he
spent the summer of 1999 work-
ing as an intern in the Dana
Greenhouses. Since graduation, he
has served as adjunct curator of
the Northeastern University Her-
barium, where he also worked as a
student. He aspires to a career in a
botanical garden as horticultural
therapist.

Two new faces are serving our
visitors at the Arboretum’s front
desk. Sonia Brenner and Sandra
Morgan have joined Sheryl White
as visitor serv'ices assistants in the
education department.

Sonia earned her bachelor of
arts degree in comparative litera-
ture from Oberlin College in May
2000. She spent her junior year at
the Paris Center for Critical Stud-
ies and the University of Paris.
Sonia has taught at a nature
center in West Virginia, served

ARNOLD ARBORETUM NEWS

5

as an art museum docent in Ohio,
and most recently served as media
liaison for a Washington, DC,
mural project.

Sandra earned her bachelor of
science degree in education from
California University of Pennsyl-
vania. She taught in the Pitts-
burgh public school system and at
the Children’s Place in Boston,
where she served as lead teacher.
Sandra recently started an enter-

prise that provides consulting
services related to education for
families and childcare centers. She

also writes haiku poetry, and
her first book of poems will be
published (on her own handmade
paper) in November.

Sheryl has increased her hours
at the front desk to four days a
week. She earned her BFA and a
teaching certificate from the Uni-
versity of Michigan College of

Architecture and Design. She has
worked as a freelance graphic
designer and illustrator, taught
gardening basics at the Brookline
Adult Education Center, and
designed gardens. Sheryl exhibits
her paintings at a number of ven-
ues in our region; through January
4 her work can be seen in a group
show hosted by the Massachusetts
Department of Environmental
Protection in Boston.

Philip C. Beals SB’42

Phil and Elaine Beals

To learn more about how you can support the Arboretum and
also receive an annual income and tax benefits, please contact:

Planning for the Future of
the Arnold Arboretum

"I have had a life-long interest in gardening, horti-
culture, and farming, so the Arboretum has been a
natural draw for me and I would just like to see it
continue to succeed. 1 truly admire the Arboretum's
mission of combined research, teaching, and public
education. The Arboretum is a heartfelt place. It's
just a joy to visit and I encourage its preservation. To
support this wonderful institution, I have made a
planned gift through Harvard and 1 hope others will
do the same.”

Christine C. Santos
Director of Development
The Arnold Arboretum
125 Arborway

Jamaica Plain, MA ()2130-.55()()

Phone: (617) 524-171S, extension 1 1.3

Fax: (617) 524-141S

E-mail: chris_santos(“'’ harvard.edu

Anne D. McClintock or Brandi M. Sikorski

Harvard University Planned Giving

1 24 Mount Auburn Street

Cambridge, MA 02138-5795

Phone: (SOO) 446-1277 or (617) 495-4647

Fax: (617)495-0521

E-mail : pgofe^harvard .edu

Web : http:// w w w . haa . harvard . ed u 'pgo

THE SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA;

A Description of the Trees which grow naturally in North America,
exclusive of Mexico.

By CHARLES SPRAGUE SARGENT,

Director of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.

Illustrated with Figures and Analyses drawn from Nature by CHARLES Edward Faxon, and
engraved by Philibert and FucfeNE Picart. Jn twelve volumes^ quarto^ eaeh containing
fifty Plates, Price, ^2y.oo each, net. Vol. VI. now ready.

*• It is one of the most important works of descriptive science which this genera-
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“Within its limitations the most important w'ork of its kind that has yet been
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GARDEN AND FOREST (1888-1897): PART TWO

Volume 60 • Number 3 • 2000

Arnoldia (ISSN 004-2633; USPS 866-100) is
published quarterly by the Arnold Arboretum of
Harvard University. Second-class postage paid at
Boston, Massachusetts.

Subscriptions are $20.00 per calendar year domestic,
$25.00 foreign, payable in advance. Single copies of
most issues are $5.00; the exceptions are 58/4—59/1
(Metasequoia After Fifty Years) and 54/4 (A Source-
book of Cultivar Names), which are $10.00. Remit-
tances may be made in U.S. dollars, by check drawn
on a U.S. bank; by international money order; or
by Visa or Mastercard. Send orders, remittances,
change-of-address notices, and all other subscription-
related communications to: Circulation Manager,
Arnoldia, The Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway,
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Telephone 617/524-1718; facsimile 617/524—1418;
e-mail arnoldia@arnarb.harvard.edu.

Postmaster: Send address changes to
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Jamaica Plain, MA 02130-3500

Karen Madsen, Editor
Andy Winther, Designer

Editorial Committee
Phyllis Andersen
Ellen S. Bennett
Robert E. Cook
Peter Del Tredici
Gary Roller
Stephen A. Spongberg
Kim E. Tripp

Copyright © 2001. The President and Fellows of
Harvard College

Covers: Advertisements chosen from issues of
Garden and Forest.

Inside front cover: A drawing of a California cottage
covered by a twelve-year-old Noisette rose, published
m Garden and Forest (1891) as an example of "the
possibilities of horticulture in that favored region."

Inside back cover: M. Landers' drawing of an olive
tree in the Garden of Gethsemane, known as "The
Tree of Agony" and popularly believed to exceed
2,000 years of age. Garden and Forest (1888) charac-
terized it as "a venerable and characteristic specimen
of a tree which has few rivals in its usefulness to the
human race, while individually it is one of the best
known and most interesting trees in the world."

Page

2 Garden and Forest’s Journey to Cyberspace

Lee Ellen Eriedman

4 Garden and Forest and "Landscape Art"

Ethan Carr

6 A View in Central Park (1888)

8 The Field of Landscape-art (1897)

Editorial

9 The Squares of Paris (1888)

Henry S. Codman

10 The Plan of the Columbian Fair Grounds (1892)
Editorials

12 The Gardens at Monte Carlo (1891)

Editorial

14 The Necessity of Planning (1896)

Charles Eliot

16 Proposed Plan for Madison Square, New York
(1896)

M. G. Van Rensselaer et) correspondents
20 House at Honmoku in Japan (1888)

22 Foreign Plants and American Scenery (1888)
Editorial &> Frederick Law Olmsted

26 Wayside Beauty (1888)

27 Park-making as a National Art (1897)

Editorial

28 Notes from Garden and Forest

29 The Influence of Garden and Forest on the
Development of Horticulture

Mac Griswold

30 Horticultural Education (1896)

Editorial

33 The Effect of Gardening upon the Mind (1891)
Editorial

33 Various Motives for Gardening (1896)

Editorial

35 Delights of a Rough Garden (1896)

D. H. R. Goodale

35 Farming on Vacant City Lots (1896)

Editorial

36 Sentimentalism and Tree-felling (1893)

Editorial

37 The Use of Trees and Shrubs with Leaves of
Abnormal Colors (1897)

Editorial

38 Christmas Green (1888)

Editorial

39 Plant Notes. Japanese Iris (1888)

40 New or Little-Known Plants; Xanthoceras
sorbifolia (1893)

42 Climbing Plants on Boston Buildings (1894)
Sylvester Baxter

44 The Floating Gardens of Mexico (1895)

Charles H. Coe

47 Notes from Garden and Eorest

Garden and Forest's Journey to Cyberspace

LeeEllen Friedland

In March 1 888, the first issue of a new periodical, Garden and Forest: A Journal
of Horticulture, Landscape Art, and Forestry, was received by the Library of
Congress for copyright deposit. Every week thereafter, until the journal ceased
publication in December 1 897, subsequent issues of Garden and Forest were
added to the Library's collection.

Since the time of its original publication,
Garden and Forest has provided readers
at the Library of Congress — and other
libraries — a distinctive and invaluable resource.
Its pages contain a vast array of materials, from
articles on entomology and pomology to advice
on ornamental plant gardening to position state-
ments on forest conservation policy to summa-
ries of retail flower market prices. Every issue is
generously illustrated with detailed line draw-
ings, photographs, and landscape plans. The
advertisements on the front and back cover
leaves of each issue serve as a guide to eommer-
cial products and services of the time, including
flower pots, seeds and bulbs, tools, glass for
greenhouses and graperies, horticultural archi-
tects, nurseries, and gardeners. There are also
advertisements for periodicals on
agriculture and literature, and
even a Pocket Kodak camera
appropriate for amateur photogra-
phers who might wish to capture
"snow-scapes" of "leafless trees
and ice-bound streams."

How did Garden and Forest
journey from the shelves of the
Library of Congress, where it
rested safely for a century, to
cyberspace, where, in December
1999, it became the first complete
serial publication digitized by
the Library and released on the
Internet? Three intertwining
paths formed this journey and rep-
resented a confluence of issues —

digital technology, historical content value, and
preservation needs — central to the Library's
mission.

The Library of Congress began to explore the
use of digital technology to create reproductions
of historical collection materials in 1990. The
goal of the early pilot program, called "Ameri-
can Memory," was to "get the champagne out of
the bottle" in order to share the Library's trea-
sures with broader audiences.' Most of the col-
lection materials chosen to be digitized were
nominated by Library curators, but some project
ideas arose through other channels. One such
instance was in response to a generous gift from
Laurance S. and Mary French Rockefeller to
fund digital collections about subjects of
longstanding interest to them: President Calvin

Journey to Cyberspace 3

Coolidge and his times and the history of the
conservation movement in the United States^

As work got underway on the digital collec-
tion to he called "The Evolution of the Conser-
vation Movement, 1850-1920," Library staff
were confronted with an embarrassment of
riches. The Library of Congress has outstanding
collections in the history of science, especially
covering eighteenth- and nineteenth-century

America, and in the
areas of gardening,
horticulture, forestry,
and landscape art.
Among these riches.
Garden and Forest
stood out in several
ways. In addition to
primary information
on scientific topics, it provided a wonderful
snapshot of the cultural history of the early con-
servation movement in the United States. A
striking number of important individuals active
in the burgeoning conservation movement pub-
lished in Garden and Forest, and their writing
spanned the broad range of interests that
impelled them, including landscape design and
preservation, national and urban park develop-
ment, scientific forestry, forest conservation,
horticulture, and botany. Garden and Forest
also published the work of a significant number
of woman authors, an unusual occurrence in
publications of the time.

Although interest in Garden and Forest was
high, technical impediments initially prohib-
ited its inclusion in the American Memory
digital collection. Over the next several years,
some of those impediments lessened, but the
journal's overall size — almost 9,000 pages — and
the relative expense to digitize it in its entirety
remained concerns. The frequent requests
for Garden and Forest by researchers coming
to the Library of Congress throughout this
period, however, reinforced its importance as
a resource.

During the time Garden and Forest was being
considered for digitizing, Library staff noticed
that its paper showed signs of deterioration,
including embrittlement. At that time, the
Library's Preservation Directorate began to
develop its digital reformatting program to

provide another option for creating surrogates
of original materials that might be damaged
if used by readers. Garden and Forest was
chosen as the first project for this new approach,
and since standard procedure in preservation
reformatting — with older technologies such as
microfilm as well as new digital technologies —
is to capture the complete work, there was no
question that every volume of the serial would
be digitized in its entirety.^ The Preservation
digitizing approach also led to two fruitful col-
laborations for the Library: one with the Univer-
sity of Michigan, to deliver Garden and Forest
on the Internet through a collaborative gateway
that provides access to many nineteenth-
century periodicals,-^ and one with the Arnold
Arboretum of Harvard University, to develop
specialized access aids to the content, including
background essays and a detailed subject index.

Since Garden and Forest was released online
in December 1999, it has had a new and greatly
expanded life among millions of pages of other
electronic journals that provide full text access
over the Internet.^ This has enabled tens of
thousands of new researchers throughout the
world, who might never have discovered
Garden and Forest on a library shelf, to have a
first-hand glimpse of a critical period in the
history of the conservation movement in the
United States and the development of related
scientific fields.

Endnotes

' The American Memory digital collections can be
viewed at the Library of Congress web site: http://
memory.loc.gov/

^ See: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/coolhtml/
coolhome.html and http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/
amrvhtml/conshome.html

^ See: http://lcweb.loc.gov/preserv/prd/presdig/
presintro.html; http://lcweb.loc.gov/preserv/prd/
gardfor/digitizegf.html; and http://lcweb.loc.gov/
preserv/prd/presdig/presphase.html

See: http://lcweb.loc.gov/preserv/prd/gardfor/
digitizegf.html

^ See: http://lcweh.loc.gov/preserv/prd/gardfor/
gfhome.html

LeeEllen Friedland is a Senior Specialist with the
National Digital Library Program at the Library of
Congress.

4 Arnoldia 60/3

'he avenue of Cypress trees . . . forms the most conspicuous feature of the garaen or tne vuia c^iusa. lu
f Verona. The villa itself, a Renaissance building, is not of great architectural importance, nor are the gardens
ery extensive covering, perhaps, an acre and a half of ground. But they are beautifully laid out m the tr
tahan style, and there is nothing m all Italy finer m its way than this Cypress avenue_ The trees are probably
ome four hundred years old. and most of them are in fine condition . . . [Garden and Forest 2 11889). 458\

Garden and Forest and “Landscape Art"

Ethan Carr

Laura Wood Roper notes in her 1973 biog-
raphy of Frederick Law Olmsted that the
1890s were years of "staggering reverses"
for the profession of landscape architecture. Pio-
neers such as Frederick Law Olmsted and
Id. W. S. Cleveland retired from practice, while
the untimely deaths of Henry S. Codman and
Charles Eliot diminished the next generation.'
But it was also during this period that a body of
theory and technical expertise was developed
and became the basis for training landscape
architects. What had been a practice, in other
words, matured into a profession. And much of
this transition is documented in the pages of
Garden and Forest.

Garden and Forest, published from 1888
through 1897, benefited from an extraordinary
group of editors and contributors who saw it
as their best forum for shaping the profession
of landscape architecture. Correspondents
included (besides Olmsted, Cleveland, Eliot,
and Codman) Beatrix Jones (later Farrand),
Samuel B. Parsons, Charles H. Lowrie, Frank A.
Waugh, O. C. Simonds, Warren H. Manning,
Harold A. Caparn, Wilhelm Miller, J. C.
Olmsted — all leading practitioners of the day.
Eliot and Codman described European land-
scapes seen during the travels that had been
part of their apprenticeship. Others discussed
specific aspects of technique and practice, for
example, "The Treatment of Slopes and Banks"
(J. C. Olmsted), "Park Construction" (Cleve-
land), and "The Garden in Relation to the
House" (Farrand).^ The editors Charles Sprague
Sargent and William A. Stiles published descrip-
tions of showcase projects including the Boston
Metropolitan Parks, the World's Columbian
Exposition in Chicago, and Biltmore, as well as
plans of smaller but typical residences and gar-
dens.^ In an era before a professional organiza-
tion or academic instruction existed in the field
of landscape architecture. Garden and Forest
took on aspects of both.

The magazine did all this, of course, while
also promoting scientific forestry, botany, horti-
culture, city planning, and scenic preservation;

indeed, numerous professions trace their early
development in part to the influence of Garden
and Forest. But landscape architecture, which
aspired to combine planning and design on
many scales, enjoyed a special status in the
magazine and influenced its editorial structure.
Landscape architecture was not limited to the
"planting of flower-beds and of ornamental
shrubs," the Garden and Forest editors asserted
in 1897, but was a "broad and catholic art . . . as
useful in the preservation of the Yosemite Val-
ley or the scenery of Niagara as it is in planning
a pastoral park or the grounds about a country
house.'"' Descriptions like these summarized
not only the ambitions of landscape architects,
but also the editorial goals of Garden and For-
est. It was the emphasis on landscape architec-
ture, Stiles felt, that distinguished Garden and
Forest from "any other garden paper. Stiles
and Sargent published articles on horticulture
and "country place" design alongside calls for
the "Preservation of Natural Scenery" from sub-
urban Boston to the Sierra Nevada." In the edi-
torial tradition of Loudon and Downing, readers
were urged to expand the aesthetic sensibilities
developed in their own gardens and to become
advocates for better management of the larger
landscape, especially of public parks and forests.

If the practice of landscape architecture
offered conceptual unity to Garden and Forest,
the magazine in turn helped define the emerging
theory of the profession. This was largely due
to the contributions of the art historian and
critic Mariana Griswold (Mrs. Schuyler) Van
Rensselaer, who contributed a total of almost 50
articles beginning with a seven-part series on
"Landscape Gardening" in 1888. Already an
established art critic. Van Rensselaer became
intrigued with landscape architecture through
her friendship with the elder Olmsted. In her
Garden and Forest articles, she set out to define
landscape architecture as "landscape art,"
which, after architecture, sculpture, and paint-
ing, constituted the "fourth art" of design.' To
Olmsted's great satisfaction, she helped estab-
lish the professional status of landscape archi-

6 Arnoldia 60/3

A VIEW IN CENTRAL PARK.

The view on this page is taken from a point in the Ramhle in the Central
Park of this city, looking southward, and including a portion of the Ter-
race. Of course, it is much more than a picture of the Terrace, hut it clearly
shows how much this bit of architecture adds to the composition. The distant
horizon line of trees has an attractiveness of its own. Nearer by are the upper
Terrace lines contrasting with the masses of foliage above them. Below these
are the open arches with deeper shadows, then the lower lines of the Terrace,
the lake shore and the passage of water separating more distinctly the extreme
distance from the middle distance. All these, with the lines of the shrubbery
about the little lawn, mark the successive planes of the composition and help
to bring out the gradations of light and shadow. In the Park the observer would
enioy in addition the ever varying tints of the sky which would also he
reflected in the water, while he could look up to and into the leafy framework
in the foreground forever without exhausting its interest. The illustration is a
good example of what can be accomplished by framing in a distant object with
foliage, so as to make a complete and consistent picture, and there is no rea-
son why such planting as it shows should he confined to public parks. Many a
lawn could be made the foreground of a picture quite as attractive, and it could
be graded and planted so as to emphasize the interest and increase the
pictorial effect of some important object, natural or artificial, and trees could
be disposed about it so as to concentrate the attention which would otherwise
he distracted by surrounding objects.

[Garden and Forest 1 (1888): 30]

'Landscape Art” 7

tects by defining their practice as a fine art,
unlike the craft or trade of gardening.*

Continuing this essentially Reptonian dis-
course, Van Rensselaer distinguished landscape
art from the other fine arts hy observing that it
"uses the same materials as nature herself."^
The landscape gardener (her preferred term)
"takes from nature not only his models hut his
materials and his methods." This "partnership
with Nature" might seem to limit the artist's
opportunity for self expression, a necessary
quality of true art. But like the painter or the
sculptor, the landscape gardener observes nature
and "re-unites her scattered excellences" in
artistic compositions that express the whole-
ness and unity that nature possesses but rarely
reveals in a single place or view. Nature always
provides "vitality, light, atmosphere," she
concluded, and especially "what no other artist
ever gets — perfection in details." But "composi-
tion ... is the chief thing in art . . . and the land-
scape gardener's compositions are and must be
his own."'°

Van Rensselaer's contributions in Garden and
Forest made her a foremost landscape theorist of
her day, and her ideas would be taught to genera-
tions of American landscape architects." If
many of her discussions of nature and art would
not seem out of place in the late eighteenth cen-
tury, to a remarkable degree they also antici-
pated some of today's debates in the fields of
landscape design and planning. Van Rensselaer
deplored the naive tendency to assume that
rural scenery was "natural," for example, when
it was usually the (often unintended) product of
generations of cultivation and management.
Nature and art were rarely mutually exclusive
in the landscape. Sargent and Stiles adopted this
theme and criticized the excessive veneration
of what was assumed to be natural or "wild"
because it had led to the neglect of "that part of
the landscape which is necessarily not wild —
the landscape of our daily lives — the humanized
scenery of the earth." In words that resonate
today, they regretted the tendency of people to
travel "in search of the picturesque while what
might be the picturesqueness of their own
neighborhood is unperceived or destroyed.""

Throughout the pages of Garden and Forest,
simplistic distinctions between what is
"nature" and what is "art" were condemned, as
were dogmatic preferences for either the "natu-

ral" or the "formal" styles in garden design."
"Landscape art" encompassed both spheres,
which is why it offered a unique means for
improving a broad range of public and private
environments, from vacation villas to city plans
and from municipal parks to national reserva-
tions. Landscape art was necessary in all these
designs because without it they could never
achieve the unity inherent in great artistic
compositions. The "true artist" planned
landscapes — from gardens to entire cities — by
first analyzing and recognizing the "characteris-
tic and salient aspects of the place," in order to
"work in harmony with them instead of coming
into conflict with nature.""

Garden and Forest was dedicated to advanc-
ing landscape design as a compositional "art,"
inspired by the greater composition and unity of
"nature" and intended to integrate human soci-
ety into the larger, natural environment. Land-
scape architecture was seen as the profession
that would supply the necessary artists. But
landscape art was not for art's sake alone. In an
editorial reflecting the sentiments of the elder
Olmsted (as was often the case), Sargent and
Stiles state that "true art is not the servant of
some temporary fashion, but something that is
to endure, and must, therefore, have a perma-
nent basis in the necessities and aspirations of
human life.""

Among contemporary landscape projects,
therefore, none received more attention in the
pages of Garden and Forest than the Metropoli-
tan Park Commission's system of suburban
parks around Boston. Charles Eliot, who first
proposed the system in an 1890 letter to Garden
and Forest, was praised as an example of the
"true artist" needed to successfully direct such
a project." But the deaths of both Eliot and
Stiles in 1897, followed soon by the demise of
Garden and Forest, marked the end of one era
and the beginning of another. Within three
years, landscape architects had established their
own professional organization, the American
Society of Landscape Architects (1899), and
instituted the first academic program in the
field, at Harvard University (1900). The profes-
sion flourished, bolstered by a growing market
for "country place" residential design. Whether
Garden and Forest’s ideals of "landscape art"
survived as well in the new century, however, is
an open question.

8 Arnoldia 60/3

Endnotes

' Laura Wood Roper, FLO: A Biography of
Frederick Law Olmsted (Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1973), 475.

^ Garden and Forest (hereafter, GedF] 1 (1888):
267, 326-327; 3 (1890): 129; 4 (1891): 184; 10
1897): 132.

^ GedF 1 (1888): 508; 6 (1893): 361-362; 8
(1895): 481-482.

G&>F 10 (1897): 192.

^ Quoted in Roper, FLO, 404.

^ See Ge^f 2(1889): 133; 3 (1890): 257; 7 ( 1894):
1; 10 (1897): 222.

^ The articles, as well as at least one GedF
editorial written by Van Rensselaer (6 (1893):
1 19-120), became the basis for her book. Art
Out-of-Doors: Hints on Good Taste in
Gardening (New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons, 1893). In 1889, Van Rensselaer began a
series of G&>F articles on garden history,
s GedF 1 (1888): 2.

® The late 18th-century British landscape
gardener Humphry Repton (who coined the
term "landscape gardener") was a figure of
considerable interest to American landscape
architects in the 1880s. When J. C. Olmsted,
Eliot, and others began to meet as an
informal professional society at that time,
they named their group the "Repton Club."
Norman T. Newton, Design on the Land: The
Development of Landscape Architecture
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971),
386. Also see Humphry Repton, The Art
of Landscape Gardening, ed. John Nolen
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1907).

‘0 GedF 1 (1888): 2, 14-15, 27, 38.

" Art Out-of-Doors was republished in 1925,
and many of Van Rensselaer's ideas were
assimilated into Henry V. Hubbard and
Theodora Kimball's standard textbook. An
Introduction to the Study of Landscape
Design (1917; rev. ed.. New York: The
Macmillan Company, 1929).

Get)F6 (1893) : 531.

See Ge)F 1 (1888): 51-52, 481; 7 (1894): 261-
262, 341-342; 10(1897): 191-192.

Ge9f 6 (1893): 531.

>5 Ge9f 9 (1896): 171; see Roper, FLO, 435.

See Ge)F3 (1890): 85-86; 3 (1890): 109, 117-
118; 7 (1893): 191.

Ethan Carr is a landscape architect with the
National Park Service and the author of
Wilderness by Design (University of Nebraska
Press), which received the American Society of
Landscape Architects' honor award in 1998.

THE FIELD OF LANDSCAPE-ART.

WE are constantly asked whether the profes-
sion of landscape-gardening offers a promis-
ing field for young men who are looking for some
calling in life which will be useful and remunera-
tive. We have always felt obliged to reply that there
is comparatively small demand for the counsel of
landscape-gardeners in this country . . . The preva-
lent idea is that his work is chiefly ornamental and
that his province is to do about the same thing for
the surroundings of a house that the decorative
artist does for its interior when he selects the furni-
ture, rugs and hangings and decided upon color-
schemes and the like. That is, after an architect has
built a house, it is considered proper to call in a
landscape-gardener to plant some ornamental trees
and shrubs about it and lay out paths and flower-
beds in order to beautify the grounds. ... In fact, the
beauty of the scene, which includes both the house
and the grounds, should grow up from the general
design and framework of the house and grounds as a
place where all the varied necessities of the family
in the way of health and happiness and home life are
the first things considered. . . .

All this means that a landscape-gardener ought to
be much more than a mere decorative planter. The
successful designing of public parks or of private
grounds for daily occupation means first of all the
study of human wants — the necessities of men and
women and children of various circumstances and
conditions. A good artist must be primarily a man of
sound judgment and he should have a cultivated
mind, wide sympathies and catholic tastes. Reading
and travel and scholarship can do for the designer in
landscape all that they can accomplish for the archi-
tect. A man may be able to mass a shrubbery effec-
tively or arrange a border of herbaceous plants with
skill and yet not have a particle of that profounder
art which was seen in the grouping of the great
buildings at the Columbian Exposition, and the
planning of that Court of Honor which was the
crowning artistic success of Mr. Olmsted's life. This
view of the case contemplates an ideal that is rarely
attained, and it is because the work of real artists in
this line is rarely seen and still more rarely appreci-
ated that the very existence of such an art is practi-
cally ignored or denied. . . .

(Editorial. Garden and Forest 10 (1897): 161]

Landscape Art” 9

THE SQUARES OF PARIS.

ONE of the best features of the park system of Paris is the number of small
squares scattered about in the different quarters of the city. The parks
themselves, especially the larger ones, are at such great distances from the
crowded centres of population, that the working classes, except on Sundays and
holidays, seldom have a chance to visit them, so that these squares admirably
serve the purpose of keeping the children out of the streets, and of allowing the
poorer people, in the few hours of leisure they have during the week, to get a
breath of fresh air and a glimpse of green.

A stranger, on first entering one of them, marvels as he sees how neatly they
are kept while so thickly crowded with visitors, reading, working or playing. In
plan they are usually quite simple, as the accompanying diagram will show. A

broad gravel walk, ten or twelve feet wide,
following near but separated from the
boundary by occasional shrubbery planta-
tions, encloses a quiet piece of lawn suffi-
ciently open to get a glimpse through to the
opposite end, but planted on the sides with
trees, shrubs and foliage plants.

There are few attempts at fancy garden-
ing, but much care has been taken to select
hardy shrubs and plants with the view of
avoiding bare and empty beds during the winter. The condition of the turf is
everywhere excellent, for water is freely used, and suitable small playgrounds
are provided for the children, which serve the purpose of keeping them off the
grass. These playgrounds, which are an admirable feature, are generally formed
by simply widening the walks in the corners and planting enough trees there to
afford ample shade. There are always one or two flower beds, which are kept
bright and attractive during the spring and summer by a constant succession of
showy flowering and foliage plants. Permanent seats are provided, but not in suf-
ficient numbers to accommodate every one, but for a very small sum a chair for
the whole morning or afternoon can be hired and you can move it about at will.

The only serious fault in all these squares is the stiff and formal appearance of
the shrubberies. Almost without exception these plantations are in the form of
regular figures — circles, ovals or ellipses — and they are always planted on slight
mounds. These two facts detract very much from any effect of naturalness, and
it seems a great pity that, when it is so easy to give a varying outline to the
groups, it has not been done. It would also be an improvement to plant the bor-
ders of these beds with plants or shrubs of low, half trailing habit, and thus, in a
measure, hide the sharp, stiff outline between the turf and the dug ground of the
bed ... in Paris there are no less than seventy breathing places, not counting
the boulevards and other tree-planted streets. They are usually most attractive
spots and teach a lesson which might very well be copied in many of the crowded
cities of our country.

Paris.

[Garden and Forest 1 (1888): 267]

Henry S. Codman

REFERENCES

r ARIZONA.
i.ARHANSAS.

3. CALirORNIA.

N. COLORADO.

5. CONN€CTICUT.

6. DEIAY{AR£.

7. FLORIDA /g/ /

8 . GEORGIA g! i

reNBESSCE iALA BAHIA M
9. WAHO.

10 INDIANA,

II.IOWA.

H. KANSAS.

15. KENTUCKY.

IV. LOUISIANA.

15. MAINE.

16. MASSACHUSETTS.

IT. MARYLAND.

IS. MICHIGAN
\l9. MINNESOTA.

MISSISSIPPI.

II . MISSOURI.

??, MONTANA.

?i. NEBRASKA
NEKA DA.

£5. NEW HAMSHIRE

26. NEW JERSEY.

27. WYOMING.

\i%. NEW YORK ,

\V> . N. DAKOTA. £

\S0 N CAROLINA. M

XS'.OHIO Ef/j.

c/M

I 33. PENNSYyan/A. M/g/i
\\yi. RHODE ISLAND mg/ /
\55.S. CAROLINA. /W/-^
^H.S. DAKOTA * ' !

37.7f7t/S. //

33. UTAH /

39. VERMONT. ^

W. VIRGINIA
VI. WASHINGTON ,

\ Vi. W VIRGINIA /

V?. WISCONSIN /<

NEW MEXICO j

if PARADE

M

A , great BRITAIN

a. MEXICO

C. GERMANY.

D. ECUADOR. •

E. GUATEMALA.

F. COSTA RICA

G. JAPAN.

H . AROENT/NC /tEP{/Birc<^'
/ , SRAHL RIO.

J. COLOMBIA.

H. CHILI,,

STEAMBOAT

// nw ^ If

WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION

GENER-.\L PI..-\N

MCTACV

Plan of the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, April 1892, by F. L. Olmsted & Co.

J i/Y

“Landscape Art” 11

THE PLAN OF THE COLUMBIAN FAIR GROUNDS.

More than twenty years ago a design was prepared by Messrs. Olmsted, Vaux
iSt Co. for laying out three tracts of land which were known together as South
Park, Chicago. One of these tracts is now Jackson Park, the site of the Columbian
Exposition. Among the striking features of this plot of land, as pointed out in the
report accompanying the plan alluded to, was its long frontage on the lake, which, in
the opinion of the designers, added an element of such grandeur and sublimity that it
compensated for the absence of picturesque elevations of surface, while at the same
time it provided means of transportation by water from the city, whose business
centre was some seven miles away . . . Visitors who come by rail would pass through
the arches of this stately structure [the Administration Building, the loftiest and most
strictly monumental building on the grounds] into the quadrangle, where their first
impressions of the Exhibition will be received. A glance at the map will explain to
some extent this arrangement and the magnitude of the scale upon which the whole
idea is worked out will be understood when it is remembered that the basin contains
nearly nine acres of water.

This plan of ushering visitors into the grounds through a porch of such dignity and
into a court surrounded by architectural splendors, instead of letting them in through
some side-entrance, so to speak, seems to us one of the finest inspirations of the
design. No group of buildings approaching these in magnitude or of equal ambition
in design, and related to each other so intimately, has ever been constructed in the
entire history of architecture, and while the designers of the separate buildings have
been allowed certain liberties as to details of expression they have worked together
in perfect sympathy to secure a single consistent and harmonious effect . . .

[Editorial. Garden and Forest 5(1892): 289]

In the throng who witnessed on Monday the Columbian Exposition few probably
realized that the harmony of the scene and the perfection and convenience of the
whole scheme of arrangement were due to the genius of one man, Frederick Law
Olmsted. Many others have brought to this great enterprise their gifts of labor, devo-
tion, artistic training and the enthusiasm born of a great opportunity, but the spark
of genius which has produced a single and consistent work of art, changing the sandy
and uninviting waste of Jackson Park into a marvel of stately beauty, sprung from his
brain. Of this the world may still be ignorant, but his associates realize and proclaim
it; and the architects, sculptors and painters who have been inspired to their sincerest
efforts feel that their work serves a nobler purpose, because the labor of each contrib-
uted to the harmonious development and expression of his comprehensive idea . . .

The foremost artist which the New World has yet produced, Mr. Olmsted, has been
singularly fortunate in impressing himself during his own life upon his time and
people, and in living to see with his own eyes the development and perfection of his
greatest conceptions. The memory of his name and personality may be dimmed in the
passage of years, for it is the fate of architects to be lost in their work, but millions of
people now unborn will find rest and refreshment in the contemplation of smiling
landscapes which he has made, and will enjoy the shade of trees which he has planted.
No American has been more useful in his time or has made a more valuable and
lasting contribution to civilization in this country.

[Editorial. Garden and Forest 6 (1893): 192]

12 Arnoldia 60/3

THE GARDENS AT MONTE CARLO.

Many are the sins that have been committed in the laying out and huild
ing of American towns, but the greatest of all, perhaps, has been the
neglect or defacement of their water-fronts. Whether the adjacent water is ocean
or great river, lake or little stream, we seldom see its shores turned to the best
advantage, and often they present a more deplorable aspect than any other part
of the town. In New York tumbledown, malodorous, muddy wharfs, flanked by
streets which are frequently pools of water, line a shore that ought to be encircled
by well-built, well-kept piers, and even the precious little expanse of Battery Park
is daily threatened with curtailment; in Boston the back yards of Beacon Street
houses lie along the wide estuary where a stately, tree-bordered esplanade should

The Gardens at Monte Carlo.

have stretched; and the river or brook which intersects a country town is most
often edged by rickety sheds or fringed with ragged weeds, and is spanned by
bridges as perishable as they are ugly. Of late years public attention has, indeed,
been directed to the subject of water-fronts, and much has been done to secure
them, in the outskirts of great cities, against the disfigurement that has over-
taken them in portions already built. The parks at Chicago have been laid out
with a wise sense of the value of the lake-frontage. Boston has claimed for simi-
lar purposes certain stretches of the Back Bay Shore, and New York has con-
structed Riverside Drive and bought the water-front near Pelham. But there is
need that more should be done in this direction and that we should learn from
older countries the art of beautifying the water-fronts we are beginning at least
to reserve. All foreign countries are full of examples of this art, whether it has
been employed merely to dignify reaches of shore that must be put to commer-
cial use or to create ornamental promenades and gardens. The quays at Antwerp

“Landscape Alt" 13

are as good in their more prosaic way as the Thames Embankment in London.
The Elbe at Dresden is not defaced by the structures that line its banks, though
they are not all terraced promenades, but include steamboat-landings, private
grounds, hotels and restaurants. At Rouen the chief hotels look out on a river
crowded with shipping, yet look on a scene devoid of squalor or architectural
meanness. At Lyons the great stream rushes between close-pressed ranks of tall
buildings, yet a fine drive runs by it in many places, and everywhere the shore
is agreeable to look upon. At Prague there is a truly magnificent series of wide
esplanades upon which some of the finest buildings in the city have been placed,
and a succession of bridges where the newest wrought-iron span does not seem
out of artistic keeping with the famous great stone bridge which, until some of
its arches were swept away last summer, had stood intact since medieval times.
And so one might pass from land to land and town to town, only to find that
everywhere the water-front is valued and everywhere is intelligently treated,
with parks or avenues if possible, and if not, at least with respectable buildings
and cleanly shores.

The picture we give [above] shows a peculiarly charming treatment of a water-
front. As possessing the only public gaming-house still open in Europe, Monaco
would in any case attract a multitude of visitors. But its development would
never have been so great, and it would never have drawn thousands of tourists
who do not come for the sake of gaming, had its situation not been so marvel-
ously beautiful. The town itself, and the promontory of Monte Carlo where the
Casino stands, overlook from their rocky heights the vast blue expanse of the
Mediterranean, and the gift of nature has been sedulously enhanced by the intel-
ligence of man. The drives along the cliff-edge are admirably planned, and, like
the Casino gardens, show what may be achieved when architecture and horticul-
ture are combined by an artistic hand. Monsieur Edouard Andre, the famous
French landscape-gardener, never did a better piece of work than here, and the
effect of his planting has been increased by the skill of gardeners who have caused
Palms and other exotic plants to grow with extraordinary luxuriance. The treat-
ment is somewhat formal, as befits the neighborhood of stately buildings and the
presence of perpetual crowds of visitors. But there is no monotonous regularity
in the arrangement either of the terraces and balustrades or of the sub-tropical
plants which give such a singular charm to the spot in the eyes of travelers fresh
from the wintry north. We can imagine what such a shore would be were this an
American watering-place. It would doubtless not be given up to utter neglect and
dishevelment, but a wooden paling would probably replace the marble balus-
trade, board walks the gravel slopes and marble steps, badly chosen trees in
inharmonious variety the orderly avenue, and a stretch of Coleus-beds the beau-
tifully grouped shrubbery. Of course, the exact treatment appropriate at Monaco
would not be appropriate in a northern American watering-place,- but something
of the same orderliness, dignity and beauty ought to be secured far more often
than it is. And while, in American country places, picturesqueness, rather than
symmetrical stateliness, is usually appropriate, there are cases where it would be
better to try for the more formal architectural charm which distinguishes the
Casino gardens at Monte Carlo.

[Garden and Forest 4 (1891): 194]

14 Arnoldia 60/3

THE NECESSITY OF PLANNING.

The daily work of the architect and the landscape-architect is popularly sup-
posed to consist in ornamenting lands and buildings so as to make them
appear beautiful. Rooms may be inconveniently and awkwardly shaped, but they
can be "beautified" by rich furniture and upholstery. Whole buildings may be
irrationally planned, but they may still be made "artistic" by means of mould-
ings, carvings and mosaic. House and grounds and college grounds, private gar-
dens and public parks may be senselessly, as well as ineffectively, arranged, but
they may still be glorified by yellow and purple leafage. In short, "The world is
still deceived with ornament."

On the other hand, although all seekers for the truth concerning beauty have
discerned elements which defy analysis, such special students have nevertheless
deduced from the visible and historical facts a whole series of fixed principles,
which are quite as surely established as any of the other so-called laws of nature.
Among these, perhaps, the most important is this, that "in all the arts which
serve the use, convenience, or comfort of man, from gardening and building down
to the designing of the humblest utensil which it is desired to make beautiful,
utility and fitness for intended purpose must be first considered." It is to be
remembered that this is not theory but law. As a matter of fact and experience
satisfying beauty is not won unless the law of nature is obeyed.

That faithful and well-reasoned planning for the accomplishment of purpose
is necessary to the success of the work of architects of buildings is now generally
understood. "A plan" is a skillful combination of convenience with effectiveness
of arrangement. "A design" is made up of plan, construction and outward appear-
ance, and by no means consists of the latter only. Indeed, the external aspect
of a structure depends directly on the mode of construction, the construction
depends, in turn, on the plan, and the plan on the purpose in view; with the
result that the whole appearance of the building inevitably and naturally
expresses this purpose.

If it be true that expression, character, and even beauty are thus most surely
won, in the case of buildings, by keeping decoration subsidiary and designing
with purpose in view from the start, it is equally true of all the wide field of
architecture, using the word in its broadest imaginable sense. "Architecture, a
great subject, truly," says William Morris, "for it embraces the consideration of
the whole of the external surroundings of the life of man; we cannot escape from
it if we would, for it means the moulding and altering to human needs of the very
face of the earth itself." A busy pasture or a smooth green field in forest-clad New
England is as truly a product of human handiwork as a green meadow in treeless
and dusty Utah, yet each is beautiful, and neither owes a particle of its beauty to
decoration. The English deer-park, with its broad-spreading trees, or the church-
yard, with its ancient stones and yews, the typical Yankee farm with its low
buildings and great Elm, or the Live Oaks and quaint structures of the plantations
of Louisiana, these and all similarly interesting landscapes are interesting, not
because they have been decorated, but because they are strongly characterized
and highly expressive. Their moving beauty is the natural product of straightfor-
ward work for the adaptation of land and landscape to human needs and uses.

“Landscape Art

15

Believing these things, it will he impossible for us, when a tract of land is
newly dedicated to some special purpose, be it that of a suburban lot, a railroad-
station yard, a new village, a country-seat or a public park, to stand by and see it
thoughtlessly laid out and then, perhaps, turned over to the decorators. We shall
insist on premeditation and careful fundamental planning, knowing that therein
lies the best, if not the only, hope of happy results. Once possessed of faith in that
law of nature in accordance with which beauty springs from fitness, we shall be
ready to agree that, when purpose is served, formal gardens, rectilinear avenues
and courts of honor are not only permitted, but commanded. On the other hand,
we shall be equally strenuous in demanding studied planning and adaptation to
environment and purpose in the laying out of whatever work may need to be
done to make the wildest place of private or public resort accessible and enjoy-
able. Positive injury to the landscape of such places can be avoided only by pains-
taking, while the available resources of scenery can be economized only be
careful devising. So with the whole range of problems which lie between these
extremes. No work of man is ever successfully accomplished without taking
thought beforehand; in other words, without planning.

And, strange as it may appear, opposition to such planning for effective results
will not, in practice, be found to come from those who attempt decoration only
because they know not how else to attain to the beautiful, fust as the literary
class in China ruinously opposes change of any kind, so there is with us a com-
paratively small, but influential, body of refined persons, far too well educated
to be "deceived by ornament," who most unfortunately, though unintentionally,
assist in the triumphs of ugliness by blindly opposing all attempts to adapt land
and landscape to changed or new requirements. Enjoying the pleasanter scenery
of their surroundings as it exists — certain shady roads, or some lingering fields
or farm-lands — these estimable people talk of "letting Nature alone" or "keep-
ing Nature natural," as if such a thing were possible in a world which was made
for man. No, the "moulding and altering" of the earth goes forward of necessity,
and if those who ought to be leaders will not help to guide the world aright, the
work will surely be done badly; as it is, in fact, done badly in the neighborhood
of all our great towns. To refuse to exercise foresight and to adapt to purpose in
due season, is simply to court disaster. Instead of hanging back, it ought to be the
pride and pleasure of these very people to see to it that proper plans are season-
ably laid for the widening of roads so that fine trees shall not be sacrificed, to see
to it that electric-car tracks shall be placed only in suitably selected and specially
arranged streets, that public reservations of one type or another shall be provided
in accordance with some consistent general scheme, and that such reservations
shall be saved from both decorative and haphazard development by the early
adoption of rational and comprehensive plans. There is needed a little less
selfish contentment in the doomed landscape of the present, a sharper sense of
responsibility to the future and a living faith in that law of God, in obedience to
which everything which is well adapted to use and purpose is sure to be interest-
ing and expressive, and if not beautiful, at least on the way to be.

Brookline, Mass. Charles Eliot

[Garden and Forest 9 (1896): 342]

1 6 Arnoldia 60/3

PROPOSED PLAN FOR MADISON SQUARE,

NEW YORK CITY.

. . . SIXTY years ago few buildings, except rural ones, stood north of Union
Square, and the area now called Madison Square was an open tract some ten
acres in extent in the centre of which stood a House of Refuge for unruly
boys — an altogether neglected and unsightly tract, of which the only use-
ful feature was a little pond used for skating in the winter. When the House
of Refuge burned in 1839, efforts were made to improve the place, but noth-
ing substantial was accomplished until the mayoralty of lames Harper,
between the years 1844 and 1847. This was some ten years before Central
Park was thought of, and although Downing had already done some of his
best work, he had not yet laid out those urban squares in Washington which
first showed American eyes what might be accomplished in this direction.

When studied on paper the plan of Madison Square shows the working
of design, not of accident; yet its treatment is so petty and monotonous, so

Fig. 18 — Present Arrangement of Madison Square, Fig. 19 — Suggestion for the Improvement of Madison
New York. Square, by E. Hamilton Bell and Daniel W. Langton.

“Landscape Art” 17

wanting alike in broad unity, in effective variety and in conspicuous points
of interest, that, we believe, few New Yorkers realize that it has any plan
at all . . . The one virtue of the design is that those who wish to cross the
park diagonally may do so with reasonable directness. And its chief defect
is that its many minor paths cut up its lawns so pitilessly that the eye
nowhere rests upon a quiet, reposeful stretch of green.

Truly naturalistic schemes of park design are, of course, more difficult
to manage well on a small than on a large scale; and they are not as appro-
priate as others when the architectural surroundings of the pleasure-ground
are of an obtrusively urban sort. Therefore, Messrs. Bell &. Langton have
sensibly conceived their rearrangement of Madison Square upon semi-
formal lines. It may appear that in drawing their main paths anew they
have made diagonal circulation less direct,- hut measurements show that,
if anything, they have shortened the diagonal courses. By suppressing the
minor paths they have won space for wide lawns. Yet the accommodation
for strollers and for playing children, and for rows of seats as well, which is
lost in this way, is more than made good by the broad mall which forms
the central feature of their design, the two parallel paths which lie beyond
its flanking flower-beds, and the large open circles which surround the
basin that now exists, and the one which they indicate as balancing it
toward the north . . .

(The plan] is published here less with the idea that Madison Square may
actually be renovated according to its indications than in the belief that a
comparison of it with the existing state of the Square will be instructive to
those charged with the arrangement of new small parks in this and other
cities ... As a rule, a formal or semi-formal manner of treatment, resulting
in a pleasure-ground which is properly to be called a large garden rather
than a park, must be most appropriate for restricted areas in the heart of a
great city. And Messrs. Bell & Langton show that such a manner of treat-
ment need not exclude variety in design, abundance of shade, the reposeful
effect of wide green lawns, or even such seemingly unstudied, yet artistic,
arrangements of trees, shrubs and grass as may produce pleasingly natural-
istic impressions and illusions.

New York City. M. G. Van Rensselaer

[Garden and Forest 9 (1896): 143]

CORRESPONDENCE.

The Plans of Madison Square.

To the Editor of Garden and Forest:

Sir, — All persons interested in park-making will certainly be grateful for
the two plans of Madison Square in your last issue and the study of their
comparative merits by Mrs. Van Rensselaer. Perhaps still further discussion
may be helpful, and I therefore write to say that it is hardly correct to
classify the old plan as belonging to the naturalistic class. I draw a heavy
line (see fig. 22) to show how symmetrical it is except where it has been

18 Arnoldia 60/3

distorted in two or three places. Curved lines are not necessarily natural.
Of course, the building (C) ought to be less conspicuous than it is, and the
revised plan corrects this. Plainly, too, the statues are introductions of a
later date, and the original designer is not responsible for placing them
where they are. They might be well removed to the points (NN). If this were
done I do not discover any great superiority in the proposed plan over the
old one. The area is so small that the insertion of a bit of rectangular treat-
ment surrounded by a curvilinear treatment seems incongruous. Nor is it
large enough for a "variety of design, abundance of shade, an effect of wide
green lawns with seemingly unstudied, yet artistic, arrangement of trees,
shrubs and grass, which produce pleasingly naturalistic impressions and
illusions." An attempt to accomplish all this in so contracted a space must
result in confusion. Let us have symmetry where this is needed, but curvi-
linear symmetry and rectangular symmetry ought not to be mixed up in so
small a place . . . Altogether, if there could he some rearrangement in the
planting to make the symmetry of the present plan more evident, it strikes
me as better than the new ones . . . Messrs. Bell & Langton have been

“Landscape Art” 19

hampered by their efforts to save standing trees, so that they were allowed
very little freedom of treatment, and it is not fair to criticise their plan as
an original work.

New York City. S.A.

To the Editor of Garden and Forest:

Sir, — I observe that in both plans of Madison Square, published in your
issue for April 8th, the paths which converge at the circles are very inaccu-
rately centered — that is, the axes of the paths do not point to the centres of
the circle, and if the designs were executed as shown on the map the result
would be disastrous. This, however, may be simply carelessness on the part
of the draughtsman. I should add that both plans ought to show great seat-
ing capacity. Seats ought to be recessed so that the feet of those using them
will not be in the way of pedestrians, because the paths as wide as those in
the plans give no more than the necessary walking space.

New York L.G.S.

[Garden and Forest 9 (1896): 158-159]

Madison Square Again

To the Editor of Garden and Forest:

Sir, — Your correspondent, S. A. . . . criticises the plan of Madison Square
of Messrs. Bell & Langton because the centre of the park is formalized. I
think the criticism just. He points out the symmetrical arrangement of
paths as they exist, and says that the place is too small to contain formal as
well as naturalistic effects. A seven-acre piece of ground is certainly too
small for effects of wide green lawns if the centre is taken up with a recti-
linear scheme covering more than an acre and a half. But seven acres are
enough for naturalistic effects of respectable extent. Your correspondents
(right, as I think) agree that formal features are desirable in a park of this
kind. 1 do not believe, however, in the value of "symmetry" in lines of
travel on a place of this size. This symmetry is not very obvious even on
paper until emphasized by black lines, and it might be apparent to an
observer hovering over it in a balloon. But how shall one who strolls into
the square know that the path in which he walks is balanced by a similar
on the other side? Artists in landscape too often forget that their paper
plans are deceptive. Cannot effects of wide green lawns, abundance of
shade and so forth be combined in seven acres with the popular formal
effects? I think they can by relegating the formal design to a part of the
ground where it will not interfere with the appearance of size. I enclose a
design as a suggestion . . .

BB are the statues, C the kiosk, A the Farragut monument . . .

Pittsburg, PA. H. A. Caparn

[Garden and Forest 9 (1896): 178]

20 Arnoldio 60/3

HOUSE AT HONMOKU IN JAPAN.

The photograph from which our illustration was drawn seemed to us of
especial interest as displaying a Japanese solution of a problem very similar
to that which often confronts a builder on the rocky shores of New England,
especially north of Cape Cod, and on the borders of many of our inland lakes.
This problem is to place a country-house on a rugged shore to the best advantage,
while preserving, as far as possible, the natural character of the spot. It is only of
very recent years that it has been so much as considered in this country. We have
been much too anxious to imitate, under wholly different conditions, the coun-
try homes of Europe, and, in particular, of England. We have wanted to surround
our houses with green lawns, well-kept flower-beds and trees symmetrical in
shape and planted in accordance with the supposed laws of landscape gardening
as practiced in countries all parts of which have long been subjected to cultiva-
tion. And we have too often tried to secure all this in actual defiance of natural
conditions, and at the sacrifice of natural beauties which, to a really cultivated
eye, would have seemed of priceless value. We have too often sacrificed the
chance for a beautiful, wide outlook over the water by placing the house so far
from the brink that lawns and drives eould encircle it; have cut away the native
growth of tree and shrubs — rough and straggling, perhaps, but picturesque and
precious for that very reason — and replaced them by nursery specimens,- have
planted gardeners' flowers in the stead of nature's beautiful wild products, and in

Landscape Art

21

the end, after a vast expenditure of time, pains and money, have succeeded in
producing merely a had imitation of an English villa, unattractive in itself, and
utterly out of keeping with the landscape environing it.

Fortunately, tastes are changing, and one of the chief facts to he placed to the
credit of the architectural profession in America to-day is the fact that it has
developed a keen sense for the diverse natural beauties of our country, and an
admirable power of adapting its constructions to the site and the surroundings at
the moment in question. It is getting to be recognized as a binding aesthetic rule
that a house shall conform itself to site and surroundings, and that these shall
not be defaced to suit the character of a design abstractly evolved on paper, or
tortured into the semblance of something which foreign hands had created
under very different conditions. Many American homes exist, built within the
last ten years, which are as worthy of praise from the point of view of appropri-
ateness and picturesque charm as the Japanese house in our present picture ... It
will be noted that this house is placed quite at the edge of the cliff, so that the
most extended possible view is obtained; that every tree which could be pre-
served in building it has been preserved; that the wild aspect of the spot has not
been interfered with, and that the construction of man, alike in the house itself,
and in the fences, steps and other surroundings, have been kept as simple and
unobtrusive as possible. Picturesqueness is not the only quality to be prized,
either in architectural or in gardening art; and it is a quality which, if forced into
life where it does not naturally belong, is distressing to every cultivated eye. But
when nature gives us picturesqueness in so clear and pronounced a form as here,
the architect must accept her leading or ruin the effect both of her work and of
his own. And spots quite as distinctively picturesque as this, and very similar in
character, abound, as we have said, in many parts of our pine-grown, rocky
coasts, and demand analogous architectural treatment. Naturally, to advise direct
imitation of a Japanese house in America is no part of our desire, yet it may be
said that the general architectural idea embodied in this house is far better fitted
to adaptation in this country than most of those European models upon which
we have so largely drawn in the past.

[Garden and Forest 1 (1888): 314-315, 319]

Each of us is constituted with a special idiosyncrasy related in some mysteri-
ous way to certain ideas of natural scenery, and when we find ourselves in a scene
answering to our idiosyncrasy the mind feels itself at home there and rapidly
attaches itself by affection. The influence of scenery upon happiness is far greater
than is generally believed. There is a nostalgia which is not exactly a longing for
one's birthplace, but a weary dissatisfaction with the nature that lies around us,
and a hopeless desire for the nature that we were born to enjoy.

— Philip Gilbert Hamerton.

A sunset, a forest, a snow-storm, a certain river-view, are more to me than
many friends, and do ordinarily divide my days with my books.

— Emerson.

22 Arnoldia 60/3

FOREIGN PLANTS AND AMERICAN SCENERY.

IT is not easy to explain why certain plants look distinctly in place in certain
situations and why other plants look as distinctly out of place in the same situ-
ations. This is a matter which nature perhaps has settled for us. It is certain at
any rate that combinations of plants other than those which nature makes or
adopts, inevitably possess inharmonious elements which no amount of familiar-
ity can ever quite reconcile to the educated eye. Examples of what we wish to
explain abound in all our public parks, and especially in Prospect Park in Brook-
lyn, where there is more of nature than in any other great park, and where along
the borders of some of the natural woods and in connection with native shrub-
bery great masses of garden shrubs, Diervillas, Philadelphus, Deutzias, Forsythias
and Lilacs, have been inserted. These are all beautiful plants. They never seem
out of place in a garden,- but the moment they are placed in contact with our wild
plants growing naturally as they do, fortunately, in the Brooklyn park, they look
not only out of place, but are a positive injury to the scene. It is not that their
flowers are too showy or conspicuous for such positions. The flowers of some
native shrubs like the Elder, the Flowering Dogwood and the Viburnums, are as
showy as those of any garden shrub. The reason is rather that we have become
accustomed to see certain plants adapted by nature to fill certain positions in
combination with certain other plants in a given region; and that all attempts to
force nature, so to speak, by bringing in alien elements from remote continents
and climates, must inevitably produce inharmonious results. Landscape garden-
ers have rarely paid much attention to this subject, or sufficiently studied nature
with reference to the harmonious combination of plants in the construction of
scenery, and especially of scenery intended to produce upon the mind the idea
of repose. Nature, nevertheless, is the great teacher to which the artist who
would hope to imitate her, however crudely, must ever turn for instruction
and for inspiration.

[Editorial. Garden and Forest 1 (1888): 266]

To the Editor of Garden and Forest:

Sir. — In Garden and Forest of August 1st, page 266, the law seems to me to
have been laid down that the introduction of foreign plants in our scenery is
destructive of landscape repose and harmony. No exception was suggested, and
the word harmony was used, if I am not mistaken, as it commonly is in criticism
of landscape painting, not of matters of scientific interest; not as if the question
were one of what, in matters of literary criticism, is called "the unities."

That a fashion of planting far-fetched trees with little discrimination has led
to deplorable results, no good observer can doubt. That these results are of such
a character that we should, from horror of them, be led, as a rule, in our landscape
planting, to taboo all trees coming from over sea, many of your readers will not,
I am sure, be ready to admit, and if no one else has yet offered to say why, I will
ask you to let me assume that duty.

Suppose anywhere in our Northern Atlantic States an abandoned clearing,
such as in Virginia is called an "old-field;" — suppose it to be bordered by the
aboriginal forest, with such brushwood as is natural to its glades and skirts strag-
gling out upon the open; — suppose that mixing with this there is a more recent.

“Landscape Art

23

yet well advanced growth of trees and bushes sprung from seed, of which a part
has drifted from the forest, a part from a neighboring abandoned homestead,
while a part has been brought by birds from distant gardens, so that along with
the natives, there is a remarkable variety of trees and bushes of foreign ances-
trv’; — suppose a road through more open parts of the old-field, and that on this
road a man is passing who, having lately come from New Zealand (or the moon),
know's nothing of the vegetation of Europe, Asia or North America, yet has a good
eye and susceptibility to the influences of scener>'.

Now suppose, lastly, that this man is asked to point out, one after another, so
that a list can be made, trees and bushes in an order that will represent the
degree in which they appear to him to have an aspect of distinctiveness,- No. 1
being that which stands out from among the others as the most of all incongru-
ous, unblending, unassimilating, inharmonious and apparently exotic; No. 2 the
next so, and so on.

The question, as we understand it, is essentially this: Would all of the trees
and bushes that had come of a foreign ancestry be noted before any of the old
native Stock-

Some of them surely would stand high on the list, and some of much popular-
ity, such as Horse Chestnut and Ginkgo and numerous sports of trees in them-
selves, at least, less objectionable on this score, as, for example. Weeping Beech
and most of the more pronounced weepers,- most of the Japanese Maples, also,
and the dwarf, motley-hued and monstrous sorts of Conifers.

But, all? or, as a rule, with unimportant exceptions? So far from it, to our eyes,
that we doubt whether, even of different species of the same genus, the visitor
would not point out some of the native before some of the foreign — some of the
American Magnolias, for example, before any of the Asiatic. We doubt if the
European Red Bud, the Oriental Plane or the Chinese Wistaria (out of bloom)
would be selected before their American cousins. It appears to us that Rubus
odoratus would be noticed before Rubus tiuticosus. Passing from the nearer rela-
tives, it seems to us likely, also, that many of the European and Asiatic Maples,
Elms, Ashes, Limes and Beeches would be named after such common American
forest trees as the Catalpas, Sassafras, Liquidambar, Tulip, Tupelo and Honey
Locust; that the American Chionanthus, Angelica, Cercis, Ptelia, Sumachs,
Flowering Dogwood, Pipevine and Rhododendrons would be placed before some
of the foreign Barberries, Privets, Spireas, Loniceras, Forsythias, Diervillas or
even Lilacs. We doubt if the stranger, seeing some of these latter bushes forming
groups spontaneously with the natives, would suspect them to be of foreign ori-
gin, or that they would appear to him any more strange and discordant notes in
the landscape than such common and generally distributed natives as have been
named. We doubt if Barberry', Privet, Sweetbriar and Cherokee Rose, which, in
parts of our country, are among the commonest wild shrubs, or the Fall Dande-
lion, Buttercups, Mints, Hemp Nettle and a dozen others which, in parts, are
among the commonest wild herbaceous plants, though it is believed all of foreign
descent, would ever be thought, by such an observer, out of place in our scenery'
because of their disreposeful and inharmonious influence. Two hundred years
hence are not Japanese Honeysuckle, "Japanese Ivy" and "Japanese Box" lEuony-
mus radicans) likely to be equally bone of our bone in scenery? . . .

Again, may we not (as artists) think that there are places with us in which a
landscape composition might be given a touch of grace, delicacy and fineness

24 Arnoldia 60/3

by the blending into a body of low, native tree foliage that of the Tamarisk or
the Oleaster, that would not be supplied in a given situation by any of our
native trees?

Is there a plant that more provokes poetic sentiment than the Ivy? Is there
any country in which Ivy grows with happier effect or more thriftily than it does
in company with the native Madrona, Yew and Douglas Spruce on our north-
west coast? Yet it must have been introduced there not long since from the oppo-
site side of the world. Would not the man be a public benefactor who would bring
us from anywhere an evergreen vine of at all corresponding influence in
landscape that would equally adapt itself to the climatic conditions of our north-
eastern coast? . . .

Before agreeing that no addition can be made to our native forest, except to its
injury, we should consider that trees for landscape improvement are not solely
those that please simply from their fitness to merely fall quietly into harmony
with such as are already established. Trees would be of no less value to us that,
being adapted to our climate, would supply elements of vivacity, emphasis,
accent, to points of our scenery, such as we see happily produced by the Upright
Cypress and the horizontally branching Stone Pine when growing out of Ilex
groves on the Mediterranean. And this is a reminder that some scholar has said
that we can form little idea of what the scenery of Italy was in the time of Virgil
from what we see there now. This because so many trees and plants, which were
then common, have since become rare, and because so many, then unknown,
have since become common. Is there reason for believing that the primitive scen-
ery of Italy was, on this account, more pleasing than the present?

The present large majority of foreign trees that have been introduced with us
during the last fifty years, and which have promised well for a time, have been
found unable to permanently endure the alternate extremes of our climate, but
that there are many perfectly suited with it we have abundant evidence. Does the
White Willow flourish better or grow older or larger in any of the meadows of its
native land than in ours? . . . But on this point of the adaptability of many foreign
trees to flourish in American climates, only think of Peaches, Pears and Apples.

Brookline, September, 1888 Frederick Law Olmsted

[Mr. Olmsted's letter should be read with the greatest care and attention. No man
now living has created so much and such admirable landscape, and no man is
better equipped to discuss all that relates to his art. The position which Garden
AND Forest has taken upon the question of composition in plantations made
with the view of landscape effect is embraced in the following sentence,
extracted from the article to which Mr. Olmsted refers: "It is certain, at any rate,
that combinations of plants, other than those which nature makes or adapts,
inevitably possess inharmonious elements which no amount of familiarity can
ever quite reconcile to the educated eye." This sentence was written with spe-
cial reference to the fact that in Prospect Park, in Brooklyn, various showy flow-
ered garden-shrubs of foreign origin had been massed among native shrubs
growing apparently spontaneously along the borders of a natural wood in the
most sylvan part of the park. The effect which this combination produced
appeared to us inharmonious, and therefore less pleasing than if the plantation
had been confined to such shrubs as may be found growing naturally on Long

Landscape Ait

25

Island in similar situations. How far the idea of harmony in composition in land-
scape is dependent upon association it is hard to say. Mr. Olmsted acknowledges
that trees like the Ginkgo, the Horse Chestnut and the Weeping Beech would
look out of place in an American landscape — that is, trees which have no proto-
types in our natural, native scenery. But would the inhabitant of New Zealand or
of the moon, whom we suppose to be totally ignorant of the vegetation of the
north temperate portions of the earth's surface, find anything to jar upon his feel-
ings in seeing a Weeping Willow or a Ginkgo or a Horse Chestnut growing with
and among Hickories, Tupelos or Sequoias, which may be taken as the three
peculiarly North American trees? Probably he would find the combination an
appropriate and pleasing one, and no feeling of inharmoniousness would ever
cross his mind. Foreign trees with American prototypes, like the Beech,
Linn[denl, Red-Bud, Plane, from which they can hardly be distinguished except
by a botanist, do not jar upon the sense of fitness when used in landscape plant-
ing here, because for all intents and purposes they are the same as our own spe-
cies, except that, as a rule, they never grow here as vigorously; and, therefore, are
less attractive objects. The European Oak, if it would grow here, might replace
the American White Oak, which it closely resembles, anywhere, and this is true
of almost every European tree which has an eastern American representative. We
certainly did not intend to convey the idea that all American trees could be asso-
ciated together harmoniously. One of the broad-leaved Magnolias of the south-
ern Alleghany Mountains would appear as much out of place, from our point of
view, in a northern landscape, as any tree from any foreign land could possibly
do. This same Magnolia, however, amid the broad-leaved evergreens and luxuri-
ant growth of the southern forests, seems to form an appropriate and necessary
feature of the forest scenery. The fact that the Barberry in New England, the
Cherokee Rose, the Pride of China tree, or the Ailanthus in the Southern States,
when these plants are naturalized, and have been familiar objects for generations,
do not look out of place in the landscape, confirms our idea that fitness comes
not from similarity or dissimilarity of form or color or texture, but from mental
association. When we have seen certain plants growing together often enough
and long enough — that is, when they have been "adopted" by nature, to quote our
own words — we become accustomed to the combination. It is only new and star-
tling combinations which shock our mental susceptibilities. There is nothing
more startling (and whatever is startling can form no part of a restful landscape)
than to come upon an Apple-tree, as one may sometimes do in parts of New
Jersey, growing in the midst of a thick Pine woods, and showing that the land
had once been tilled. But if Apple-trees grew in our woods, and we had always
seen them there, the combination would not seem an unnatural one.

The truth is that great masters of landscape construction can combine mate-
rial drawn from many climates and many countries into one harmonious whole,
but the masters of the art are not many, and the planter who is not sure of his
genius can wisely follow nature in her teachings of harmony in composition.
Had this reservation been made in the article referred to, our statement that "all
attempts to force Nature, so to speak, by bringing in alien elements from remote
continents and climates, must inevitably produce inharmonious results," would,
perhaps, have been less open to criticism. — Ed.]

[Garden and Forest 1 (1888): 418-419]

26 Arnoldia 60/3

WAYSIDE BEAUTY.

IN these days there is no lack of advice to plant trees hy every roadside, and
Village Improvement Societies are furnishing good examples of neatly kept
highways. But many of our country roads are already bordered with trees and
shrubs and climbing vines of Nature's own planting, and it is quite as important
to preserve the wild beauty of this spontaneous growth as it is to provide for the
more formal and stately rows of Elms and Maples which are planted on Arbor
days. The illustration [above] gives a glimpse of a New England by-road which,
fortunately, has escaped the axe and brush-hook of the enterprising path-master.
Many officials in charge of our highways appreciate the value of trees when
planted in straight rows and at equal distances, but a group of Cockspur Thorn,
or Sassafras, or Black Haw, or a thicket of Sumach, or Hazel-nut, is too often
looked upon as a disfigurement and a proof that the overseer is neglecting his
duty to keep the roadside neat and clean. Miles on miles of wayside beauty are
sacrificed every year to this mania for "trimming up," hut the trees and shrubs
spring up again to clothe the desert made by man. In smooth and level regions a
strip of greensward bordering the wheel-way and running under the open fences
into adjoining fields is always pleasing, and it cannot be too neatly kept. But in
all hilly and stony regions east of the Alleghanies, no lovelier road-border can
be conceived of than the native trees and shrubs which flourish where they are
left to themselves . . .

[Garden and Forest 1 (1888): 42]

“Landscape Art

27

PARK-MAKING AS A NATIONAL ART.

The Atlantic Monthly for January contains a noteworthy article under this title
by Mrs. M. C. Robbins, who is well known to the readers of this journal. Her
thesis is that the desire for the creation of beauty in America will find its fullest
expression in the design and construction of public parks rather than in painting,
sculpture or architecture. We have already done well in these latter fields, hut our
craving for liberty, and for enlarged and untrammeled utterance, can only he satis-
fied by bringing under control the mighty forces of nature and compelling them to
develop and make manifest our artistic ideas ... In our youthful exuberance we long
for something that will appeal to all the people — something colossal and distinctly
American — and this so-called Art of Public Improvement will find full scope in
treating vast areas of mountain and cataract and forest in works of sufficient
moment to need the support of sovereign states, or even of the Federal Government,
and which need an army to protect them . . . Mrs. Robbins' conclusion is that
"there is everything in the United States to nourish a great art — wealth, enthusiasm,
generosity, a sense of boundless capacity, the verve and spring of youth and unlim-
ited aspiration. In the Art of Public Improvement, the dreamer and the utilitarian
can combine, the nation's beauty and the nation's wealth can in it he united, and
our achievements may be such as to satisfy even American ambition" . . .

The rapidity with which the acquisition of park lands by cities has been going on
will be understood when it is remembered that in 1869 there were only two well-
advanced rural parks in the United States. Fifteen years later there were twenty, and
now there is hardly a city of consequence in the country which has not made the
beginning of a system of parks and parkways. It is true, as Mrs. Robbins says, that
when the schemes now begun have been fully carried out we shall have public
reservations reaching, in what is practically an unbroken series, from the eastern
seaboard to the shores of California. "The idea of such a continuous reservation,
a national parkway from the Atlantic to the Pacific, leading from one beautiful
pleasure-ground to another, or passing through great tracts of woodland controlled
by Government foresters, is not inconsistent with the genius of our country, which
ever seeks a closer union between its parts,- while the gradually enlarging park sys-
tems of our cities indicate the way it may be brought out in the linking together of
suburb to suburb by great boulevards, which tend to bring civilization to distant
homes by affording safe and easy communication between them". . .

We no longer hear objections of this sort against park-building, but there is
another danger that ought to be shunned. It is not enough to secure a certain num-
ber of acres where they can be had with least cost and trouble. In the first place, the
land should be wisely selected and its boundaries intelligently determined. Design
for its improvement must be made by competent artists and executed with skill.
When completed, pleasure-grounds must be maintained with care, for, if left to
uncontrolled nature and unpoliced, they may become repulsive desolations. To
secure a good design we need a school of landscape art, for, although such a school
will never create a great artist, it can teach him the history of what has been done,
point out to him what tools he needs and how to use them, and show him how he
can most directly reach his end . . .

[Editorial. Garden and Forest 10 (1897): 11-12]

28 Arnoldici 60/3

NOTES.

Mayor Hart, of Boston, has written to city forester
Doogue requesting him to make flower-heds on the
Common and in the Public Garden which shall imitate
in form and color the United States flag, the Massachu-
setts coat of arms, the seal of the City of Boston, and the
badges of the Loyal Legion, the Woman's Relief Corps
and the Sons of Veterans. And yet it has been asserted
and believed that Boston is a city of culture and refine-
ment. [3 (1890): 148]

Besides its great parks, London now has 198 open
spaces of less than ten acres in extent, with an aggregate
area of three hundred and fifty-four and a half acres. Most
of these grounds have been secured for public use in
comparatively recent time, and the Gardeners’ Chron-
icle well says that any one who would have ventured to
prophesy fifty years ago that there would have been now
nearly two hundred such places for recreation and resort
in the great city, would have been laughed at as a
dreamer. [8 (1895): 10]

One of the most curious trees in Germany stands on
the left bank of the River Oder, in Ratibor, Silesia. It is a
Maple, at least one hundred years old, which has been
twisted and cut into a sort of circular two-storied house.
A flight of steps leads up to the first level, where the
branches have been gradually woven together so that
they make a firm leafy floor; above this is a second floor
of smaller diameter, formed in the same way,- and the
ends of the branches have been woven into solid walls,
and cut so that eight windows light each of the apart-
ments. Below the first floor, at the level of the second,
and at the top of the tree the boughs have been allowed
to grow out naturally, while the intermediate walls and
the edges of the window-like openings are kept closely
clipped. [7 (1894): 270]

An English lady. Miss Wilkinson, has, in recent years,
made herself widely known as a landscape-gardener,
capable of undertaking public works and of carrying
them to completion under her personal supervision, and
Vauxhall Park, in London, opened to the public last year,
is one of her latest works. Commenting upon these facts,
and characterizing Vauxhall Park as "a remarkable work
in every respect," the Revue Horticole recently said: "So
we see that a woman has entered the professional camp,
the camp of practicing artists, and has proved her right
to a distinguished place in it by worthy results. It seems
a curious sign of the times. Who knows whether the
delicate gifts of woman may not introduce valuable
innovations, unknown refinements, into our gardening
conceptions?" [8 (1895): 100]

From the twenty-sixth annual report of the Park Com-
missioners of West Chicago, it seems that the parks in
that city are suffering from the same abuses of which the
Park Board of Buffalo complain. It is said that visitors
make walks across the turf and mutilate the plants.
There is no cure for such a state of things except a more
elevated and refined public sentiment. A community
which allows the beauty of its public grounds to be
trampled out so far proves itself lacking in certain ele-
ments of civilization. The people who are helping to
devastate the Chicago parks, the wealthy men in this
city who have tried more than once to turn Central Park
into a trotting-course, the wheelmen and horsemen who
are endeavoring now to confiscate a part of the Buffalo
park system for bicycle tracks and speedroads, all belong
to the same class. They are not intentionally public
enemies. The trouble is they are not yet completely civi-
lized. [8 (1895): 120]

Mr. W. K. Dexter, of St. Louis, has offered to present
250 acres of land at Hiawatha Lake to the people of
Hennepin County, Minnesota, as a public park. The
donor's purpose is to have the tract preserved in its natu-
ral state, and he therefore makes it a condition of the gift
that no landscape-artist shall be allowed to touch it. Mr.
Dexter evidently entertains the mistaken belief that
landscape-art and formal gardening are identical terms,
or, at least, that landscape-gardening means primarily
the destruction of natural beauty to make room for
something that is artificial. Perhaps, too, he has not con-
sidered the fact that the highest beauty of this wild tract
will never be discovered until some real artist studies
out a practical scheme for making its key-points inviting
and accessible, nor that its original charm will surely
disappear as it becomes frequented unless provision is
made for restoring what is worn away and maintaining
and developing its essential elements, a work which also
requires the highest artistic taste and training. When
Mr. Dexter gives himself thoroughly to a study of the
problems of design and maintenance, which must be
solved if his praiseworthy and public-spirited purpose is
to be carried out to the best advantage, he may still feel
inclined to resent any suggestions from the class of
landscape-gardeners whose loftiest aim is to arrange
flower-beds and plant purple Barberries and golden
Elders on suburban lawns, but he will welcome the
advice of some true artist in landscape, who will be cer-
tain to have a broad appreciation of Nature and a respect
for her simplest as well as her noblest manifestations.
[8 (1895): 320]

The Influence of Garden and Forest on the
Development of Horticulture

Mac Griswold

Garden and Forest: A Journal of Horticul-
ture, Landscape Art, and Forestry, the
brainchild of the Arnold Arboretum's
first director, Charles Sprague Sargent, was
published during a period (1888-1897) when
the science of everything that grows — wild or
cultivated — was still (barely) considered a single
discipline. It's as if today's readers of, say. Scien-
tific American, Natural History, Martha Stewart
Living, and The Nation could scan the weekly
issue of a single sixteen-page magazine and find
detailed articles of specific interest to them.

It can't go without comment, however, that
Garden and Forest’s readers were assumed to
have general interests that far outran any nar-
row bounds of the subjects listed in its title. In
1889 Harper & Brothers, the New York publish-
ing house, ran advertisements in the magazine
for William Dean Howell's latest novel, April
Hopes; for a Miss Juliet Corson's work on how
to feed a family on $500 a year (subtitled A
Daily Reference Book for Young and Inexperi-
enced Housewives)) and for a Civil War history
written by an African-American who had served
in the war, A History of the Negro Troops in
the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865, by G. W.
Williams, LL.D.

Within this diverse setting Garden and Forest
nonetheless published many editorials and

articles that mark
the beginnings of the
specialized disciplines
of horticulture, land-
scape architecture,
botany, and forestry,
with practitioners
debating the direc-
tions their develop-
ing fields should
Bruchus limbatus. follow. Horticulture,

then as now, seems to have been the most
vaguely delineated of the four, though as land-
scape architecture and forestry, previously con-
sidered to be aspects of horticulture, evolved
into separate professions, the practice of horti-
culture became more circumscribed as well as
more professional.

30 Arnoldia 60/3

Before reading those debates there-
fore, it is wise to scan the pages of
Garden and Forest for an idea of what
was meant by "horticulture" in late
nineteenth-century America. Today's
general reader could assume that the
term referred first and foremost to
ornamental horticulture, as it does
now. But in 1888 horticulture, which
had piggybacked on agriculture since
the days of colonial settlement, was
still concerned with fruit and veg-
etable gardening to a very large extent.
In 1988, the late Elisabeth Woodhurn,
an authority on horticultural literature,
wrote an addendum to a new edition
of U. P. Hedrick's A Flistory of Horti-
culture in the United States to 1860
(originally published in 1950). Tallying
hooks published on various "horticul-
tural" topics between 1861 and 1920,
she arrived at the following ranking,
from highest to lowest in number:

HORTICULTURAL EDUCATION.

IN a recent number of this journal it was held that the
study of horticulture and agriculture in their scientific
aspects has a distinct value as a factor in furnishing exercise
for certain powers of the mind. Every one admits that the
natural sciences should have a place in the curriculum of
colleges and schools as elements of wholesome intellectual
development . . . but the fact should be emphasized that the
mental exercise and discipline furnished by horticultural
education in its broad sense is equal, and perhaps superior,
to that furnished by the study of any other science. No kind
of mental application will be more effectual in forming hab-
its of careful observation and comparison and in securing
those orderly methods of thinking which are of the greatest
use in the examination of many of the problems which con-
front us in our daily life.

In an article in a recent number of Science on Horticulture
at Cornell, we are glad to see that this view is set forth with
considerable fullness by Professor Bailey, who contends that
horticulture as studied at that university is capable of adding
much to the value of a course of liberal academic training.
Professor Bailey illustrates the merits of horticulture as a
science by showing some of its uses and applications in dis-
cussing the theory of evolution, which is perhaps now the
most important conception with which the thinking world
has to deal. In supporting the hypothesis of evolution, horti-
culture shows the development of life in actual operation.
More than six thousand species of plants are cultivated, and
most of these have been broken up into varied forms by the
touch of man. Some species have produced thousands of dis-
tinct forms, and the methods of the production of many of
them are on record. In place of arguments as to the probable
influence of climate upon plants the horticulturist cites defi-
nite cases, so that there is no conjecture about the matter.
Instead of speculating upon the transmission of acquired
characters the horticulturist furnishes proofs of such trans-
mission. Paleontology brings disjointed evidence in regard to
the influence of selection and probable changes from envi-
ronment, while the horticulturist brings examples before
our eyes to prove that he can modify and mould vegetation
at his will. The horticulturist creates new species and shows
you numbers of cultivated plants of which no one knows
the original form, because the ones with which we are
acquainted are so unlike the type that the two can never be
connected. This is only a single line of inquiry, and other
illustrations quite as striking can be given to show that there
is an abundant field for scientific research and profound
thought in horticultural science as such . . .

[Editorial. Garden and Forest 9 (1896); 31]

Horticulture 31

A Double-flowered Cyclamen.

fruits; vegetables;
practical horticul-
ture (propagation
and cultivation);
landscape and gar-
dens (by which
she meant design);
and then flowers,
flower gardening,
and ornamental
plants, which she
ranked last.

Garden and Forest covered all these catego-
ries, offering descriptions of new species and of
gardens and giving cultural direction and design
advice. It also published articles specifically for
greenhouse propagators and growers; articles for
professional florists included a weekly flower-
market bulletin. All this played a part in shap-
ing the development of modern horticulture.

Most effective in promoting horticulture
as a professional discipline separate from botany

and landscape archi-
tecture, however,
were some hard-
hitting pieces that
both criticized and
set goals for horti-
cultural training.
For example, the
publication in 1889
of an editorial on
the negligible qual-
ity of American
horticultural edu-
cation in the same
issue as a descrip-
tion of the French national school of horticul-
ture clearly illustrated the two sides of the
debate on professional training, the big question
that eternally enlivens any discussion of horti-
culture being: How much is science and how
much is practice?

Such American schools of horticulture as
now exist, the 1889 editorial proposed, "provide
an excellent course of botanical study and offer
instruction in some branches of practical horti-
culture. It will not, however, he maintained
by the best friends of these schools, that a
well equipped gardener was ever graduated

Proliferous flower of Cyclamen.

from any one of them." In other words, the real
lack in American training was experience in
actual gardening.

The schools' problem arose from "the want of
appreciation of the requirement of a sound hor-
ticultural education on the part of their
founders, and in part from the prevailing ten-
dency of the American people to be satisfied
with a hasty and in-
sufficient training
for any vocation in
life." Until there is a
market for skilled
men that will cause
wages to rise, the
piece curtly con-
cludes, "our Schools
of Horticulture can
wisely give up try-
ing to teach young
men who do not
want to be taugbt,
and devote their en-
ergies to those wider
fields of usefulness
which, fortunately,
are open to them,
and by experiments,
and in many other ways, at least help to create
the demand for skilled gardeners which they
were founded to supply."'

Garden and Forest's description of the three-
year course at the National School of Horticul-
ture at Versailles could he called its formula for
an ideal horticultural education. This short
piece is the work of Henry Sargent Codman,
Charles Sprague Sargent's nephew and Frederick
Law Olmsted's promising (and short-lived)
young employee. At twenty-five he was study-
ing in France with Edouard Frangois Andre, the
French landscape architect soon to be appointed
head of the Versailles school. The essence of his
piece is that of the editorial: American horticul-
tural training needs more of the practical.^

An 1899 editorial argued strongly for a hefty
dose of science even in the most practical appli-
cations of horticulture. It cited a pronounce-
ment, both snobbish and categorical, by the
then director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at
Kew that "Horticulture is essentially an empiri-

Poppies and their background.

32 Arnoldia 60/3

The Opening bud of a

grape-flower.

cal art. Botanical science can afford little a priori
information as to the cultural conditions which
any plant will require or tolerate; these for the
most part can only be found out by trial and
experience."-^ In other words, farmers and grow-
ers should not be taught science.

The editorial went on to offer a tentative but
genuinely populist answer: "When it is stated
that the gardener who has a genius for his work
will 'naturally hit upon the right method' of cul-
tivation, this means that the gardener has been
doing just what the man of science would have
done if he had been engaged in research in the
same field. It seems to our people that a man
who knows why he adopts a given method of
cultivation is likely to be a more practical culti-
vator, less likely to fail in the essentials of the
practice, than one who blindly follows the rule
of thumb. Horticulture and agriculture, too, are
no doubt largely empirical arts; but we sympa-
thize in the belief that the addition of scientific
knowledge will help to place them on a founda-
tion more sure and productive than that of indi-
vidual experience." In other words, farmers and
growers should be actively involved in, and the
beneficiaries of, scientific horticulture. Garden
and Forest’s balanced and democratic editorial
stance may well he what, in the long run, did
the most for the development of modern Ameri-
can horticulture.

The editors' stance was also well borne out
in articles such as those by George Lincoln
Goodale, the Fisher Professor of Natural History
at Harvard. His long series on the principles of
physiological botany helped to define the syn-
ergy between the scientist and the gardener as

Pistil and stamens of a
grape-flower.

integral to modern horticulture, without any
hierarchical distinction.-* His mild-mannered
prose is as easily understood by a lay audience as
by a professional one and his science would
have been as useful to a greenhouse propagator
as to an interested fellow professor. That is to
say, his experiments were exactly those that
would "help to create the demand for skilled
gardeners" deemed so necessary in the 1899 edi-
torial cited above.

Goodale's thirteenth piece, "Some of the Con-
ditions Which Favor Rapid Growth — Certain
Physical Phenomena of Growth," includes a
vivid little section on the remarkable strength
of cellular growth in plants. His final sentence
on the prodigious and often hidden power of
root growth could stand as a metaphor for the
manner in which all the articles and much of
the debate published in Garden and Forest
helped lift modern horticulture to new heights
by addressing a small, intelligent, interested,
and yet demographically broad audience
over a single decade. "The force exerted in
all these instances," Goodale writes, "has been
exercised solely by the innumerable delicate,
thin-walled cells, which increase in number
and in size in the orderly manner we have
attempted to describe."^

Endnotes

' "Schools of Horticulture," Garden and Forest
(hereafter, GePF] 2 (1889): 25.

^ H. S. Codman, "The National School of Horticulture
at Versailles," GePF 2 (1889): 27.

^ '"A Gardeners' Problem,'" Ge)F 3 (1890): 149.

* "Principles of Physiological Botany as Applied to
Horticulture and Forestry," GePF 1 (1898): 8-9, 20-21,
32-33, 44-45, 56, 68-69, 80-81, 92, 104-105, 116-
117,128-129, 140-141, 153, 164-165, 177-178, 188,
201-202, 213-214, 225, 249-250.

5 Ibid., 153.

Mac Griswold's most recent book is Washington's
Gardens at Mount Vernon: Landscape of the Inner Man
(1999). She is also the author of "A History of Gardening
m the United States," in The New Royal Horticultural
Society Dictionary of Gardening (1992), edited by Sir
Aldous Huxley, and the co-author of The Golden Age of
American Gardens (1991).

Hoiticultme 33

THE EFFECT OF GARDENING UPON THE MIND.

A taste for gardening is one of the elemental impulses of humanity. There are
individuals without it, as there are people without sight or hearing or a sense
of smell; but, on the whole, to dig comes naturally to man, and at some time or other
in the course of his existence the desire to own a portion of the earth's surface is apt
to seize upon him and demand satisfaction.

This impulse is of maturity rather than of youth, for gardening in its larger sense
is a thoughtful pursuit, appealing to the broader qualities of the understanding. It is
not merely the desire for healthful exercise which stirs a man, but also the wish to
learn the secrets of our common mother, to force her hand, as it were, and compel
her to reward his toil. The fable of the giant Antaeus, who renewed his strength
when he came in contact with the earth, has a subtle meaning, for it is by this
contact that many weary souls have found rest and arisen refreshed . . .

[Editorial. Garden and Forest 4 (1891); 505]

VARIOUS MOTIVES FOR GARDENING.

WE have just received a letter from a valued correspondent in which he says
that he cannot understand the insistence of Garden and Forest upon plan-
ning and planting for general effect. He delights in his garden, but his pleasure is not
associated in any degree with the landscape as he understands it. He loves plants,
he appreciates the beauty of flowers, he enjoys their companionship and he reads
with interest everything that is said about new or old ones which any way broadens
his knowledge of their habits and helps him to cultivate them more successfully.
He finds abundant comfort in gardening of this kind, but he sees nothing to attract
him in landscape-gardening. No doubt, this statement represents the innermost
feeling of many people who take a genuine interest in horticulture, and it is often
expressed to us in one way or another. With people of this taste and temperament
the garden exists for its plants, and the plants are not grown for the sake of the gar-
den. That is, a garden in this view is a place where a collection of plants is carefully
attended and enjoyed for their individual beauty and other interesting qualities, and
with no purpose of forming, in connection with the house, any picture which is to
be studied and enjoyed as a whole. Perhaps the majority of all who are interested in
gardens sympathize with the view of our correspondent, and they find a real plea-
sure, and pleasure of a most refining and refreshing kind, in their practice. It is our
belief, however, that they might do all this, and at the same time gain a new and
ever-growing satisfaction if they gave thought to the general modeling and arrange-
ment of the whole scene as well as to its individual details.

[Editorial. Garden and Forest 9 (1896): 341]

One beautiful way in which flowers can be used, especially those distinguished
for the brightness and clearness of their coloring or for their tall stalks, is to plant
them in moss and among wild vegetation along the edge of a brook or some other
piece of water. The reflections in the water and the play of their movements thus
doubled clothes with a new charm this scene which is altogether natural.

— Hirschfeld’s “Theorie der Gartenkunst," Leipzig, 1777.

34 Arnoldia 60/3

A Japanese Flower Vender's Basket. There is no country in the world where flowers are so universally
beloved as in Japan. They are inseparable from the life, art and literature of the people, and to deprive the
Japanese of their flowers would be to take the sunshine out of their lives . . . Flowers are distributed among
the people by means of perambulating flower-sellers, and by flower-fairs. The seller goes about the streets
carrying two huge bamboo baskets swung from a pole across his shoulders. These baskets are divided into a
number of different compartments, each containing a different variety of cut flowers or leaves. The carrier is
sometimes almost hidden by the great mass of flowers and foliage he bears . . . Theodore Wores. New York.
[1 (1888): 338-339]

Hoiticulture 35

DELIGHTS OF A ROUGH GARDEN.

IN offering suggestions on gardening to the enthusiastic beginner it is usual to
lay down at the outset a few unmistakable rules for his prudent guidance:
Undertake no more than you can care for with thoroughness. Neatness is the first
essential. Be content with small beginnings, and so on indefinitely.

The pleasures of the opposite plan, the rich satisfaction of a big, rough garden,
in which beginnings and complete successes are somewhat loosely connected,
and yet where freedom and beauty do live together in harmony, these attractive
possibilities seldom find an advocate. On the strength of an experiment now in
its fourth year I beg leave to put in a plea for the garden in which neatness is not
a first essential. It seems quite possible to make a kind of treaty with Nature, in
which she consents to do for a rough, yet much-loved garden filled with all sorts
of tentative beginnings of loveliness, that which she does with so much charm
for any old abandoned garden left wholly to her possession. The lover of wild
beauty, who loves tamed and cultured beauty also, may find an opportunity for
gardening upon this scale on any little country place of a few acres . . .

One of the delights of a rough garden is its continual surprises. With the habit
of tucking in seeds, cuttings, roots and bulbs, as occasion serves, planting and
sowing without formality, there is something very delightful in the apparent
spontaneity with which unlooked-for bloom and beauty often come to light.
Broad mixed borders in which hardy plants are irregularly grouped (not without
a constant study of the advantages of contrast and relief) make this the simplest
matter possible. The Iris or the Lily bulb is buried, the seed is sown and the
ground occupied staked to prevent accidents; suddenly, as it seems, a new shape
of delicate beauty greets the eye. A big rough garden gives an encouraging oppor-
tunity to experiment . . . Not annuals and biennials merely, but shrubs and
trees also increase and multiply with extraordinary ease in the rough garden,
where the discipline is not too severe. Fruit and flower, shade and fragrance,
homely use and stately adornment mingle happily here in the garden held in
partnership with Nature . . .

Amherst, Mass. D. H. R. Goodale

[Garden and Forest 9(1896): 303-304]

FARMING ON VACANT CITY LOTS.

During these times of agricultural depression the profits realized by farm
ers, even under the best conditions, are meagre enough, and, therefore,
when Mayor Pingree, of Detroit, first conceived the idea of utilizing vacant city
lots for the growing of potatoes by the unemployed of that city — that is, by men
who were generally quite ignorant of the theory and practice of cultivating the
soil — the experiment was looked upon as visionary, if not ridiculous. The result
of the first year's cultivation, however, which enabled nearly one thousand fami-
lies to support themselves through the winter by their crops alone, stimulated
certain public-spirited citizens of New York to make a similar effort here, and the
result is published in No. I of the periodical Notes, published by the New York
Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor. Of course, the philanthropic
aspect of this experiment is the one of prime importance. The result proves that

36 Arnoldia 60/3

many persons who own vacant land would prefer to have it cultivated instead of
lying idle and unproductive, and that a very limited area will suffice to raise
enough vegetables to contribute largely to the support of a family through the
winter. It proves, too, that very many of the destitute people in tenement-houses
are willing to work and can be made to support themselves with a very little help
advanced as a loan. Besides this, the project offers a natural plan for giving to the
people who dwell in stifling tenement-houses opportunity to work for them-
selves in the open air and under healthful conditions. It gives mothers the advan-
tage of taking their children out of the heated houses and giving them a taste of
rural life. It enables the superannuated and partially crippled to support them-
selves. In addition to these advantages, the entire scheme has a substantial busi-
ness basis, with none of the odious and depressing suggestions of a charity.

Naturally, however, the educational side of this vacant-lot farming will have a
special interest to readers of a journal devoted to the art of cultivating the soil . . .
In every city where this vacant-lot farming has been successful the soil has been
cultivated in accordance with the teachings of science . . . Every process from the
very beginning to the end was carefully supervised, so that this vacant-lot
farming, apart from its direct pecuniary profit, had a much more important func-
tion as a school of agriculture . . .

We cannot but assume that many of these tenement-house farmers who have
had the advantage of this year of schooling will discover that there is a happier
and wholesomer life for them outside of the congested districts of great cities . . .
[I]f, under capable instruction, agriculture can be made profitable in city lots, and
if the good example of experiment stations is visible in better farming all about
them, why should not actual instruction in agriculture be made a part of the cur-
riculum of rural common schools? . . .

[Editorial. Garden and Forest 9 (1896): 91-92]

SENTIMENTALISM AND TREE-FELLING.

writer in a late number of the Springfield Republican finds his sensibilities

-Za. wounded by the tone of Mrs. Van Rensselaer's book, entitled. Art Out-of-
doors. and especially by the advice to cut down trees, given in the chapter en-
titled "A Word for the Axe." It is not our purpose to enter into any defense of the
book, which must stand on its own merits, any farther than to say that we know
of no work where more sound doctrine on the subjects treated is given in the
same space. On several occasions, however. Garden and Forest has advised the
cutting down of trees, and a good many of them, in pleasure-grounds and else-
where, and have been met with this same protest made by the writer in the
Republican that no true lover of nature would think of such sacrilege. Now, we
have no inclination to retort upon a critic of this sort that his own love of nature
may be conventional and fictitious. We have no doubt that this writer, and many
other good people who are distressed whenever they see or hear of the felling of a
tree, love nature most sincerely after a sentimental fashion. But we believe that
many people, whose practices they condemn, love nature quite as sincerely, and
in a much more robust, and certainly more intelligent, way . . .

[Editorial. Garden and Forest 6 (1893): 311]

Horticulture 37

Chrysanthemums. — It often happens after Chrysanthemums have done flowering that they are
stowed away either under green-house benches where there is but little light, or in cellars where
there is less, or are left out in the weather to struggle as best they can with the elements. Good
Chrysanthemums cannot be had next year from stock subjected to such treatment. Growers who aim
at fine plants and fine flowers are now giving their stock-plants the best attention; the weaker kinds
are placed in a cold green-house or frame, close to the light, and they are never allowed to want for
water; the stronger kinds have also good positions in airy frames or green-houses . . . John Thorpe.
Pearl River, N.Y. [Garden and Forest 1 (1888): 523]

THE USE OF TREES AND SHRUBS WITH LEAVES OF
ABNORMAL COLORS.

A Boston correspondent writes in a discouraged tone about the planting he
observes in the suburbs of that city. It seems to him that popular taste is
setting strongly toward Prunus Pissardi [a purple-leaved form of P. cerasifolia, or
cherry plum], the Golden Elder [Sambucus nigra 'Aurea'], variegated Negundos
[Acer negundo, box-elder] and the like. We have no doubt that too many trees and
shrubs which are valued for the abnormal coloring of their leaves are used about
Boston, and, in fact, about every other American city. Unless our own observa-
tion is at fault, however, the tendency of public taste, as a rule, is in the other
direction, by which we mean that the people who plant nowadays are more
inclined to follow the teachings of nature in this respect than they were a few
years ago, when the tree agent, with his highly colored catalogues, was more per-
vasive and influential than he now is. The so-called foliage plants with brightly
colored leaves and hues, set in patterns of various sorts, are certainly not as
prevalent as they once were, and it is very evident that in American parks the use
of shrubs and trees with streaked and spotted or vari-colored leaves is not as

38 Arnoldia 60/3

profuse as it is in European parks. Perhaps, our correspondent in some afternoon
drive has observed several glaring offenses against that quietness and self-restraint
in planting which alone can make home grounds homelike, and this has depressed
his spirits . . .

[Editorial. Garden and Forest 10 (1897): 301]

CHRISTMAS GREEN.

Every morning for a week past the steamboat Minnie Cornell, from Keyport,
New Jersey, has come to her pier loaded with "rope" and "fancy green." "Rope"
is the trade name for the cables made of Cluh-moss and occasionally of Hemlock
spray, and used for looping into festoons or twining about columns in Christmas
decorations. "Fancy green" includes the wreaths, stars and other designs, manufac-
tured chiefly from the leaves of Holly, Laurel and Rhododendron, together with
Mosses, green or gray, from Oak trunks and Cedar boughs, scarlet berries of the
Black Alder, the bluish gray fruit of the Juniper, the scarlet and orange fruits of the
Bittersweet, not to speak of Grasses dried and dyed in fearful and wonderful colors.
The little steamer has more than once carried 60,000 yards of the festooning mate-
rial, and 1,500 dozen stars and wreaths at a single trip, and the entire amount of
"rope" brought to this market during the season would reach from New York to
Boston. The very first Christmas green sold in this city came from Keyport. Some
forty-five years ago the wife of a Monmouth County farmer gathered enough
Ground Pine to fill a sheet with the four corners tied together, and shipped it on a
sloop with her poultry. It proved a lucky venture, and ever since, the people of
Monmouth Gounty have held almost a monopoly of the industry, although both
the species of Glub-moss most largely used. Lycopodium dendroideum and
L. complanatum, were practically exterminated from that region years ago. They are
still abundant, however, in Gonnecticut, some parts of northern New York, and
Massachusetts, and are shipped to New Jersey in such quantities that large dealers
buy them by the ton, and the manufacture of these festal wreaths and cables gives
employment to the wives and daughters of many farmers after the fall work on the
farm is over.

The trade in Ghristmas-trees began in 1851, when Mark Carr yoked up his oxen
and hauled from the Catskills to the steamboat landing on the Hudson two sled-
loads of young Balsams, and paid a silver dollar for the privilege of selling them on
the corner of Vesey and Greenwich Streets. At least 150,000 trees have been piled
up along the docks of the North River during the last week, and since the days of
Mark Carr many a dealer has been glad to pay a hundred dollars for a corner privi-
lege for holiday trade in Christmas trees. About half of the trees this year come from
Maine, the remainder from the Berkshire Hills, the Black River country in the
Adirondacks, and the Catskills. Good trees in the Gatskills are becoming scarce,
however, and the woodsmen of those mountains are looking elsewhere for their
material. Short jointed, stocky trees with perfect whorls of branches at the base of
each annual growth, are the most sought for, and the Maine trees, as a rule, com-
mand rather higher prices than any others. The trees come up thickly where hard-
wood timber has been cleared away, and if they are cut above the second or third
joint, one of the limbs soon turns upward and becomes a leader to furnish another
Christmas-tree. In this way the same land is cut over several times. Fortunately the

Horticulture 39

Balsam Fir is about as nearly worthless for any other purpose as any of our native
trees, and therefore the waste of cutting so much young timber is not serious. A few
Black Spruces come among the Firs, and Hemlock houghs, which, oddly enough, are
made to do duty as Palm branches in some church services [and] are in growing
demand every year. Trees from Maine arc shipped as far south as Baltimore; and of
late years large quantities of Holly branches, mostly from Maryland, since the lim-
ited supply in New Jersey is nearly exhausted, are sent as far north as Boston. Within
two or three years the Mistletoe has been sold here in a few shops and even on the
streets, hut in spite of its association with Christmas festivities in Old World tradi-
tions, It has filled hut a small place here in the regular market of Christmas green.
And yet this parasite is common on the Gum trees of southern New Icrscy, and it
is never so heautiful as at this season with its transparent berries clustered among
its evergreen leaves.

[Editorial. Garden and Forest 1(1888): 505-506)

PLANT NOTES.

Japanese Iris.

ONE of the most attractive features in Mr. lohn L. Gardner's heautiful garden
m Brookline, Massachusetts, is the bed of Japanese Iris (Iris laevigata or
Kaeinpferi), which forms the subject of our illustration. The plants, which were
selected in Japan with great care by Mrs. Gardner, represent the best named Japa-
nese varieties. They are arranged according to color, in the Japanese fashion; each

A Bed of Japanese Iris.

40 Arnoldia 60/3

row across the bed consisting of one variety, those with white flowers at one end,
and then all the intermediate shades to the dark blues and purples at the other
end. The bed is sunk eight or ten inches below the surface of the surrounding
lawn, and is furnished on one side with a perforated water-pipe so that the plants
can be irrigated during the growing season. It is eighteen inches deep and consists
of a rich compost of loam and thoroughly rotten cow-manure, and every year it
gets a good top dressing of manure. Every pleasant morning after the middle of
May the water is turned on at nine o'clock and allowed to run till three or four
o'clock in the afternoon; by that time the bed is thoroughly saturated and cov-
ered to a depth of two or three inches with water,- the supply is then shut off until
the next morning. Some of the varieties, under this generous treatment, grow to
a height of five or six feet, and have produced flowers fully ten inches across, and
surprising in their profusion and beauty. While irrigation is doubtless necessary
to develop the greatest perfection of the Japanese Iris, it can be successfully
grown in this country in ordinary seasons in any good garden soil and without
artificial watering. Very fine flowers have been produced without special treat-
ment by Mr. [Francis] Parkman and other American growers, who have raised
good seedling varieties of this plant without giving to it more care than is
required by other Irises . . . The flowers are hardly surpassed in delicacy of tex-
ture or in beauty of color, but they do not appear here until July, and the hot sun
soon fades them. The blooming season may be prolonged by the use of an awning
placed over the beds during the day, but it cannot be denied that this plant flow-
ers too late here, and that its period of beauty is too short in this climate ever to
make it a great popular favorite . . .

[Garden and Forest 1 (1888); 259-260]

NEW OR LITTLE-KNOWN PLANTS.

Xanthoceras sorbifolia.

To Mr. Paul Dana we are indebted for the opportunity of publishing in this
issue the portrait of a remarkably fine specimen of the rare Xanthoceras
sorbifolia in Mr. Dana's collection at Dosoris [Long Island, New York].

Xanthoceras sorbifolia is a small tree of northern China, related to the Bladder-
nuts [Staphlea] and Horse-chestnuts, and interesting as the only representation
of the genus to which it belongs, and which owes its name to the presence
between the petals of curious yellow horn-shaped glands. It is one of the most
attractive of the hardy plants which our gardens owe to northern China, the region
from which many of the most beautiful trees and shrubs in cultivation have been
brought. It is a leafy, glabrous or puberulous plant with opposite pinnate leaves
eight to twelve inches in length; the leaflets are alternate, linear-oblong, acute,
coarsely serrate, dark green and glossy on the upper surface and pale on the lower.
The flowers are white, handsomely marked with red streaks at the base of the
petals, and are produced in great profusion in lateral racemes eight or twelve
inches long, appearing as the leaves are unfolding. The fruit, which is a globose
or pear-shaped capsule, not unlike that of some of the smooth-fruited Horse-
chestnuts in general appearance, finally splits into three valves, and contains a
number of globose, nearly black, shining seeds half an inch in diameter.

Horticulture 41

Xanthoceras was discovered nearly sixty years ago by the German botanist
Bunge, who accompanied a Russian mission which traveled overland from St.
Petersburg to Pekin; it was not, however, introduced into our gardens until nearly
forty years later, when the French missionary David sent it to the Jardin des
Plantes, in Paris, where the original plant may still be seen.

In spite of its hardiness and the beauty of its flowers, Xanthoceras is still
rare in American and European gardens. This is, perhaps, due to the fact that.

Xanthoceras sorbifolia, at Dosoris, Long Island

42 Ainoldia 60/3

although it is hardy against cold, it is evidently fastidious and does not grow
well in all soils and situations. Most of the plants which have been tried in this
country have perished sooner or later, and it is unusual to find either here or in
Europe so large, vigorous and healthy a specimen as the one at Dosoris.

From the Abbe David's notes we learn that Xanthoceras is a tree fifteen to eigh-
teen feet high, and exceedingly rare in those parts of China and Mongolia which
he visited; that it is cultivated in the gardens of Pekin,- and that the seeds are
eaten by the Chinese.

At our request, Mr. Dana has sent us for the benefit of our readers the follow-
ing note upon his method of cultivating Xanthoceras, which we hope will now
become a more common object in our gardens;

"I first saw a plant of Xanthoceras at Baden-Baden on the grounds of Herr Max
Leichtlin about the year 1884. 1 admired it, and Herr Leichtlin spoke of it as a new
plant of great promise, which he felt sure would be an acquisition to horticulture.
I secured two plants, and have been cultivating them now for eight or ten years.
They are six feet high, and grow in rich warm loam. They have no protection
whatever, and yet they have never lost a branch in winter, and they endure our
dry summers perfectly. They are not strong-growing shrubs, but they bear flow-
ers in great profusion, and are more beautiful when in bloom than at any other
season. They ripen seeds every year, and I would be glad to furnish some of them
to any one who cares to test the plant."

[Garden and Forest 6 (1893): 284-286]

CLIMBING PLANTS ON BOSTON BUILDINGS.

PROBABLY nowhere else in this country does the service performed by climb-
ing and clinging plants in clothing and adorning the walls of buildings receive
such good illustration as in and around Boston. Ampelopsis tricuspidata [now
Parthenocissiis tricuspidata] was first domesticated here, and has so long been a
striking feature of this city as to gain for it throughout the country the familiar
name of "Boston Ivy." This name, however, is seldom heard here, where it is
most commonly known as the "Japanese Ivy" or the "Japanese Ampelopsis."

Ampelopsis tricuspidata had probably been cultivated hereabout for several
years before it became particularly noticeable, but its popularity dates back to the
Centennial year of 1876. Although for years familiar with all parts of the city and
a close observer of such things, I had never noticed this plant until my return in
1877, after an absence of a year or so, when I was at once struck by its prevalence.
It did not become remarkably common hereabout until about 1880. Now, how-
ever, it is seen everywhere, and is even more prevalent than its cousin, our beau-
tiful native Virginia Creeper. It has become as characteristic of our city and
suburban scenes as the White Pine is of our rural New England landscape, and
one of our foremost authorities once told me that he regarded it as the greatest
horticultural acquisition of the century.

Occasionally its use is excessive, but its luxuriant habit is seldom encouraged
to an undesirable extent. This is probably due to the fact that one of its most
conspicuous services consists in the concealment, or the amelioration, of archi-
tectural ugliness, and, fortunately, the people most liable to employ it to excess
are generally the ones most responsible for bad architecture. Ugly objects are so

Horticulture 43

generally made graceful and picturesque by the kindly offices of the Japanese
Ampelopsis that the instances of its over-liberal use are usually merciful conceal-
ments. The Japanese Ivy, or, still better for this particular purpose, the Virginia
Creeper [Parthenocissus quinquefolia], could be usefully employed to drape the
electric-wire poles, whose gaunt interminable processions make hideous the
highways throughout the country, and convert them, for a large portion of the
year, at least, into objects of beauty, if the necessities of the linemen, with their
climbing-spurs, did not forbid. This might, however, be done with poles that
require no climbing, as the posts that support the trolley-wires of the electric-
railways, particularly along a road that has been adorned with central-lawn
spaces, like the boulevards of Beacon Street or Commonwealth Avenue.

As a means for the mitigation of bad architecture, the Japanese Ampelopsis on
our Museum of Fine Arts [then located on Copley Square] furnishes an instruc-
tive example, though it is not carried far enough. It clambered bravely over the
ugly walls of parti-colored terra cotta and brick, and for a while so nearly effaced
the unspeakable reliefs of the second story as to give them the charm of indefi-
niteness. But the trustees have since restricted the creeper to the first story . . .

Probably the building most famous for its exuberant, but not in the least
excessive, growth of Ampelopsis is the Old South Meeting-house, where it creeps
over an enormous expanse of gray old walls and high up on the tower, relieving
the severity of the Puritan architecture with its gentle touch. The suggestion of
nature amid the piles of neighboring brick and stone in the heart of the business
section of the town does much to heighten the charm of the Old South's garb of
greenery. And this leads me to express dissent from only one point in the admi-
rable editorial on the general subject of the use of clinging growths in combina-
tion with architecture that appeared in Garden and Forest a few months ago.
The New York Post-office was instanced as one of the buildings where such a
growth would not be in place. But to my mind it would be peculiarly appropriate
there, for the reason that the architecture of that building is intensely offensive.
If, by any means, an ample growth of Ampelopsis or any other creeping
things could only be coaxed to embower a goodly portion of its facades, it would
not only mitigate the inartistic character of the edifice, but it would serve
to unite it with the remnant of the neighboring City Fiall Park, from which its
site was unrighteously taken, and in a measure atone for the perpetual affront
of its existence . . .

One of the few redeeming features of our extravagantly praised Public Garden
is the growth of Virginia Creeper and Japanese Honeysuckle, that converts the
iron fence on the western side into a beautiful hedge, and the Japanese
Ampelopsis that covers some of its stone posts. This creeper would perform an
inestimable service if it were allowed to clamber at will over the bad sculpture
in the Public Garden and the Common.

The value of trailing growths for fences is not appreciated in this country as it
should be. In Germany the Virginia Creeper is put to simple and effective use for
this purpose in urban public grounds. A light, low fence is made of stakes and
connecting wires; the Virginia Creeper is trained up each stake and made to form
graceful festoons between. Its employment in some such fashion would do good
service on a place like the Cambridge Common, for instance, now a bare, unat-
tractive expanse, having a sort of kinship with the New England rustic burying-

44 Arnoldia 60/3

ground. It is surrounded by a fence composed of unhewn granite posts with
squared rails of wood between. Virginia Creeper, Japanese Ampelopsis, and per-
haps other twining or climbing plants, might convert this old fence into a thing
of beauty. In public parks the requirement for protection of the borders some-
times necessitates guards of wire and stakes along the paths. These are often
great disfigurements, and their offensive aspect, in places where they seem to be
required permanently, might be at least mitigated by the use of Virginia Creeper
after the German fashion . . .

Boston. Sylvester Baxter

[Garden and Forest 7(1894): 432-433]

THE FLOATING GARDENS OF MEXICO.

The famous chinampas, or floating gardens, are a never-ending attraction of
the City of Mexico, and yet little is known to the general reader regarding
these curious places. Contrary to the general belief, the so-called floating gardens
of the present day do not float. Many years since, however — in fact, before the
conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards — the name was appropriate, for real float-
ing gardens were then common on the lakes in the Valley of Mexico, especially
in the immediate vicinity of the city. But when Humboldt visited Mexico (then
called New Spain) in 1803, and Abbe Francesco Clavigero (a missionary among
the Indians) a few years later, these peculiar possessions of the Mexicans were
rapidly diminishing in number,- and in 1826 Captain G. F. Lyon informs us that
"the little gardens constructed on bushes or wooden rafts no longer exist in
the immediate vicinity of Mexico (the city); but I learned that some may yet be
seen at Inchimilco."*,

Abbe Francesco Clavigero describes the true floating gardens as follows: "They
plait and twist Willows and roots of many plants, or other materials, together,
which are light, but capable of supporting the earth of the garden firmly united.
Upon this foundation they lay the light bushes which float on the lake, and over
all the mud and dirt which they draw from the bottom of the same lake."t
The common form was a quadrangle, and the average size about fifteen by forty
feet, although some of the largest were a hundred feet in extent. Many of the lat-
ter contained a small hut, in which the cultivator sometimes lived; one or more
trees were also growing in the centre of these largest plots. The earth used was
extremely rich, and this being kept in a moist state by its proximity to the water
(the elevation above it being not over a foot), the gardens were productive of the
choicest vegetables and flowers, including also Maize.

The gardens of the present day are very different affairs. They do not float, but,
on the contrary, are composed of strips of solid ground, usually about fifteen by
thirty feet in extent, although some are larger. These plots are intersected by
small canals, through which visitors are propelled in canoes. They are con-
structed by heaping up the earth about two feet above the water. Willows, and
sometimes Poplars or Silver Maples, also a species of Cane, are often grown along

* lournal of a Residence and Tour in the Republic of Mexico in 1826, vol. ii.
t History of Mexico. 1807, vol. ii.

Horticulture 45

their banks to keep them from washing down. The nearest gardens to the City of
Mexico are along La Viga Canal, a public waterway about forty feet in width and
of varying depth. Its source is Lake Texcoco (formerly known as Tezcuco), two
and a half miles west of the city, from whence it flows to a point near the town
and then returns by a circuitous route to the lake. The gardens are located where
the ground is naturally low or swampy.

All produce the choicest vegetables, flowers, and not infrequently fruits, in
great abundance, embracing nearly every variety grown in the United States, and
others unknown to us. Even in the ditches or little canals beautiful Water-lilies
often line the way, while many of the plots are one mass of vari-colored flowers,
the most common ones being Roses, Pinks, Geraniums, Poppies and Fuchsias.
The great variety of shades and the enormous size of many kinds astonish and
delight the visitor from more northern latitudes. The Poppies are more attractive
than our finest Paeonies; on certain feast days every one wears a wreath made
exclusively from these showy flowers.

The quick and luxuriant growth of the products is mainly due to the daily
application of water, which is dipped up in gourds attached to long swinging and
pivoted poles, and deftly thrown about. It is needless to say that the cultivator
never depends upon rain. Some of the plots are occupied by their owners and their
families, who live in charming little houses constructed of cane, and surrounded
by all their possessions, often including cows, horses, pigs and chickens. La Viga

46 Arnoldia 60/3

Canal is almost impassable on Sundays especially, and the same may be said of
the beautiful driveways along its tree-lined banks; for Sunday in the City of
Mexico is the liveliest and, in many respects, the busiest day of all the week. It is
the great market day as well as holiday, and a large number of the craft on La Viga
are loaded with produce of every description from the gardens and elsewhere. The
visitor to the floating gardens seldom hides his disappointment on discovering
that they are stationary, but he never regrets having visited them; indeed, a day
spent on the canal and among the chinampas will long be remembered as one of
the pleasantest in Mexico.

Little is certainly known regarding the origin of these famous places. Abbe
Clavigero says that when the Mexicans were driven from their native country,
ages in the past, they were forced to occupy small islands in Lake Texcoco, where
"they ceased for some years to cultivate the land, because they had none, until
necessity and industry together taught them to form movable fields and gardens,
which floated on the waters of the lake. . . . These were the first fields which the
Mexicans owned after the foundation of Mexico." The custom may have origi-
nated as above stated, but the following view, founded on a careful examination
of some of the oldest works on Mexico, is advanced as the more probable, espe-
cially since the Mexicans still retained and cultivated the watery plots after their
independence was again established.

For long ages the Valley of Mexico was subjected to devastating inundations.
The valley is about sixty miles in diameter, and is surrounded by a continuous
wall of hills and mountains. The waters collected on these flow into six princi-
pal lakes. The plaza mayor, or great square, in the City of Mexico is elevated a
few inehes only above the nearest lake — Texcoco. In former times, a prolonged
rainy season caused the surplus waters in the other lakes — which have an eleva-
tion of from three to thirteen feet above the plaza mayor — to burst their banks
and flow into Lake Texcoco, which in turn overflowed and flooded the valley. In
June, 1629, the date of the last great flood, the city was covered with water to a
depth of three feet, and it remained in that state for five years.

The regular fields were, of course, ruined whenever a freshet traversed the val-
ley, and necessity finally compelled the people to depend upon floating gardens
for a supply of produce at all seasons, and to prevent a famine. These were
moored in places where the rise and fall of the lake waters would not affect them.
During the period when floods were looked for at any time, these floating patches
were very common, but when the city and valley were partially protected by a
gigantic canal in 1789 (commenced in 1607*), by which the main overflow was
carried off in safety, they gradually disappeared, until at the present time noth-
ing but tbe pretty name and stationary plots surrounded by water remains to
perpetuate an ancient custom.

Washington, D.C. Charles H. Coe

[Garden and Forest 8 (1895): 432-433]

* The drainage canal, commenced by the Aztecs, has been greatly improved and only

recently finished by the Mexican Valley Drainage and Canal Company, so that all

surplus water and the sewage of the city is now completely carried off.

Horticulture 47

NOTES.

It is stated that Mr. Ruskin maintains a Cherr\--
orchard solely for the benefit of the birds on his estate.
(5 il891':36]

Forty-six lapanese gardeners are now employed, it
is said, in California, where it appears that the taste
for lapanese fruit and ornamental trees has greatly
increased. [2 (1889): 180]

The last English census enumerated about 5,000
women who are professional gardeners in that country,
and six who are employed in superintending the drainage
of towms. [7 (1894’:10]

The health officer of San Francisco recently examined
eight samples of fruit ieUies bought in the open market,
and not one of them proved to be made of sound ripe
fruit. Several apple ieUies were colored, while one in tin
contained turnip pulp, colored with aniline dye to repre-
sent strawberry ielly. (9 il896'; 290]

The latest atrocity in the way of "fashionable" floral
arrangements is a muff comp)osed of flowers, for the use
of bridesmaids at weddings. People seem slow to learn
that there is a right way and a wTong way to use natural
flowers, and that all ways are wrong that force them to
simulate the form of some article of dress or ornament.
12 ,1889); 180]

It has been suggested that instead of the present plan
of distribution of free seeds by the Government that the
Department of Agriculture should issue legal-tender
notes which Congressmen could distribute among their
constituents, so that each one could purchase the par-
ticular kind of seeds or flowers or shrubs or trees he
needed. Why not? [10 ,1897); 190]

At this season, wherever any planting is done for
beauty or for use, a httle groimd should be set apart for
the children in eveiy home. The possession and cultiva-
tion of a miniature garden will do much to cultivate hab-
its of observation, turn the attention to the mysteries
and beauties of plant-life and develop a taste which tsdll
be a fruitful source of pleasure in after hie. 17 |189-f): l-fO]

A correspondent inquires how much land it would
require to furnish strawberries enough to supply an
average-sized family. We should say that such a family
might have in an average year all the fresh berries needed
during their season, besides a few for canning, if five or
six rows of plants a hundred feet long were set out
and cultivated with rather more than average care.
1^(18941:330]

The people of California are to be congratulated upon
Professor Hilgard's decision to refuse the position of
Assistant Commissioner of Agriculture, offered to him
by the President, and to remain the Director of the

California experiment station, where he can accomplish
infinitely more than he could do in Washington, imder
the demoralizing political influences which beset the
Department of Agriculture. [2 ,18891: 180]

A woman in Brookl>'n who visited the grave of a de-
ceased relative in C>'press Flills Cemetery, some months
ago, alleges that she was poisoned by Rhus Toxicoden-
dron [poison ity] which had been allowed to grow in her
lot. She has sued the cemetert' association for 510,000
damages on account of the sufferings which she has
since endured. This gives rise to some veiy interesting
questions as to the responsibilities of corporations who
control cemeteries. [8 ,18951; 430] [In 1897 the plaintiff
was awarded damages in the amount of 53,400. — Ed.]

A writer in the Soutbein Stockman says to test the
ripeness of a Water Melon, the thumb-nail should he
dratsTi over it so as to scrape off the thin green skin. If the
edges of the skin on each side of the scar are left ragged
and granulated, and the rind under the scar is smooth,
firm, white and glossy, the melon is ripe. If the edges of
the scar are smooth and even and the nail plows into the
rind in places and the skin does not come off clean, then
the melon is green. Two melons, one known to be ripe
and the other green, should be taken and this test prac-
ticed on them until the difference is plainly observed.
[5 ,1892': 600]

The French Government has made Fhofessor C. V. Riley
a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor as a deserved comph-
ment for his effective studies in economical entomologt".
His researches have not only been of advantage to the
farmers and fruit-growers of the United States, but he
discovered that the phylloxera was an American insect,
and identical with the pest which had proved so disas-
trous to French vineyards. He also introduced into
France the spraying-nozzle which bears his name, and
which, with certain modifications, is used in that coun-
try to counteract the mildew of the vine. [2 ,1889): 444]

At the late Chrysanthemum show in Philadelphia,
Mr. W. K. Harris exhibited a plant upon which twenty
distinct varieties had been grafted and all were in bloom
at the same time. This suggests a new line of work, inas-
much as such plants would be obiects of great popular
interest at exhibitions, if a proper selection and arrange-
ment of colors were made. It may be questioned, how-
ever, whether a plant bearing several different kinds of
flowers possesses any value except as a curiosity.
Whether some varieties of feeble growth would be
improved if grafted on a more robust stock can be ascer-
tained by experiment. [1 (1888': 480]

The early settlers of New lersey were not slow to dis-
cover the peculiar value and uses of the cranberries

48 Ainoldia 60/3

which grow in the swampy sections of the Pines. Mahlon
Stacy, writing from West Jersey in April, 1680, to his
brother in Yorkshire, says that from "May till Michael-
mas we have great store of very good wild fruit, as straw-
berries and hurtelberries, which are like our bilberries in
England, but far sweeter, and very wholesome," and he
adds: "the cranberries are much like cherries for color
and bigness, and may be kept till fruit comes in again.
An excellent sauce is made of them for venison, turkeys
and other great fowl. They are better to make tarts than
either gooseberries or cherries. We have them brought to
our houses in great plenty by the Indians." [7 (1894): 430]

We are sorry to learn that Mr. C. M. Atkinson, one of
the best all-round gardeners that America has seen, has
been obliged, through physical infirmity, to retire from
the charge, which he has held for nearly thirty years, of
the gardens and estate of Mr. John L. Gardrier, of
Brookline, Massachusetts. This place has long been
known to lovers of horticulture for its well-grown
fruits and flowers, and especially for many of those old-
fashioned hard wood greenhouse-plants which are so
sadly neglected in most gardens of the present day, and
which Mr. Atkinson grew to perfection. His skill, how-
ever, was not limited to any single field, and he was
equally successful with Azaleas, Japanese Irises, Roses,
Orchids, Violets, and all sorts of greenhouse and hardy
plants. [8 (1895):30]

Professor [L. H.j Bailey and Mr. Wilhelm Miller have
issued another bulletin on the Chrysanthemum which
contains much that is of interest to florists and flower
lovers generally. Mr. Miller's chapter entitled "Chrysan-
themums at Home" is certainly worth publishing under
the Nixon Act, and perhaps the horticultural knowledge
which can be disseminated by investigations and publi-
cations of this character justify the use of the costly
machinery of the experiment station in this particular
direction. The question is whether it could not be used
to better advantage elsewhere. But since the bulletin is
published primarily for educational purposes, we must
express our regret at the use of such a barbarism as
"mum" for Chrysanthemum. A subject which is of suf-
ficient importance to be discussed in a bulletin from a
university ought to command the use of dignified and
scholarly language. [10 (1897): 270]

In an interesting article, called "Waste Products Made
Useful," published in the North American Review for
November, Lord Playfair says: "As to perfumes, there are
some which arc really oils, and others extracted from
flowers. There arc others which are made artificially, and
curiously, most frequently, out of bad-smelling com-
pounds. The fusel-oil, separated out in the distillation of
spirits, has a peculiarly nasty and sickening odor. It is
used, after treatment with acids and oxidizing agents, to
make the oil of apples and the oil of pears. Oil of grapes
and oil of cognac are little more than fusel-oil largely

diluted. Oil of pineapples, on the other hand, is best
made by the action of putrid cheese on sugar, or by dis-
tilling rancid butter with alcohol and oil of vitriol. This
oil is largely used for making pineapple ale. Many a fair
forehead used to be damped with 'Eau de Millefleurs'
without knowing that its essential ingredient was got
from the drainings of cow-houses, though now it can be
obtained cheaper from one of the constituents of gas-tar.
[5 (1891): 540]

Christmas gifts supplied by florists this year consisted
almost entirely of boxes of cut flowers, violets and roses
being the favorites. Large, deep-colored Marie Louise vio-
lets, their long stems allowing of loose, graceful arrange-
ment, sold for as much as five dollars a hundred. Roses
cost from three dollars to eighteen dollars a dozen, an
extra quality of American Beauty commanding the out-
side price of three dollars each. Lilacs at twenty-five
cents to fifty cents a spray, tulips at one cent each, and
stevia at fifty cents for a small bunch, were specialties of
the holiday season. Carnations were plentiful and cheap,-
some well-cultivated specimens of William Scott, mea-
suring two and a half inches across, brought the extreme
price of two dollars a dozen. The Orchid season is now
fairly begun, and cut blooms of Cattleya at nine dollars a
dozen, and Cypripedium insigne at four dollars a dozen,
were in good supply. Fruited plants of Ardisia crenulata
and the Otaheite orange were in some demand, and
specimen plants of Cyclamens and of Chinese Primroses
in ornamental baskets found considerable favor. But the
most beautiful and the most costly were luxuriantly
flowered plants of Heath, their foliage almost hidden
under the myriad of tiny bells, and a few extra early pink
and white Azaleas. [8 (1895): 10]

With the present issue, which completes the tenth
volume, the publication of Carden and Forest ends.
For ten years the experiment has been tried of publish-
ing a weekly journal devoted to horticulture and forestry,
absolutely free from all trade influences, and as good as
it has been possible for us to make it. This experiment,
which has cost a large amount of time and money has
shown conclusively that there are not persons enough in
the United States interested in the subjects which have
been presented in the columns of Carden and Forest to
make a journal of its class and character self-supporting.
It is useless to expend more time and money on a publi-
cation which cannot be made financially successful, and
must, therefore, sooner or later cease to exist.

Mr. J. H. Griffith, Room 106, Tribune Building, New
York, is authorized to receive money due to the Com-
pany, and to attend to any other business matters which
may arise in winding up its affairs.

Garden and Forest Publishing Co.

[10 (1897): 518]

TOKIO NURSERIES,

Komagome, Tokio, Japan.

Cable address :
NURSERIES, TOKIO.

Uly=bulbs,

PLANTS, SEEDS, etc.

Catab't^e on application.

Readers' Wants. Situations Wanted,

BTC.. BTC

QARDENERS, FARHERS.

We are constantly receiving applications for
situations from trained men as above, many of whom
we know as reliable. Particulars cheerfully i'urnUhed.
No fees.— R. & J. FARQUHAR & CO, Seed and Bulb
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amolaia

Volume 60 • Number 4 • 2000-2001

Ainoldia (ISSN 004-2633; USPS 866-100) is
published quarterly by the Arnold Arboretum of
Harvard University. Second-class postage is paid at
Boston, Massachusetts.

Subscriptions are $20.00 per calendar year domestic,
$25.00 foreign, payable in advance. Single copies of
most issues are $5.00; the exceptions are 58/4-59/1
(Metasequoia After Fifty Years) and 54/4 (A Source-
book of Cultivar Names), which are $10.00. Remit-
tances may be made in U.S. dollars by check drawn
on a U.S. bank; by international money order; and
by Visa or Mastercard. Send orders, remittances,
change-of-address notices, and all other subscription-
related communications to: Circulation Manager,
Arnoldia, The Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway,
Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts 02130-3500.

Telephone 617/524-1718; facsimile 617/524-1418;
e-mail arnoldia@arnarb.harvard.edu.

Postmaster: Send address changes to
Arnoldia Circulation Manager
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Jamaica Plain, MA 02130-3500

Karen Madsen, Editor
Andy Winther, Designer

Editorial Committee
Phyllis Andersen
Ellen S. Bennett
Robert E. Cook
Peter Del Tredici
Gary Roller
Stephen A. Spongberg
Kim E. Tripp

Page

2 The View From the Forest Canopy
Richard Primack, Melvin Goh, and
Meekiong Kalu

10 Survival of the Most Adaptable
Peter Del Tredici

19 Cypress Knees: An Enduring Enigma
Christopher H. Briand

26 Ginkgo biloba in Japan
Mariko Handa

35 Arnold Arboretum Weather Station
Data — 2000

37 Index to Volume 60

Front cover: The “knees" of Taxodium distichum.

Inside front cover: A gallery of adaptable plants.

First row, from left to right: Stewartia sinensis,
Liriodendron tulipifera x chinense, Aristolochia
mandshuriensis.

Second row: Cercidiphyllum iaponicum 'Morioka
Weeping', Quercus phellos. Hydrangea quercifolia.

Third row: Abies koreana, Koelreuteria paniculata
'Rose Lantern', Rhododendron calendulaceum.

Inside back cover: First row, from left to right:
Xanthoceras sorbifolium. Heptacodium miconiodes.
Hydrangea quercifolia.

Second row: Koelreuteria paniculata 'Rose
Lantern', Stewartia sinensis. Hydrangea paniculata
'Praecox'.

Third row: Rhododendron arborescens,

Enkianthus perulatus, Lindera obtusilobum.

Copyright © 2001. The President and Fellows of Back cover: Betula platyphylla seen through Acer

Harvard College pseudosieboldianum on Changbai Shan, north China.

Tree climber fugah Tagi photographed on a giant strangler fig. Ficus sp. IMoraceae).

The View from the Forest Canopy

Richard Primack, Melvin Goh, and Meekiong Kalu

For decades, botanists from Harvard Uni-
versity and elsewhere have been studying
the remarkably diverse flora of the
rainforests on the island of Borneo. Much of
this interest was sparked hy Peter Ashton,
former director of the Arnold Arboretum, who
has been doing research in Borneo for over forty
years. Through the years, many Harvard stu-
dents, undergraduate and graduate, as well as
postdoctoral and staff researchers, have traveled
to Borneo to look for new plant species, to hunt
for plants with medicinal potential, or to deter-
mine the environmental effects of logging.
Others have pursued zoological interests. Tim
Laman, an Arnold Arhoretum Associate, com-
bined his knowledge of the rainforest with
his photographic skills to produce a series of
articles for National Geographic, most recently
one on gliding frogs, lizards, and snakes that
live in the forest canopy. Cheryl Knott and
Mark Leighton of Harvard's Peahody Museum
have investigated the ecology of orangutans,
monkeys, hornhills, and other large mammals
and birds.

Whatever the subject being investigated, a
key member of all these exploration teams in
Borneo's rainforest is a person known as a "tree
climber." Not surprisingly, a tree climber's offi-
cial job is to climb trees and collect specimens
of leaves, flowers, and fruits that are then dried
and mounted on herbarium sheets for use in
botanical research. The best tree climbers are
also experts in camp craft and forest lore. Two of
the most famous tree climbers in all of South-
east Asia, both of them well known to Harvard
researchers, are fugah Tagi and Banyeng Ludong,
now in their fifties and recently retired from the
Sarawak Forest Department. Sarawak, which is
part of Malaysia, occupies the northwest coast
of Borneo.

Both lugah and Banyeng grew up in remote
longhouses, the sort of single-structure villages
on stilts that are common in Borneo. After their

childhood, they went to Kuching, the capital of
Sarawak, seeking education and work. They
both have the "burongs" — bird tattoos on their
throats and star tattoos on their shoulders — that
mark them as members of the rural Ihans (also
known as the Sea Dayaks), but apart from that,
they are very different in both appearance and
personality, lugah is short, weighing only
around a hundred pounds, with an outgoing,
fun-loving personality. In a group he is often
the main talker, loudly telling stories in an
excited, high-pitched voice. By contrast,
Banyeng is barrel-chested, with a quieter, more
reserved personality. He usually speaks more
slowly and hesitantly, but occasionally he, too,
becomes excited.

The Traditional Way of Climbing Trees

In their working years, both lugah and Banyeng
could climb virtually any tree in Sarawak's
forest: few trees were too tall or too difficult for
these two, who used the traditional methods
they had learned from boyhood and refined
while working for the Forest Department. The
most common method involves an inchworm-
like series of movements — grabbing a tree with
the arms, raising the legs along the trunk, and
gripping the trunk with their feet while extend-
ing the body another one to two feet up the
trunk — movements repeated again and again
until the top of the tree is reached.

When the trees were of ideal size for climbing
in this way — about two feet in diameter —
Banyeng and fugah could scoot to the top in a
minute or two. When the trees were smaller, or
had slippery bark, they sometimes tied a rope
around their ankles to increase the pressure of
their feet against the trunk.

When the trunk of the targeted tree is too
thick to hold onto, the traditional tree climber
has to work from a smaller tree nearby. If the
smaller tree is flexible enough, he might simply
climb to the top branch and swing back and

4 Arnoldia 60/4

Jugah Tagi demonstrates the techniques of traditional tree climbing.

forth until he can reach over, grab a branch of
the larger tree, and leap across. Other situations
require the use of a "penyulok," a forked pole
up to thirty or thirty-five feet long to which
another forked stick is tied with a vine to make
a hook. For example, after climbing the smaller
tree, the tree climber might haul up the
penyulok into the tree using a long, rope-like
rattan vine. He then extends the penyulok hori-
zontally to hook a branch on the target tree and
twists the branch until it breaks off and falls to
the ground. In other cases the climber might
build bridges between the two trees: after pull-
ing up the penyulok and hooking it over a
branch on the target tree, he ties the base of the
penyulok to the smaller tree and crosses over it
to the larger tree

As one can imagine, these maneuvers, often
performed hundreds of feet above the ground,
require extraordinary strength and suppleness,
as well as long practice, lugah and Banyeng
never used safety equipment even when climb-

ing trees more than 175 feet tall, relying on their
own skill and confidence to avoid accidents.
Today's young tree climbers, by contrast, make
extensive use of tree-climbing spurs and belts
and specialized rock-climbing equipment. This
makes tree climbing much slower and more
restrictive than the traditional methods.

But it also makes the climbing safer. Banyeng,
who still does contract work with the Forest
Department, comments on the danger inherent
in his unusual profession: "There is always an
element of fear when you are so high up, but the
higher we go, the more careful we are. The few
times that I have fallen it was because I wasn't
careful enough, as I was not very high yet. My
worst accident was near Melinau Gorge in Mulu
National Park, where I not only fell out of a tree,
but also rolled down a hill and got really hanged
up all over."

Paul Chai, at the time a Forest Department
botanist and who frequently worked with visit-
ing Harvard researchers, recalls this incident.

Tree Climbers 5

Maneuvering the penyulok into position.

Constructing the hook end of a penyulok.

and says that other mem-
hers of the party thought
Banyeng had prohahly been
killed in the fall. When they
dashed down the slope to
find him, however, they
discovered that Banyeng's
main complaint was that he
couldn't find his new clay
pipe, which had fallen out
of his mouth during his
tumhle down the hill.

"Daily-Paid" Tree Climbers:
Two Careers Begin

In the early 1960s, when
fugah and Banyeng first
signed up with the Forest
Department as daily-paid
tree climhers, they hardly
expected to become full-
time employees, much less

Using the penyulok to break off flowering branches from a neighboring tree.

H S. WOOD IN A MANUAL OF DIPTEHOCARP TREES OF HRUNEI STATE AND SARAWAK. SUIM’i EMENT. F S ASHTi)N. 196:1

6 Arnoldia 60/4

A young Banyeng Ludong photographed beside the trunk of a resak batu
tree. Cotylelobium malayan (Dipterocarpaceae).

recognized experts in their trade. Climbing trees
came naturally to them; like other boys in their
longhouses, they had learned tree climbing
along with fishing, hunting, and farming. But
both possessed unusual agility and curiosity,
which made them well-suited to their future
occupation.

The two men came to the profession through
similar routes. In 1963, lugah, then a young Ihan
from a longhouse on the Sut River, a tributary of
the Kaiang River, upstream of Kapit in central
Sarawak. He met the well-known forester B. E.

Smythies, of the Sarawak Forest Department, in
Kuching, the state capital, where he had gone to
look for work. Smythies' name was familiar to
lugah because a friend had worked for him in
Brunei. lugah managed to convince Smythies

of his abilities and his willingness to
work hard, and that was the begin-
ning of his career.

lugah recalls the opportunity that
Smythies' offer represented: "At that
time, life at our longhouse was quite
difficult. I helped on the farm and
occasionally took rubber and wild
fruits to Kapit, the nearest town, for
sale. The journey itself was difficult
then — a day's paddling from the
longhouse to the town and a further
two-day ride back upstream. When
the offer was made of a job paying
RM 4.00 per day [now just over one
U.S. dollar], I grabbed it, since the
amount seemed very big. I had no
formal education as far as plants or
trees were concerned. At first, all I
knew was how to climb the trees and
collect whatever plant specimens
were needed."

Banyeng came from a longhouse
on the Merit River, a tributary of the
great Rajang River. He arrived in
Kuching in 1957 and spent six years
in a Chinese primary school. He too
met B. E. Smythies and applied for
the job of daily-paid tree climber. He
was soon hired, as he came highly
recommended by Robb Anderson,
the great authority on Southeast
Asian peat swamp forests. "To get
RM 4.00 a day then was quite a good pay,"
recalls Banyeng, now the father of four grown
children. "I think that I was hired because I
was very interested in the job, and I grabbed the
offer, as it was not that easy to get a job without
many skills."

It quickly became evident to both men that
they would need to learn a great deal in order to
succeed at their new profession, lugah tells of a
conversation he had with Peter Ashton, then
working as a Forest Department botanist: "He
asked me if I knew the names of the plants or
trees we were collecting from, and when I said
no, he looked at me with disbelief and chided
me for my lack of knowledge. It was, according
to him, a necessity for me to at least know the
local names of the plants. This was one of the

Tree Climbers 7

skills required of tree climbers, to know the
names the local communities gave to the plants.

"I knew that what he said was true and cor-
rect. I had to know the names, not only for my-
self hut also because of what I was doing. With
little education and knowledge, I realized that if
I were to he good at what I do, I had to master
some of the skills needed in the trade. Over the
years, I learned the local names of the plants and
trees. For many trees, I also learned the species
and family names used hy plant experts."

Outdoing Botanists at Their Own Game

Indeed, both Banyeng and lugah are storehouses
of hotanical knowledge. Through years of work-
ing with local botanists and foresters, as well as
with visitors from Fiarvard and other universi-
ties, lugah and Banyeng have come to know the
names of hundreds of tree species, and often
their scientific Latin names as well. When they
are not able to identify a species, they can usu-
ally recognize the family to which the tree
belongs, or the species it is related to.

So proficient are they that they can often
remember where they first saw a particular spe-
cies, a huge help in field identification. And m
contrast to most trained botanists, who must
study plants carefully before venturing an
identification, Banyeng and lugah can name
plants on sight with incredible speed. At Bako
National Park, lugah used to play a game with
botanists, who would show him a leafy branch
for five seconds and then hide it from sight. If
lugah knew the species, he would say the name
instantly. To make the game more challenging,
the botanists showed the branch for only three
seconds or even one, and the result was the
same — if lugah knew the species, he needed
only the briefest glance to recognize it. But his
skills went even farther, he could he shown
two or even three branches mingled together, all
of different species, and still identify them
instantly. In addition to being expert at field
identification, both Banyeng and lugah are
repositories of knowledge about the ways villagers
use each part of a tree species — for construction,
medicine, rope, or food — and which animals eat
the fruit, leaves, or bark.

lugah and Banyeng eventually taught practi-
cal field identification to dozens of other Forest

Banyeng holding a fruiting branch of a sabal palm,
Pinanga tomentella.

Department staff and visitors. Paul Chai, now
working with the International Tropical Timber
Organization, recalls how Jugah and Banyeng
would begin hy showing newcomers a leafy
branch. Then, over the course of days and weeks
in the field, they would reduce the learning cues
to a single leaf, then part of a leaf, and finally
only part of a rotten leaf. These lessons were
always taught in good humor and accompanied
by lots of laughter at each stage.

The Care and Feeding of Scientists

Probably the tree climbers' most important job
is to keep the research scientists alive in the
field, particularly when the scientists are visit-
ing Borneo for the first time. Between the two of
them, Jugah and Banyeng have saved the lives of
numerous inexperienced biologists, including
one of the authors, Richard Primack.

Primack recalls a Flarvard-sponsored expedi-
tion in 1981 to Mulu National Park, at that time
still a wild and remote area, when Jugah saved

RICHARD PRIMACK

8 Arnoldia 60/4

Jugcih helping to identify branches at Bako National Park.

him from a serious accident or death: "On one
of the evenings, while Jugah was setting up a
camp on the side of Mt. Mulu, I crossed a shal-
low, rock-filled stream to a little island, about a
hundred feet long by fifteen feet wide, on which
were growing some unusual shrubs and vines
that I wanted to collect. I noted that above me
the mountain was draped in black rain clouds,
but I didn't give it much thought. As I was
collecting plants, I saw Jugah gesturing at me
urgently, but I couldn't hear what he was shout-
ing due to the rising roar of the stream. From the
look on his face I could see that something was
terribly wrong.

"Deciding I had better see what Jugah wanted,
I was preparing to cross the twenty-foot stream
to where he was standing when I saw that most
of the rocks were now covered by the surging
stream. As I watched, the water was getting
visibly higher! Suddenly, I realized that a flash
flood was coming. I struggled to the middle of
the stream but couldn't keep my footing in the
strong, knee-high current that covered the slip-
pery rocks below. I was fighting just to keep
standing in the rush of oncoming water. Just
then, Jugah dashed into the stream and hauled
me out onto the bank, despite the fact that I
outweighed him by sixty pounds. Within the
next few minutes, the water level in the stream

rose another two feet, covering
the little island and the place
where I had been innocently
wandering about only minutes
before."

Another life-threatening in-
cident involved an American
biologist who had come to col-
lect snakes on the Sarawak
coast with Jugah and other
members of the Forest Depart-
ment. "Fie was quite inexperi-
enced in catching snakes, as it
turned out," Jugah recounts.
"A boat dropped us off in the
afternoon in the Santubong
area. We were planning to col-
lect snakes at night, with the
boat picking us up the next
morning. The American told
us that he was interested in
collecting king cobras and other poisonous
snakes. I told him that these were very danger-
ous snakes and that he should let me catch
them for him, or he should at least wear gloves.
Before long we caught sight of a poisonous
snake near some bushes. Saying he didn't need
our help, he brushed us aside. Despite our
warnings, he insisted that he was capable of
catching the snake himself with his bare
hands. As he reached for the snake, it bit his
hand, and as he struggled to grab its head, it bit
him a second time.

"Finally, hearing our screams, he flung the
snake into the forest. Fie asked us how serious
the bite was. I told him, 'You are going to die
unless you go right to the Kuching Fiospital,'
and he then asked me what was the fastest way
to the hospital. There was no road to the coast
then; we had reached the place by boat but it
was not due to pick us up until the next day. By
then, he would have been long dead from the
snake's poison! Luckily for him, we managed to
find a fisherman who had just returned from his
fishing trip and was willing to take us back to
Kuching. But the fisherman was asking RM
50.00 to ferry us to Kuching, which seemed very
high. The American didn't seem too pleased
about the high price and asked me what I
thought of the situation.

Tree Climbers 9

"'It's quite simple,' I told him. 'Either you pay
him or we wait for our boat tomorrow. Only by
then we will he carrying your dead body with
us.' Upon hearing that, he made no further fuss,
and we arrived in Kuching just in time to get
treatment for the bites." lugah laughs as he
finishes: "The American left Sarawak without
going out snake-collecting again."

Another crucial role played by tree climbers is
that of supplementing their expeditions' limited
supply of tinned meats with fresh meat, lugah
and Banyeng are highly skilled fishermen and
hunters and often welcomed the opportunity to
use these skills while on field trips. In the early
days, any animal could be shot for food, but
awareness of the need for conservation later
resulted in restrictions against hunting
monkeys, hornbills, and other endangered wild-
life. This often meant that the tree climbers
faced conflicting demands: the need to follow
the new restrictions on the one hand, and the
need to supply food for expedition members on
the other.

Fortunately, even if the hunting wasn't good,
there were always fish to be caught. Mountain
streams often produced a large supply of small
fish, albeit full of bones. Any pole with a bit of
string, a fishhook or a bent nail, and a small
berry or insect as bait would suffice for fishing
gear. Lee Hua Seng, associate director of the
Forest Department and a frequent visitor to the
forest, recalls that Banyeng had a special talent
for catching freshwater carp using a fishing rod
fashioned from the midrib of a palm frond, with
a grasshopper tied to its end for bait.

Richard Primack also recalls one memorable
evening m 1986 when he was working with a
student, Pamela Hall, and Forest Department
staff at the remote Bukit Mersing Protected
Forest, way upriver and a long walk into the
forest. One night everybody was sleeping in the
streamside camp except lugah, who was out
hunting. When a gunshot echoed through the
forest, everyone woke up. About tv/enty min-
utes later, lugah emerged from the dark forest
carrying a dead porcupine the size of a basket-
ball. The men heaped up the campfire with
wood and threw the porcupine on it to burn off
the quills. The experience of sitting around a
huge fire at eleven o'clock at night on a remote

Borneo mountain, with clouds of burning porcu-
pine smoke rising in the air and sparks flying
from the crackling quills, will definitely not he
forgotten soon.

Tree climbers are also responsible for setting
up camps in remote locations, making sure the
camps are safe, functional, and if possible, com-
fortable. The basic camp consists of a frame-
work of poles over which tarps are stretched to
keep out the rain. Simple cots covered with
mosquito netting serve as beds. Often, the tree
climbers are asked to improvise special struc-
tures, such as a writing desk and chair for a sci-
entist, or a temporary shelter of palm leaves
when a sudden rain shower erupts.

Banyeng and Jugah learned that their knowl-
edge of camp craft was not always heeded, how-
ever. Banyeng often worked with Peter Ashton,
and Banyeng recalls that while Ashton was
brilliant as an administrator and biologist, he
sometimes chose not to listen to advice. "Dur-
ing one of our collecting expeditions along the
Baram River he insisted on pitching his tent
along a riverbed despite repeated warnings from
us. The rainwater that fed the stream eventually
rushed down the slope later that evening and
washed away his tent, leaving him cursing and
fuming over the situation," Banyeng remem-
bers, laughing.

Today there are still tree climbers in the Forest
Department collecting tree branches for botani-
cal projects and also gathering fruits and seeds
for various replanting projects. But these young
tree climbers, with their special climbing shoes,
belts, and ropes cannot easily move around in
the forest because their equipment is so heavy
and cumbersome. Climbing with the new gear
is slow and tiring in comparison with the speed
with which the young Jugah and Banyeng
bounded up trees with no equipment at all.
Those days are over for the tree climbers, the
Forest Department, and the visiting researchers,
but the vivid memories remain.

Richard Primack is a professor of plant ecology at Boston
University and -was recently a Bullard Fellow in the
Harvard University Herbaria. Melvin Goh is a reporter
for the Sarawak Tribune. Meekiong Kalu is a research
officer for the Sarawak Biodiversity Centre.

Survival of the Most Adaptable

Peter Del Tredici

Botanic gardens and arboreta are great
places for the adventurous gardener to
explore for plants and new ways to use
them. Tucked into out-of-the-way, often untidy
corners one can find plants that are refreshingly
different from those offered by the trendy horti-
cultural industry or seen in our monotonous
suburban landscapes. Often these plants have
been underutilized because they cannot meet
the demands of a horticultural marketplace that
requires rapid turnover. Botanic gardens, by
contrast, are islands of stability where plants
can grow and develop at their own pace. This is
especially important in the case of trees, which
can be very slow to develop, often taking fifteen
to twenty years to produce flowers or cones.

A brief summary of how plants become part
of botanic garden collections will illustrate the
value of these collections for the gardener inter-
ested in expanding his or her horticultural
options. To begin with, the source of the plants
is an important part of the process. Botanic gar-
dens, particularly those with a research mission,
go to great lengths to obtain plant material that
has been collected in the wild and documented
with herbarium specimens. This expensive and
time-consuming documentation ensures for
future generations that our plants are properly
identified. And that represents only the begin-
ning of tbe plant documentation, wbicb con-
sumes a significant portion of the Arboretum's
living collections budget.

In contrast, there is no way to know for cer-
tain that a plant in a nursery is what the label
says it is. Indeed, most nurseries raise their
plants from very small seedlings or cuttings that
they purchase, and they use the identifications
that come with them. If the seeds were collected
from the wild (and correctly identified), the
seedlings will be true to type. If the source nurs-
ery made an identification mistake, however,
the error will spread throughout the industry.

After seeds have been collected in the wild
and received at the greenhouse, they are chilled
or scarified before being sown. When and if they
germinate, the resulting seedlings are potted up.
Once they reach an appropriate size in the nurs-
ery, which differs widely from garden to garden,
they are labeled and planted out in permanent
locations where it is hoped they will flourish.
The plants are watered and weeded during their
first year or two on the grounds, but after that
they are generally left to develop in their own
good time, under conditions that might be
called "benign neglect." The whole process,
from seed to being planted out on the grounds,
is long, taking three to five years for shrubs and
five to seven for trees.

The purpose of this article is to highlight
some noteworthy plants that have made it
through the cultivation process at the Arnold
Arboretum but are still not common in the
landscapes and gardens of the Northeast. Some
of them can be considered new, having only
recently become available commercially, while
others are not currently available through nurs-
eries even though they have been growing on
tbe Arboretum grounds for over a hundred
years. The latter group includes plants that have
always been ignored by the nursery industry,
and others that may have been popular in the
past but have fallen out of favor and are now
essentially forgotten.

Most of the plants on the list are adaptable to
a wide range of environmental conditions, grow-
ing well in either full sun or partial shade, and
on wet or dry sites. All of them have performed
well on the Arboretum's well-drained, acidic
soils, and most have few, if any, pest or disease
problems. Keep in mind, however, that this
characterization is based on a small sample size
and may not hold true if the plants become
widely planted. It should also be noted that the
USDA hardiness zone ratings, as well as the

Adaptable Plants 1 1

sizes of the plants, are meant as guidelines
rather than as absolute judgments.

While most of the plants have multiseason
interest, I have organized the list around their
primary season of interest. The list is heavily
weighted toward species rather than cultivars, for
two reasons: first, many of the plants have not
yet undergone intensive horticultural selection
in either nurseries or landscapes, so no cultivars
are available,- and second, the primary criterion
for selection was ecological adaptability, which is
best treated as an attribute of the species as a
whole rather than of a particular cultivar.

Selecting plants with broad adaptability may
be the best approach to one of the gardener's pri-
mary goals: choosing the right plant for the right
place. Unfortunately, highly adaptable species
can also he highly invasive; the trick is to iden-
tify species that are adaptable but not invasive.
The amur cork tree (Phellodendron amurense)
is an example of a species that has the potential
to become an invasive if it becomes widely
planted in the Northeast. It is an unfortunate
conundrum that every plant, including
Stewartia pseudocamellia and Acer palmatum,
has the potential to become invasive when
growing conditions allow its seedlings to get
established.

My reasons for assembling this list go well
beyond an interest in seeing greater variety in
our local landscapes. Our physi-
cal environment is changing
rapidly — in large part because of
human activities — and there is
an urgent need to identify plant
species that can thrive alongside
people and the pollution we
inevitably create. The plants
listed below have performed reli-
ably under a variety of environ-
mental conditions with minimal
maintenance and little supple-
mental irrigation; they can
therefore be considered "pre-
adapted" to flourish under the
erratic weather extremes that
global warming appears to have
in store for us. I hope this eclec-
tic sample of ornamentals will
not only encourage horticultural

experimentation, but also get more people
thinking in practical terms about the impending
changes in our environment.

SPRING

Aristolochia manschuiiensis (Manchurian
dutchman's pipe): zone 4 (?). This rarely seen
vine produces three-quarter-inch-long yellow
flowers early in spring before the foliage
emerges, making it much showier than the
American species, A. macrophylla, whose flow-
ers are hidden under fully expanded leaves.
While the two species are similar in growth rate
and habit, the leaves of the Manchurian species
are somewhat larger and a duller green than
those of the American species.

Chionanthus retusus (Chinese fringetree): zone
5. Chinese fringetree is more tree-like than its
straggly American cousin, C. virginicus. In May
or June, the whole plant is covered by small,
white flowers, followed by a large crop of blue-
purple fruit in fall. When planted in an open
situation, Chinese fringetree will develop into
an elegant specimen about thirty feet in height
with a similar spread. It has a broad distribution
in Asia, where it shows considerable variation
in hardiness, leaf shape, and growth form.
At least two distinct ecotypes are available
from commercial nurseries in the United States,

Chionanthus retusus

12 Arnoldia 60/4

one adapted to warm, dry climates like that
of southern California and the other better
suited to cold, moist climates like that of New
England.

Corylopsis spicata (Japanese winterhazel):
zone 5. All winterhazels produce beautiful, soft-
yellow flowers in early spring and perform best
in moist soil under light shade. Japanese
winterhazel, together witli fragrant winterhazel

(C. glabrescens), is the hardiest species of the
genus. It can reach six to ten feet in height witJi
an equal spread and works well as a mass plant-
ing. The soft yellow color of its flowers offers an
attractive antidote to the bright yellow forsythia
that bloom at about the same time.

Fothergillci major 'Mt. Airy': zone 5. The 'Mt.
Airy' cultivar is more vigorous and floriferous
than the species. It spreads rapidly from under-
ground stems and tolerates a wide range of con-
ditions. It grows to about five or six feet in
height and produces fall color in a gorgeous
blend of yellow, orange, and scarlet.

large, pendant, white flowers in early spring.
The combination of upright, conical habit and
drooping flowers is very striking. Like both its
parents, 'Wada's Memory' does best in full sun
and moist soil.

Prunus cyclamina (cyclamen cberry): zone 6
(5?). A native of central China, cyclamen cherry
grows to thirty feet in height with an equal
spread. It produces prolific clusters of small,
rose-pink flowers in early
spring, and in fall its foliage
turns a beautiful orange-red.
Compared to other cherries cul-
tivated at the Arnold Arbore-
tum, cyclamen cherry is free of
pests and disease.

Rhododendron calendulaceum
(flame azalea): zone 5. This aza-
lea is one of the best-adapted to
the Northeast. It blooms in late
May to early June, producing
yellow, orange, or red flowers.
It grows equally well in sun and
shade and is tolerant of drought
and, compared to other azaleas,
of soils with high pHs. Inferior
hybrids and cultivars have
largely displaced the flame
azalea in contemporary land-
scapes, but its hardiness and lack of susceptibil-
ity to powdery mildew bave led to a resurgence
of interest, especially for naturalistic plantings.

Syringa x chinensis 'Lilac Sunday': zone 3. This
cultivar of the persian lilac, selected at the
Arnold Arboretum, is a large, spreading shrub
that can grow to be ten to fifteen feet tall and
equally wide, producing foot-long racemes of
light purple flowers in mid-May. In general,
Persian lilac is more heat tolerant and disease
resistant than the common lilac (Syringa vul-
garis): it also produces a smaller, more delicate
foliage, creating a lacy appearance.

Corylopsis spicata

Magnolia x 'Wada's Memory': zone 4. This
hybrid of the willowleaf (M. salicifolia) and
kobus (M. kohusj magnolias grows to be about
thirty feet tall and only ten feet wide, producing

Weigela suhsessilis (Korean weigela): zone 5.
This multistemmed shrub from Korea grows to
be about six feet tall and six feet wide. In May it
produces three-inch-long flowers that change

Adaptable Plants 13

Syringa x chinensis ‘Lilac Sunday’

Aesculus parviflora (bottle-
brush buckeye): zone 4. This
large, July-blooming buckeye
is native to the southeastern
United States. Its spectacular
flower spikes can reach up to
twelve inches in length. It is
decidedly shrubby in habit,
forming large clumps from
underground suckers and lay-
ers. Unlike most buckeyes, it is
totally free of leaf scorch, so its
foliage looks good throughout
the summer and fall. Because it
grows equally well in sun or
shade, the bottlehrush buckeye
is perfect for sites where the
woodland meets the garden's
edge — especially since its win-

gradually from pale yellow to lavender, creat-
ing an interesting, multicolored effect. The
plant deserves further testing under both
nursery and landscape conditions.

Xanthocems sorbifolium (yellowhorn): zone 4
(3?)- An upright shrub or small tree from
China, yellowhorn grows to fifteen feet in
height with a somewhat gawky growth habit.
It produces showy white flowers on six-
to ten-inch-long racemes in late spring.
Yellowhorn is tolerant of full sun and of dry
soils with high pHs; together with its ability
to spread from root suckers, this makes it
potentially useful for highway embankments
and other difficult sites.

SUMMER

Actinidia kolomikta (kolomikta kiwi): zone
4. This unusual vine from northeast Asia nor-
mally produces irregularly variegated leaf tips
of white and pink in spring and summer, mak-
ing it look as though someone had splashed
paint on its leaves. It should be sited so that
its dramatic foliage can he viewed from above
(e.g., below a deck). If left to its own devices,
the kolomikta kiwi can spread into adjacent
trees and damage them, a problem that can he
avoided by training it to a trellis or periodi-
cally pruning it.

Aesculus parviflora

1 4 Arnoldia 60/4

Aesculus parviflora

central leader without staking.
It produces strongly pendant
branches with a growth form
reminiscent of weeping beech,
and it should be planted near
water for fastest growth and best
effect. Twenty-year-old plants of
'Morioka Weeping' are now over
thirty feet tall and ten feet wide.

Hydrangea paniculata 'Praecox'
(early hydrangea): zone 3. Early
hydrangea forms a large shrub
growing to about ten feet in
height and the same in width. It
begins to flower in midsummer,
continuing for about six weeks,
with sterile flowers that gradu-
ally turn from white to red to
papery brown. In appearance, it
is more "natural" than the old-
fashioned peegee hydrangea {H.
paniculata 'Grandiflora'), but it
is every bit as hardy and flexible
in its soil and moisture require-
ments. The cultivar 'Tardiva' is
similar to 'Praecox', but blooms
about a month later.

Hydrangea paniculata ‘Praecox’

ter habit can be gawky when cultivated as a
specimen in the open.

Cercidiphyllum japonicum "Morioka Weeping':
zone 4. This spectacular katsura cultivar origi-
nated in Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture, lapan,
and was introduced into North America by the
Arnold Arboretum in 1981 under the name
Cercidiphyllum magnificum 'Pendulum'.
'Morioka Weeping' can he distinguished from
other weeping katsuras by its ability to form a

Hydrangea quercifolia (oakleaf
hydrangea): zone 5. The horticul-
tural merits of this outstanding
shrub, a native of the Southeast,
have finally been recognized. It
grows well in either sun or
shade, and is tolerant of dry soils.
It produces beautiful blossoms
in July and stunning burgundy-
red fall color; in fact, even if
the plant never flowered, it would he worth
growing for its bold foliage. This species and all
of its cultivars well deserve the popularity they
are now enjoying.

Liriodendron tulipifera x chinense (Chinese-
American tulip tree): zone 5(?). One plant of this
cross has been growing at the Arboretum since
1981; it is now over thirty feet tall and fifteen
feet wide. Its foliage is bronzy colored in spring,
and its flowers, though somewhat smaller than

Adaptable Plants 15

Quercus phellos

those of the American species, have more
orange in their petals. This hybrid tulip tree was
developed at the University of North Carolina
in 1978 and should he tested in landscape situa-
tions. The specimen at the Arboretum has been
given the cultivar name 'Chapel Hill'.

Rhododendron arborescens (sweet azalea): zone
4. Sweet azalea is native to moist habitats
throughout the mountains of the Southeast. In
late June and July it produces extremely fragrant
white flowers that are highlighted by bright red
anther filaments. Since its glossy green foliage
is generally undamaged by insects or fungi, it
remains attractive throughout the growing sea-
son. Sweet azalea can grow to about six feet in
height and spreads laterally by underground
stems, making it an ideal choice for naturalistic
landscapes.

Xanthorhiza simplicissirna (yellowroot): zone 3.
This woody groundcover grows to be about two
feet tall, spreading vigorously by underground
stems and performing well in both wet and dry
soils and in sun or shade. Its adaptability and
persistence make yellowroot a good choice for
low-maintenance landscapes. It was used more
commonly in the past than it currently is.

FALL

Acer pseudosieboldianum (Korean maple): zone
4. This medium-sized understory tree from
northeast Asia produces spectacular fall color
ranging from orange to scarlet in late October.
The species is similar in general appearance to
the Japanese maple (A. palmatum), but it is
more upright in habit — growing to be about
thirty feet tall and fifteen feet wide — and more
cold hardy. It deserves wider testing under land-
scape conditions, particularly in zones 4 and 5,
where Japanese maple can have problems.

Quercus phellos (willow oak): zone 5b.
Although commonly planted as a street or park
tree in the South, willow oak m underutilized
in the Northeast. When raised from seed
colleeted in the northern part of its range (e.g.,
central New Jersey), it is perfectly hardy into
southern New England. It grows to about sixty
feet and maintains a strong central leader well
up into the crown. Its small, narrow leaves cast
a light shade that allows grass to prosper under-
neath it, and, as an added bonus, are easy to
clean up in the fall. Willow oak is late to leaf
out in the spring, but it makes up for its slow
start by growing continuously throughout the
heat of summer.

Acer triflorinn (twisted-bark maple): zone 5 (4?).
This mid-sized tree from northeast China can
grow to forty feet in New England. Like its near
relative the paperbark maple (A. griseumj, it
produces trifoliate leaves. Its most striking fea-
tures include late fall color that ranges from
bright red to orange, and its whitish-tan, shred-
ding bark in winter. A triflorum performs reli-
ably under a wide range of conditions and
appears to be hardier than A. griseum.

Enkianthus perulatus (white enkianthus): zone
5. White enkianthus is a slow-growing decidu-
ous shrub from Japan that eventually grows to
six feet in height with a similar spread. In spring

16 Arnoldia 60/4

It produces small, white flowers, and in fall its
fine-textured foliage turns rich burgundy to
flaming scarlet, brighter than any other plant
cultivated at the Arnold Arboretum, where
specimens of £. perulatus have been growing in
full sun and dry soil for over a hundred years.

Euonymus carnosus (glossy euonymus): zone 6
(5?). This small deciduous tree from China
can grow to about twenty feet in height. At
the Arnold Arboretum, glossy euonymus
has been free of pests and disease for nearly
twenty years. Its shiny, dark green foliage turns
a striking burgundy red in late fall, quite unlike
that of any other euonymus cultivated at the
Arboretum.

Heptacodium miconioides (seven-son flower):
zone 5. This tall deciduous shrub or small tree,
introduced from China in 1980, can grow to he
about twenty feet tall and fifteen feet wide.
Heptacodium produces six-inch-long panicles
of small, white flowers in late summer, fol-
lowed rapidly by a beautiful display of showy,
rose-magenta seeds in early autumn. It is
tolerant of clay soils, road salt, and full sun,
making it a good choice for roadside plantings.
Its white, exfoliating hark is spectacular in
winter, especially when trained to develop
a single stem.

Koeheuteria paniculata 'Rose Lantern' ('Rose
Lantern' golden raintree): zone 5. This decidu-
ous, round-headed tree grows from thirty- to
forty-feet tall with an equal spread. It produces
striking yellow flowers in showy panicles in late
August or early September, almost a month
later than is typical of the spe-
cies. The fruit capsules are an
attractive light pink, eventu-
ally turning paper-brown. 'Rose
Lantern' grows well in full sun
and dry soil, making it suitable
for streets and parking lots.
This clone has been widely dis-
tributed under the cultivar
name 'September'.

Lindera obtusiloba (Japanese
spicebush): zone 5b. This de-
ciduous, wide-spreading shrub
grows to about fifteen feet in
height with an equal spread. Its
leathery, distinctively lobed
leaves are extremely handsome
and turn a bright, chrome yel-
low for a full two weeks in late
fall — indeed, in terms of fall
color, Japanese spicebush is one of the
Arboretum's most reliable performers. Jt is a
complete mystery why one seldom sees this
plant in New England landscapes.

WINTER

Ilex pendunculosa (longstalk holly): zone 5.
This Japanese species, which can grow to be fif-
teen feet tall and ten feet wide, is one of the har-
diest of the upright hollies. Its attractive red
fruit and delicately creased, glossy foliage make
it an excellent choice for northern gardens,
either as an informal hedge or as a specimen.
Like most hollies, it grows best in light shade
and moist, well-drained soil.

Magnolia virginiana var. australis (evergreen
sweetbay): zone 5b. This slender, upright tree
grows to be thirty feet tall and ten to fifteen feet
wide, with a strong central trunk. The evergreen
sweetbay has narrow leaves and deliciously fra-
grant, two-inch-wide flowers in June and July. A
native of the Southeast, it is hotanically and

Adaptable Plants 1 7

Magnolia virginiana var. australis

horticulturally distinct from the shrubby, de-
ciduous sweetbay that grows in the Northeast
(var. virginiana], but not quite as hardy.

Stewartia sinensis (Chinese stewartia): zone 6
(5?). This species is an understory tree from
China that can grow to thirty or forty feet in
height. In summer it produces small, white
flowers (one-and-a-half-inch in diameter). With
its smooth bark, white to tan in color and
resembling alabaster, Chinese stewartia is every
bit as beautiful as the more commonly planted
Korean stewartia, S. pseudocamellia. It needs
moist, well-drained soil and performs well in
either full sun or light shade.

CONIFERS

Abies koreana (Korean fir): zone 5. This rela-
tively small fir, around twenty to thirty feet tall
and ten feet wide at maturity, produces highly
ornamental purple-blue cones at a young age.
Like most true firs, this Korean species requires

full sun, but unlike other species it flourishes at
sea level and is tolerant of a variety of soil con-
ditions. This is one of the few firs suitable for
use in small residential landscapes.

Calocedius decurrens (California incense
cedar): zone 5. This tall evergreen from the
mountains of California grows to be about fifty
feet tall in the East. Incense cedar typically
develops a narrow, almost fastigiate, growth
habit that is very striking in the landscape, with
foliage that stays bright green through the win-
ter. It grows best in full sun and is tolerant of a
wide range of soil conditions, including clay and
extreme drought, and has no serious pest or dis-
ease problems in the East. This plant deserves to
be much more widely grown than it currently is.

Abies koreana

1 8 Arnoldici 60/4

Cedrus deodara 'Shalimar': zone 6. This hardy
form of the deodar cedar was selected at the
Arnold Arhoretum in 1982, where it grows to
about thirty feet in height. Its beautiful, blue-
gray foliage and graceful, drooping branches
make the deodar cedar a dramatic landscape
specimen. It grows best in full sun and is very
tolerant of dry soil.

Thuja plicata (western arhorvitae); zone 5.
Although native to northwestern North
America, this species is perfectly hardy in the
Northeast. In comparison to T. occidentalis, the
eastern arhorvitae, T. plicata is taller and looser
in growth habit, forms a strong central leader,
and has much better winter color. It can grow to
be fifty or sixty feet tall in the East, with a
spread of about twenty feet.

Cedrus deodar ‘Shalimar’

Tsuga chinensis (Chinese hemlock): zone 6 (5?).
A tall evergreen, Chinese hemlock grows to
at least fifty feet in height in the Boston area.
Preliminary evidence indicates that it is resis-
tant to the hemlock woolly adelgid, but more
research is needed before the species gets a full
recommendation. The oldest specimen in North
America, collected in China by E. H. Wilson,
has been growing at the Arnold Arhoretum
since 1910.

Peter Del Tredici is director of living collections at the
Arnold Arboretum.

For a list of nurseries that carry these plants, contact the
Arboretum's membership department by mail or by
e-mail (memhership@arnarb.harvard.edu).

Cypress Knees: An Enduring Enigma

Christopher H.
Briand

The cypresses keep
their secrets from the
prying investigator.
— J.E. Rogers, 1905

The function of cy-
press knees has long
intrigued botanists.

In 1819, Frangois Andre
Michaux wrote, "No cause
can be assigned for their
existence," and in 1882 Asa
Gray concurred. Neverthe-
less, throughout the nineteenth century and
continuing to the present, botanists have put
forth hypotheses about the function of these
peculiar formations, hypotheses that have
included aeration of the root system, vegetative
reproduction, mechanical support, nutrient
accumulation, and carbohydrate storage. The
aeration theory has been the most popular and,
indeed, is presented without question in some
botany texts, but in fact, no explanation has
been generally accepted.*

The genus Taxodium has been present in
North America since at least the Upper Creta-
ceous, approximately seventy million years ago,
but very little is known about when knees first
developed and why. Knees can he found on both
varieties now extant in the United States.
Baldcypress (Taxodium distichum var.
distichum) is distributed along the coastal plain
from southern Delaware to southern Florida,
west to southeastern Texas, and inland along
the Mississippi Valley as far north as southern
Illinois and Indiana. Pondcypress (Taxodium
distichum var. imbricarium) has a more limited
distribution, with its northern limit in south-

the Wolf River, near Memphis, Tennessee.

eastern Virginia and its range extending south
throughout Florida and west to southeast
Louisiana. The two varieties are readily distin-
guished by their leaf morphology and the
orientation of both their leaves and hranchlets.
While the leaves of baldcypress are needle-
like and generally arranged in two rows, those
of pondcypress are scalelike and radially
distributed around the hranchlets. Also,
baldcypress hranchlets are horizontally ori-
ented, whereas pondcypress hranchlets are often
ascending. Where they overlap m distribution,
however, there is considerable morphological
intergradation. ^

Visitors to the cypress swamps of the south-
eastern United States are often intrigued by the
swollen bases, or buttresses, of cypresses, and by
the woody conical structures — the knees — of
varying size found around the base of many
trees. More than anything else, the knees
resemble termite mounds, but are in fact out-
growths of the shallow, horizontal roots of the
cypress trees and are not caused by insect activ-
ity. Knees are formed on the upper surface of
these roots by the vascular cambium, the

Baldcypresses in

k**r'

20 Arnoldia 60/4

The denuded roots of a baldcypress, showing the knees and underground structure.

meristematic layer that produces xylem and
phloem, the tissues that transport water and
nutrients through the plant. The knees are gen-
erally solid, hut may hecome hollow over time
due to rotting. In cypress plantations, knees are
found on trees as young as twelve years old.^
Cypress knees vary greatly in size. In 1803,
Andrew Ellicot observed knees as high as eight
to ten feet; the tallest on record is a knee four-
teen feet in height seen on a tree growing along
the Suwannee River, which flows through Geor-
gia and Florida.^ Many researchers have agreed
that it is average water depth that determines
the height of knees, and one observer, Mattoon,
reported that the knees on trees growing in
softer soils were larger than those produced by
trees growing on firmer land.^

In spite of much research and a plethora of
hypotheses, exactly what stimulates cypresses
to form knees remains, like the knees' function,
unknown. In the following, I will review all
these hypotheses and the present state of our
knowledge about cypress knees.

The Aeration Hypothesis

Knees are most often found on the roots of trees
growing in wet soil and in relatively shallow
water; they are generally absent from trees
growing in deeper water and only occasionally
on trees growing on land that is dry year-round.
In 1934, Herman Kurz and Delzie Deniaree,
working in Florida, suggested that knees may be
caused by the root system being alternately
exposed to water and air. In 1956, L. A.
Whitford, a researcher working in North Caro-
lina, came to a similar conclusion: "The forma-
tion of cypress knees seems ... to he a response
of the cambium of a root growing in poorly aer-
ated soil or water to chance exposure to the air
during the spring or early summer." Another
indication that aeration may play a role m knee
development emerged from research done in
1991 by Fukuji Yamamoto, who observed that
the number of knees per tree declined with
increasing water depth. The fact that knees have
been reported on trees found on land that is dry
year-round, of course, throws into question the

Tne Arnold ArLoretum

V 0 1 . 6 (

) / N

NEWS 2

IMM]

- 2

1

Sun-Loving Shrubs and Vines: A Garden of Their Own

Robert E. Cook, Director

Two thousand and one will be a
year of landscape construction at
the Arboretum. Five years ago we
added a 15-acre wetland to our
lease with the City of Boston. This
spring we will initiate construc-
tion of a stonedust pedestrian
pathway that will open the site to
the public by connecting the For-
est Hills train station with a major
gateway into the grounds at South
Street. New steel gates, stone pil-
lars, and walls will be added at
each end ot the path. A second
project will install similar steel

gates at Bussey Street where it
separates the Peters Hill area from
the rest of the Arboretum. New
land for the planting of trees will
be created by removing a short
stretch ot existing asphalt roadway
along the south edge ot Bussey
Brook. We will say more about
these projects in a later issue.

Our largest landscape project,
set to begin construction in May,
will create the Sim-Lovmg Shrub
and Vine Garden on three acres of
land located northeast of our
greenhouse and bonsai complex.

Designed by the landscape archi-
tecture firm ot Reed Hilderbrand,
this new garden will allow us to
greatly expand our current collec-
tion and to display up to 400
shrub species and cultivars not
grown elsewhere on the grounds.

In addition, an open-air pavilion
with attached trellises, and an
extensive system of steel vine
structures will permit us to grow
approximately 100 vine species as
individual specimens integrated
into a single horticultural space.

• continued on page 2

A Schoolyard
Arboretum

Last November teachers and stu-
dents at the Nathan Hale Elemen-
tary School in Roxbury held a
ceremony to dedicate their newly
constructed schoolyard, which has
been specially designed to include
an arboretum. Twelve remarkable
trees will become part of the edu-
cational experiences for both
teachers and students, as they
document each tree’s growth and
characteristics over the years.

This schoolyard renovation is
part of the Boston Schoolyard Ini-
tiative {BSD, which awards grants
to schools with a vision as well as
a constituency capable of making
significant improvements to the
schoolyard environment. For the

past four years, the BSI has funded
the renovation of 48 public
schoolyards. Two years ago, the
BSI approached staff at the Arbo-

retum to discuss how to ensure
that the newly designed play-
grounds were places for outside

• • continued on page 4

ELLEN S. BENNETT

Kirsiln Behn

• from page I

The garden will provide a new,
unique destination lor visitors,
offering a diverse collection of
woody shrub and vine taxa in an
elegant botanic garden setting. As
a collection, it will also create an
array of educational opportunities:
students of horticulture and land-
scape design as well as the general
public will learn the practical uses
of shrubs and vines.

In keeping with the agricul-
tural nature of our nursery and
propagation greenhouses nearby,
the garden will consist of a series
of terraces laid out on a gently
sloping site and created by exten-

sive fieldstone retaining walls;
each terrace will have a series of
planting beds separated by grass
pathways. The site is framed at
the top by a long, high, stone
retaining wall below the bonsai
house that runs for more than five
hundred feet in length and reaches
almost eight feet at its maximum
height. Stonedust paths lead visi-
tors along this great wall among
vine structures to a vine-covered
pavilion overlooking the garden
and down bluestone steps onto the
great lawn that sweeps downhill
through the center of the terrace
system. Despite a thirty-foot
difference in grade between the

top and bottom of the garden,
it will be fully accessible to wheel-
chairs and mobility-impaired
visitors.

Construction of the Shrub and
Vine Garden will require closing
the greenhouse and bonsai area for
a period of six months. While
construction should be complete
by Thanksgiving, the planting of
shrubs and vines will be delayed
until the spring of 2002. We
believe that this new collection,
displayed in a beautiful garden
setting, will make a unique con-
tribution to the horticultural
resources of the Arboretum and
the City of Boston.

2001 PIPD Releases

In its continuing efforts to share exceptional woody
plants from the living collections with progressive
nursery professionals, the Arboretum is releasing two
outstanding plants in its Plant Introduction, Promo-
tion, and Distribution Program for 2001.

Fothergilla gardenii 'Harold Epstein' was first col-
lected in Jesup County, Georgia, by the late Harold
Epstein of Larchmont, New York, plantsman
extraordinaire. Originally classified as a separate
species — F. parvifulta — later investigations have
placed it within F. garden!!. It is a diminutive shrub
with a low, dense, mounding form that slowly
reaches a height of 10 to 12 inches and a width of
16 to 18 inches in about five years. The white,
bottlebrush-like flowers are fragrant and appear in
late April to early May. The dark-green foliage of
summer turns yellow to vibrant orange-red in
autumn. Though its overall appearance is delicate, the
Harold Epstein fothergilla thrives in full sun and is
insect- and disease-resistant. Its ability to sucker and
spread allows it to form a good groundcover mat.

Liqnidambar acalycina, a Chinese sweetgum, was
introduced into the U.S. in 1980 by the Sino- American
Botanical Expedition, in which the Arboretum was a
participant. Its three-lobed leaves give this species an
appearance very different from our native, five-lobed
Liqnidambar styradflna. Spring foliage is burgundy-

Liquidamhar acalycina

red, maturing to dark green in summer, and finally
becoming yellow in autumn. Specimens that have
been growing at the Arboretum for 20 years are nar-
row and upright in habit with smooth, silver bark.
The tree appears to be as easy to grow as other mem-
bers of its genus are, and it exhibits no serious pest
or disease problems.

Nurserymen interested in participating in the
PIPD program should contact Tom Ward by fax at
617/524-6413.

)0

2

60/4 2

1

Tom Ward

Terry Sharik, Arnold Arboretum Associate,

talks about his textbook project

Dendrology, or “the study ol trees,” is taught in vir-
tually every university that offers an undergraduate
degree in lorestry. In the U.S. alone, this amounts to
more than sixty schools. The advanced courses stu-
dents take may vary, but all of them take dendrology
near the beginning of their studies. Indeed, the
degree of enthusiasm generated in the dendrology
course may spell the difference between a student
staying in forestry and choosing another field.

Typically, the textbooks used in dendrology
courses cover the economically important tree species
native to that country or at best to that continent
(very few species occur on more than one continent).
For example, of the nearly 1 ,000 tree species native
to the conterminous United States, the beginning
student enrolled in a dendrology course may be
expected to know 100 species in 30 genera in some
detail. Currently available textbooks offer instruction
on these key species that includes morphological
characteristics important in identification, together
with information on geographic distribution, size
of mature individuals, economic uses, and various
aspects of the ecology of the species. The challenge
for the instructor is to make this catalogued informa-
tion come alive, and this is no easy task.

I am writing a dendrology textbook for under-
graduates that reaches far beyond current textbooks
in its geographic scope and in its attention to the
aspects of form and function that adapt trees to grow
in particular environments. The text will focus on
ecologically and culturally important genera of trees
in the temperate regions of the world. Focusing on
genera instead of species (most genera extend over
more than one continent) will expose students to the
major patterns in the evolution of tree habit and
enable them to appreciate the variations on a theme
that exist in the species constituting a particular
genus. This global genus approach will allow
instructors to supplement the text with study of
local and regional woody plant floras and observa-
tions of trees in their natural habitats, thus helping
the material come alive.

Focusing on the relationships between form and
function will also help students to understand why,
for example, species of some genera survive where
heavy snowfall and cold climates are the norm, while
others thrive in regions where water is scarce most of
the year. This, in turn, can lead to an appreciation of
the changes in species distribution that may occur as

a result of impending global climate change. The
approach also has the virtue of shifting the emphasis
from a static to a process orientation.

In September 2()()(), I relocated at the Arnold
Arboretum as patt of a one-year sabbatical leave from
Utah State University. With over 2,000 species and
nearly 5,()()() taxa, the living collections of temperate-
region woody plants from all major continents are
clearly among the best in the country. The plant
collections together with the herbarium specimens
and literature on woody plants worldwide, both in
Jamaica Plain and Cambridge, make this an ideal
location for my preparation. Later on, I anticipate
traveling to other continents to observe and photo-
graph species of the genera to be covered in the text-
book in their natural habitats.

We are clearly at a point in history where how
we manipulate our local forest ecosystems has global
implications, a fact that needs to be more deeply
appreciated by undergraduates who will manage those
ecosystems and their resources. 1 hope this project
will inspire a more global approach to dendrology
that instructors will in turn instill in their students.

Dr. Sharik is Professor and Head of the Department
of Forest Resources, in the College of Natural
Resources, at Utah State University, Logan, UT
84322-5215. While at the Arboretum, he can be
reached by telephone at 617-524-1718 ext. 140 or
by e-mail at tlsharik@cnr.usu.edu.

ARNOLD ARBORETUM NEWS

3

Kirsiii) 6ehn

• • from page I

learning as well as recreation.

This rec]uesr was sparked by the
Arboretum's program Seasonal
Investigations, a yearlong course
of study funded by the National
Science Foundation, which sup-
ports teachers who wish to incor-
porate outdoor tree studies in
their science curricula.

In 1999, with partial funding
from the BSI through a grant
from the Greater Boston Urban
Resources Partnership, the Arbo-
retum began a pilot project with
the Nathan Hale School to iden-
tify and develop program elements
for a schoolyard arboretum that
could be used by other BSI-funded
schools. From October 1999
through February 2001, Arbore-
tum staff worked with the teach-
ers and principal to incorporate
an arboretum into the schoolyard
plans and to create a professional
development program that
supports outdoor studies using
the trees.

The project included a series
of monthly teacher workshops and
meetings devoted to increasing
teachers’ knowledge of trees and
to considering how teachers might
incorporate tree study into science
lessons. One outcome was a list of
trees that offer a variety of bark
textures, flower forms and times,
leaves, and overall shapes.

The project culminated in a
schoolwide election of a favorite
tree. Each candidate was intro-
duced through photographs and
descriptions. The students then
researched the trees on a special
website, and finally everyone
voted. When the overwhelming
favorite — Acer saccharum (sugar
maple) — was announced at the
next week’s assembly, students
broke into enthusiastic applause.

This project has allowed us to
identify issues related to integrat-
ing a schoolyard arboretum into
the educational experiences of
teachers and their students. These
issues include the time required

for both teachers and students to
adequately explore cjuestions and
ideas; professional development
efforts that address the use of the
outdoors as well as science con-
tent; the kinds of support, both
human and technical, that can aid
in such an endeavor; and the
importance of school leadership in
reaching a successful conclusion.

There is much to celebrate
about this pilot study. Participat-
ing teachers learned how to incor-
porate outdoor studies into their
science curriculum. The entire
school community is aware of
the arboretum in the schoolyard
and has established a sense of
stewardship around the continued
growth of these trees. We have
learned a great deal about what
makes such a project work well
and are seeking funding to con-
tinue this work. To learn more
about this program, visit the spe-
cial schoolyard arboretum website
www.arboretum.harv'ard.edu/
~schoolyard/nsO.

Upcoming Events

Lilac Sunday

The Arboretum’s annual celebra-
tion of lilacs will occur on Sunday,

May 13 — Mothers Day. The only
day when picnicking is allowed on
the grounds. Lilac Sunday is a
time-honored tradition for visitors
who enjoy the sights and scents of
our extensive lilac collection. The
day includes food, dance perfor-
mances, a limited number of lilac
plants for sale, lots of lilac infor-
mation, and, of course, the lilacs!

Admission is free, and the event
occurs from 1():()() am to 4:00 pm.

Fall Plant Sale

Mark your calendars for Sunday, September 16, when the 21st Annual Fall Plant Sale will be held at the Case
Estates in Weston. For updates as they become available, you can check our website — www. arboretum. harvard. edu.
We anticipate quality and quantity in all areas: plant selection, attendance, and weather.

4 • 60/4 2000-2001

Karen Madsen

Cypress Knees 21

need for periodic flooding or drying to stimulate
knee formation.^ «

The need for aeration has been a favorite
hypothesis for explaining the function, as well
as the formation, of knees. Since all plant roots
need a source of air to carry out cellular respira-
tion, some researchers have suggested that
knees are simply a form of pneumatophore, or
breathing root. Pneumatophores are specialized
roots that characterize many woody plants
growing in poorly aerated soils, such as in
swamps or in the intertidal zone; examples
include Avicennia nitida (black mangrove),
Sonneratia alba (mangrove apple), and
Bruguiera parviflora (small-leafed orange man-
grove). Pneumatophores grow either entirely
above the level of the water, or in such a way as
to he exposed only during low tide. They are
characterized by the presence of lenticels
(porous regions in the hark that allow gas
exchange with the atmosphere) and of aeren-
chyma, the specialized internal tissues that
transport gases through many hydrophytic
plants.^

The first published suggestion that cypress
knees may be a form of pneumatophores dates
from 1848, when Montroville W. Dickenson
and Andrew Brown wrote in the American
Journal of Science and Arts that by means of
knees "the roots although totally submerged,
have a connection with the atmosphere." They
also suggested that when the knees were inun-
dated, the connection with the atmosphere
could he maintained by the swollen base of the
tree, sometimes called the "bottle buttress":
"Such enlargements never fail to rise to the top
of the highest water level . . ." In 1887
Nathaniel Shaler conjectured that "[the] func-
tion of the knees is in some way connected
with the process of aeration of the sap ..."
with air entering the knees through newly
formed bark at their apex. He also observed
that trees died when the water rose high
enough to inundate the knees. Two years later,
in 1889, another researcher was even more
categorical: "[the] location and occurrence [of
knees] indicate beyond a doubt that they are
for purposes of aerating the plant." In their
1934 paper, however, Kurz and Demaree stated
just as categorically that it is "difficult to rec-

Single young baldcypress with buttressed base
growing in Chipman Pond, Delaware.

oncile the aeration hypothesis with the fact
that cypresses of the deeper waters are devoid
of knees."®

As early as 1890, Robert H. Lamhorn, writing
in Garden and Forest, had suggested that tests
be conducted to learn whether or not knees
were indeed "aerating" the trees' roots. Never-
theless, in spite of all the theorizing, little was
done to test the pneumatophore hypothesis
until 1952, when Paul }. Kramer and his col-
leagues at Duke University used modern physi-
ological techniques to ascertain the amount of
oxygen consumed by knees on living cypresses.
They enclosed the knees in airtight containers
sealed with a mixture of paraffin and beeswax,
and used an oxygen analyzer to measure the
amount of oxygen consumed over several
weeks. The rate of oxygen consumption was
actually lower than for other plants, leading
the researchers to conclude that "the available
evidence indicates that cypress knees play no
important role as aerating organs."^

CHRIS BRIAND

PETER DEL TRE DICI

22 Ainoldia 60/4

Baldcypress knees appear to march from dry land into the Wolf
River, Tennessee.

Anatomical evidence presents another prob-
lem for the hypothesis that knees are a form
of pneumatophore. Two studies found that
knees lacked aerenchyma — the spongy tissues
in true pneumatophores that transport air
from the knee to the rest of the root system.
In addition, lenticels — the regions of the bark
that in pneumatophores allow air to be taken
up from the atmosphere — are also absent from
cypress knees.

The Methane Emission Hypothesis

A less frequently heard theory is one presented
by William M. Pulliam in 1992: "Given the pos-
sibility that cypress knees provide a conduit to

the below-ground environment, it was
hypothesized in the present study that
knees may also show methane emis-
sions." Methane is not toxic to plants,
hut neither is it of use to them.

Pulliam measured total methane
emissions from trees in swamps border-
ing the Ogeechee River in Georgia,
finding rates that averaged 0.9 milli-
grams per day." His tests showed that
cypress knees accounted for a negligible
amount of the methane emissions
from the swamp — less than one per-
cent. This methane is commonly
referred to as "swamp gas." Further-
more, it is quite possible that even this
miniscule amount of methane was
being produced by the bacteria that are
found on the outside of the knees,
rather than being vented from the soil
through the knees."

The Vegetative Reproduction
Hypothesis

Lamhorn, in his 1890 review of what
was known about cypress knees at that
time, mentioned and then quickly dis-
carded the idea that cypress knees were
organs of vegetative reproduction: "I
have . . . examined hundreds of living
'knees' in southern swamps, and found
upon them no trace of bud, leaf or
sprout ..." No one has since revisited
this hypothesis.

The Mechanical Support Hypothesis
Buttresses and stilt roots provide mechanical
support for a number of tropical trees. It was
again Lamhorn, in 1890, who first proposed that
knees perform the same function for cypress
trees growing in wet soil: "I became eonvinced
that the most important function of the Cypress
knee is to stiffen and strengthen the root, in
order that a great tree may anchor itself safely
in a yielding material." Increased support, he
believed, allowed cypresses to withstand strong
winds such as those produeed by hurricanes.
Lamhorn suggested that knees located on hori-
zontal roots add stiffness and strength to the
iunction between the horizontal root to which

Cypress Knees 23

the knees are attached and the vertical roots
that branch off directly below the knees. In
1915, Wilbur R. Mattoon, working for the
United States Forest Service, concurred with
Lamborn, opining that knees were involved in
"enlarging and strengthening the basal support"
provided by the rest of the root system. He
pointed out that deep roots growing down from
the base of the knees provided considerable
anchorage for the tree. Both Mattoon and
Lamborn premised their hypotheses on the
assumption that vertically oriented roots and
knees always occur at the same location on
horizontal roots, as was apparently the case in

their observations. However, Clair A. Brown
and Glen N. Montz found that cypresses some-
times produce knees at locations other than
above downward-growing roots, and, con-
versely, that some downward-growing roots do
not share a junction with knees on the horizon-
tal roots. And, as with the pneumatophore
theory, the absence of knees on the roots of
trees growing in deeper water casts doubt on
this hypothesis, since there is no reason to
believe that they too wouldn't need support.
The hypothesis could be tested empirically in
the same way that researchers have used cables
and winches to pull down trees in order to

Looping Roots vs. Knees

Q

Z

<

sc

u

G

Cypress, as well as water tupelo (Nyssa aquatica), red maple (Acer rubrum), and a
number of other swamp and mangrove species, also produce looping roots that
somewhat resemble knees. In baldcypress, normal knees are often found at their
apex. These looping roots are essentially roots that grow up out of and then back
into the soil, producing an aboveground loop or fold. In water tupelo, looping roots
can reach a height of 22 inches and a width of 26 inches. The function of these
structures, beyond that of normal roots, is obscure. Penfound observed that aeren-

chyma was lacking in the looping roots of water
tupelo and questioned the efficacy of these struc-
tures as pneumatophores. Knees have even been
reported on pond pine (Finns serotina) growing
under wet conditions in Georgia. It is unclear if
these resemble normal knees or looping roots.

A looping root of red maple (Acer rubrum)
growing in a swamp at Adkins’ Mill Pond.
Maryland.

Knees are beginning to form at the apex of the looping roots of a
cultivated baldcypress.

CHRIS BRIANH

24 Arnoldia 60/4

compare the stability of buttressed versus
non-buttressed tropical trees — such a test
could compare trees with knees to trees that
have had their knees removed — but no one
has yet done so.'^

The Nutrient Acquisition Hypothesis

Lamborn postulated that another secondary
function of cypress knees, along with that of
giving mechanical support, was to act as "drift
catchers" that accumulate organic nutrients
during periods of water movement. A hundred
years later, Hans Rummer and his colleagues at

Baldcypress trees with buttresses at Trussum Pond, Delaware.

Zurich made a similar supposition about loop-
ing cypress roots, which they also called knees,
after studying baldcypress in a Florida cypress
dome. (A cypress dome is a group of cypresses
growing in a shallow depression where the larg-
est trees are located in the center and tree height
declines toward the periphery.) They found that
the number of looping cypress roots present
were highly correlated with the number of dead
cypress trees in the dome, but not with the
number of live trees. In other words, looping
root density increased with an increase in the
number of dead cypress stumps. They also
observed that approximately 98 percent of the
youngest looping roots spread over the stumps
and penetrated the dead wood. Older looping

roots were not generally in direct contact with
decaying stumps. Direct evidence of nutrient
acquisition was not obtained, however.
Rummer and his colleagues suggested that fur-
ther work was needed to determine if "young
root loops extract nutrients from stumps . . . [or]
. . . use stumps merely as vertical supports to
reach air above the water table.

The Carbohydrate Storage Hypothesis
Clair A. Brown in 1984 and again with Montz
in 1986 postulated that the primary function of
cypress knees is as a storage organ. They
reported the presence of
"granules" — presumably
amyloplasts (organelles
that store starch) — and
confirmed the presence
of starch by performing
iodine tests on the
cut surface of sectioned
knees. Even if their
hypothesis is accurate,
unanswered questions
remain about the func-
tion of knees. Why do
cypresses need an auxil-
iary storage organ when
growing under wet condi-
tions, but not dry? Is it
possible that cypress
roots in general store
starch, and that knees
are simply extensions of
these storage areas? Unfortunately, no compari-
son of the storage capacity of roots and knees
has been made to test the hypothesis.'’’

After nearly two hundred years of speculation
and research, the function or functions of the
knees of cypresses remain unclear. Darwin
referred to the origin of the flowering plants as
an "abominable mystery"; it appears that the
function of cypress knees is another.'^ The truth
may be that cypress knees evolved in response
to past environmental pressures that no longer
exist, in which case their function may he lost
in the depths of time. Before we accept this con-
clusion, however, much further research is
needed on this fascinating subiect.

Cypress Knees 25

Endnotes

' Julia E. Rogers, The Tree Book (New York, 1905); F. A.
Michaux, The North American Sylva (Paris, 1819);
R. H. Lamborn, The knees of the bald cypress; a new
theory of their function. Garden and Forest 3 (1890):
21-22; excerpted in Arnoldia 60(2): 14-16; J. D.
Mauseth, Botany, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia, 1995).

^ K. R. Aulenback and B. A. LePage, Taxodium wallisii
sp. nov.: First occurrence of Taxodium from the
Upper Cretaceous, International Journal of Plant
Science 159 (1998): 367-390; L. P. Wilhite and J. R.
Toliver, Taxodium distichum JL.) Rich. Baldcypress,
Silvics of North America, ed. R. M. Burns and B. H.
Honkala (Forest Service, USDA, Washington, D.C.),
563-572; FI. S. Neufeld, Effects of light on growth,
morphology, and photosynthesis in Baldcypress
(Taxodium distichum [L.] Rich.) and Pondcypress
(T. ascendens Brongn.) seedlings. Bulletin of the
Torrey Botanical Club 110 (1983): 43-54; Ibid.,
Wilhite and Toliver.

^ W. T. Penfound, Comparative structure of the wood
in the "knees," swollen bases, and normal trunks of
the tupelo gum (Nyssa aquatica L.), American
Journal of Botany 21 (1934): 623-631; C. A. Brown
and G. N. Montz, Baldcypress: the tree unique, the
wood eternal (Baton Rouge, LA, 1986); D. DenUyl,
Some observations on bald cypress in Indiana,
Ecology 41 (1961): 841-843.

* P. J. Kramer. W. S. Riley, and T. T. Bannister, Gas
exchange of cypress knees. Ecology 33 (1952): 117-
121; A. Ellicott, Journal of Andrew Ellicott
(Philadelphia, 1803; reprinted Chicago, 1962).

^ N. S. Shaler, Notes on the bald cypress. Memoirs of
the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Harvard
College, Cambridge) 16 (1887): 3-15; W. P. Wilson,
The production of aerating organs on roots of swamp
and other plants, Proceedings of the Academy of
Natural Science of Philadelphia 41(1889): 67-69; W.
R. Mattoon, The southern cypress (USDA Bulletin
272, 1915); H. Kurz and D. Demaree, Cypress
buttresses and knees in relation to water and air.
Ecology 15 (1934): 36-41; G. F. Beaven and H. J.
Costing, Pocomoke Swamp: a study of a cypress
swamp on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Bulletin of
the Torrey Botanical Club 66 (1939): 367-389; Ibid.,
Brown and MontZ; J. L. Kernell and G. F. Levy, The
relationship of bald cypress (Taxodium distichum
[L.jRichard) knee height to water depth, Castanea 55
(1990): 217-222.

^ Ibid., Wilson; Kurz and Demaree; DenUyl; Brown and
MontZ; L. A. Whitford, A theory on the formation of
cypress knees. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Science
Society 71 (1956): 80-83; F. Yamamoto, Effects of
depth of flooding on growth and anatomy of stems

and knee roots of Taxodium distichum. lAWA
Bulletin 13 (1992): 93-104.

^ A. D. Bell, Plant Eorm (Oxford, 1991).

® M. W. Dickeson and A. Brown, On the cypress timber
of Mississippi and Louisiana, American Journal of
Science and Arts 5 (1848): 15-22; Ibid., Shaler;
Wilson; Kurz and Demaree.

’ Ibid., Lamborn; P. J. Kramer, W. S. Riley, and T. T.
Bannister.

Ibid., Penfound; Brown and Montz.

W. M. Pulliam, Methane emissions from cypress
knees in southeastern floodplain swamp, Oecologia
91 (1992): 126-128.

C. Edelin and C. Atger, Stem and root tree
architecture: Questions for plant biomechanics,
Biomimetics 1 (1994): 253-266; Ibid., Lamborn;
Mattoon; Brown and MontZ; M. J. Crook, A. R. Ennos,
and J. R. Banks, The function of buttress roots: a
comparative study of the anchorage systems of
buttressed (Aglaia and Nephelium ramboutan
species) and nonbuttressed (Mallotus wrayi) tropical
trees. Journal of Experimental Botany 48 (1997):
1703-1716.

Ibid., Lamborn; H. Kummer, et al.. Nutritional
exploitation of dead trunks: another function of
cypress knees (Taxodium distichum)! Trees 5 (1991):
122-123; H. Kurz, Cypress domes. Annual Report of
Florida State Geological Survey (1933).

C. A. Brown, Morphology and biology of cypress
trees. Cypress Swamps, ed. K. C. Ewel and H. T.
Odum (Gainesville, FL, 1984), 16-24; Ibid., Brown
and Montz.

D. H. Scott, The Evolution of Plants (New York, NY,
1905).

Ibid., Wilson; Bell; Brown & MontZ; Penfound; P, B.
Tomlinson, The Botany of Mangroves (Cambridge,
UK, 1986).

Christopher H. Briand is Associate Professor in the
Department of Biological Sciences, Salisbury State
University, Salisbury, MD 21801, and producer of
the Salisbury State University Arboretum website
(www.ssu.edu/arboretum). Thanks are extended to
William Grogan, Mark Holland, and Judith Stribling
(Salisbury State University) for their assistance and
suggestions, and to Joan Rye at the American Journal of
Science (Kline Geology Laboratory, Yale University) for
providing a copy of the paper by Dickeson and Brown.

Ginkgo bilob a in Japan

Mcihko Handa

Various theories estimate when ginkgo
arrived in Japan. Some say it grew here
during the Mesozoic era hut then died
out. Others argue that it arrived from China
along with Buddhism in the sixth century.
Nothing has been proven, but whenever and
however it arrived, ginkgo is deeply rooted in
the lives of the Japanese people, admired for its
beautiful shape and its seasonal colors. Today
ginkgos grow throughout Japan, along roadsides
and streets, in parks and schoolyards, on shrine
grounds, and in private gardens. Ginkgo serves fre-
quently as the symbol of a region or as an object
of worship, and it plays a role in many legends.

Ginkgo as a Roadside and Street Tree in Japan

According to one account, roadside trees in
Japan date back to the middle of the eighth
century, when fruit trees were planted along
roads for the benefit of travelers. It was in the
latter half of the nineteenth century, however —
when Japan opened its borders and began to
modernize — that trees became a part of urban
landscapes.

The forerunners of modern street trees were
first seen in Yokohama and in the capital,
Tokyo. Willow and pine trees were planted
along a street called Bashamichi in Yokohama
in 1867. In 1873, black pine (Pinus thunbergiij,
cherry (Prunus), maple (Acer), and other species
were planted in Tokyo along Ginza Street,
newly modernized by the construction of Euro-
pean-style brick buildings. The first major use of
imported trees to line city streets occurred in
1875 when a North American native, Robinia
pseudoacacia (black locust), was planted in
Tokyo, having been grown from seeds brought
back to Japan from the 1873 International
Exposition in Vienna. Ailanthus altissinia
(tree-of-heaven), Firmiana simplex (Chinese
bottle tree), and other species were also planted

at that time, but because of
inappropriate planting methods
or insufficient care, most of
these trees died.

In 1907 a replanting project
was initiated along Tokyo's
streets using ten species
selected for fast growth and the
ability to withstand urban con-
ditions; among them, Platanus
(plane tree], Liriodendron
tulipifera (tulip tree), Chinese
bottle tree, Castanea (chest-
nut), Acer buergerianum (tri-
dent maple), Styphnolobium
japonicum (pagoda or scholar
tree), Cornus (dogwood),

Fraxinus (ash), and Mallotus
japonicus. Ginkgos were cho-
sen for the front of Tokyo's City
Hall, marking the species'
debut as a street tree in Japan.

Tokyo's urban tree-planting
projects suffered two major set-
backs during the first half of the
twentieth century. In 1923, the
fires following the Great Kanto
Earthquake destroyed more
than half the street trees, leav-
ing only about 10,000 still
standing. As part of the effort to restore the city,
more than 16,000 new trees were planted by the
national government and nearly 5,000 by the
city of Tokyo itself. This time the principal spe-
cies chosen were ginkgo, plane tree, and black
locust, all of them fast maturing.

The second disaster was the bombing of Japan
during World War II, which destroyed 121,162
street and roadside trees in Tokyo, or about 45
percent of the 27 1 , 1 68 that were standing before
the war. Postwar, the government's War Recov-

Ginkgo bilob a

Ginkgos along Midosuji Avenue in Osaka City.

vmJK

BBiimi

1

er\' Agency appointed a committee to design a
tree restoration project. The committee sug-
gested that local trees he used for replanting, in
order to take advantage of each region's environ-
mental conditions.

Government records trace the changes in tree
species planted in the aftermath of these disas-
ters and during the ensuing period of normahty.
Between 1922 and 196^, the species planted
most often along roadsides and streets through-
out lapan was the plane tree, with ginkgo in sec-

ond place. The plane tree was preferred because
it best suited the need for fast restoration; first
from the 1923 earthquake, and later, from the
devastation caused by the war. However, the
characteristics that made it useful during the
recover)" periods — fast growth, vigorous sprout-
ing capacity, and relatively big leaves — made it
difficult to maintain as the city matured, and
since 1982 ginkgo has been the preferred species
for street and roadside planting. Ginkgo grows
well in urban environments, withstanding pol-

28 Arnoldia 60/4

Ginkgos line a walk at the Tsukuba Research Center of the
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and
Technology in Tokyo.

lution, cold, and even fire. Unlike the plane tree,
its shape remains symmetrical, and its changing
appearance more clearly marks the progress of
the seasons. Similar factors explain the popular-
ity of lapanese zelkova (Z. serrata) and trident
maple. Evergreen camphor (Cinnamomum
camphora) is increasingly used for its year-
round foliage. And cherry trees remain Japan's
overwhelming favorite among flowering trees,
despite their susceptibility to disease. The mix
of trees has varied hy region, however. Ginkgo
has been designated the prefectural tree in
Tokyo, Kanagawa, and Osaka Prefectures, indi-
cating that It is used preferentially there.

By 1991 a total of almost five million street
and roadside trees were recorded in Japan — four

trees for every kilometer of "ordinary" roads,
which can be defined broadly as all roads and
streets except expressways. A greater diversity
of species were planted after the war: whereas in
1938 the top ten species in areas surveyed had
accounted for 95 percent of all trees, by 1991,
the top ten had fallen to 52 percent of the total,
although in aggregate, the five million trees rep-
resented five hundred different species. Ginkgo,
with 11.5 percent of the total, was followed in
popularity by cherry (various species), Japanese
zelkova, trident maple, and plane tree.

The use of trees is very different along roads
managed by public corporations (primarily
expressways). These trees accounted for an addi-
tional 1.7 million trees in 1991, representing
about 210 species, with Japanese red pine (Pinus
densiflora), black pine, and cedar (Cryptomeria
japonica) being the most commonly used, and
ginkgo accounting for only one-tenth of one per-
cent. On these wide, high-speed expressways.

Lines of ginkgos are faced with evergreen camphor
trees on Otemae Avenue, Himeji City.

GOURTESY OF 1I1MF.|I CITY

Ginkgo biloba 29

large numbers of evergreens are
planted to reduce traffic noise
in the surrounding residential
areas. Where expressways pass
through undeveloped areas,
such as mountain foothills,
species are selected for har-
mony with the surrounding
natural vegetation. Both these
factors mean that ginkgo trees
are limited to service areas
along expressways.

Above, double rows of ginkgos draw the eye to the Meiji Memorial Gallery,
Tokyo, photographed in 1988. Below, the sculpted allee in winter 1999.

Ginkgo in Geometrical
Japanese Landscapes

Ginkgo trees in Japan have
often been used in designs that
incorporate Western landscap-
ing features, among them
allees. An allee of ginkgos
shapes the approach to the
Meiji Jingu Gaien (Meiji
Memorial Gallery) in Tokyo,
built in 1926; two lines of
ginkgo stand on either side of
the path that leads from
Aoyama Street to the Gallery.

To exaggerate the perspective,
the trees are maintained such
that their heights decrease as
they approach the Gallery — an
effect that is further magnified
hy the slight downward slope of
the ground. The massive gink-
gos guide the viewer's line of
sight to directly focus on the
Gallery. The entire complex
includes 146 ginkgos, arranged
in the four lines leading to the
Gallery and in two additional,
shorter allees that branch off to
the left. The largest of the trees is now about 79
feet tall, with a trunk diameter of about nine
feet; the shortest is 56 feet tall with a diameter
of about six feet. The trees are pruned every four
years to maintain their beautiful shape.

Ginkgos also form the allee in Tokyo's
National Showa Memorial Park, a 450-acre park
that was created in 1983 to commemorate the

fiftieth anniversary of the accession of the
Emperor Showa. Because the site had previously
been occupied by the United States' Tachikawa
military base, its condition first had to he
improved. The 600 buildings on the base were
removed, ponds were excavated, hills were
reconstructed, and trees were planted and
grasses sown to create forests and fields.

D

S

f-

DURTbSY OF MF.IM lINGU CiAIEN

COUR 1 I-.SY OF NATH iNIAI SI IOWA MEMORIAL PARK WORKS 0FFK:E

30 Arnoldia 60/4

Geoinetiically pruned ginkgos in the National Showa Memorial Park, Tokyo.-

mately 130 centimeters [51
inches] above the ground."
According to a survey in 1988,
of the 55,798 giant trees of all
kinds in Japan, 4,318 (7.7 per-
cent) were ginkgos, taking
fourth place after cedar, Japa-
nese zelkova, and camphor.

When ginkgos grow to
immense size, some of them
develop distinctive shapes that
are reflected in the names given
to them. In the senbon (one-
thousand) ginkgo, the central
trunk is surrounded by many
secondary trunks, forming a
single large tree that looks like
a collection of many separate

From the park's Tachikawa Gate, a canal
extends 255 yards to fountains at the opposite
end and, on each side, four lines of ginkgo trees.
The 108 ginkgos were moved to their present
location from other places on the site in 1982.
They are kept at 23 feet to conform with height
restrictions imposed by the proximity of the
Self-Defense Force Air Base.

The ginkgo allees at both these sites — the
Meiji Memorial Gallery and the National
Showa Memorial Park — illustrate how Western
influences have been adapted to the Japanese
sensibility. By using ginkgos — a species that has
rarely been used in Western geometric land-
scapes— the landscape architect, Yoshinohu
Orishimo, rendered it unique. The allee is a
form that originated in Europe, hut in using
ginkgos, the effect is very different. This way of
combining a form, or vessel, from the West with
materials, or contents, of the East is an excellent
example of the way culture changes and is trans-
mitted in Japan.

Individual Ginkgo Trees of Note

Many individual ginkgos have taken on special
importance in Japan, either for historical rea-
sons or for their place in legend or simply for
their size. A giant tree is defined by Japan's
Environment Agency as "a tree with a trunk
diameter of 300 centimeters [117 inches, or
close to 10 feet] or more at a height of approxi-

Hashigaini-cho. a giant ginkgo in Aomori Prefecture,
northern Honshu.

Ginkgo biloba 3 1

i Shibata-cho, a giant in Miyagi Piefecture. northern
I Honshu. Camellia japonica is flowering at its base.

trees — therefore the name "one-thousand
ginkgos." Sakasa (upside-down) ginkgos are
so-called because their branches, especially the
lower ones, appear to be upside down. The
names meoto (husband-wife) ginkgo and oyako
(parent-child) ginkgo refer to pairs of trees grow-
ing close together and appearing to be related.
Ohatsuki ginkgo is a name used when flowers
bloom at the margins of leaves; ohatsuki means
"stuck to leaves." In the chichi (breast) ginkgo,
a number of aerial roots droop down from the
thick branches and trunk of the trees, becoming
narrower as they near the ground. Many women
pray to these sacred trees for the ability to nurse
their babies.

Many trees, whether giant or not, are associ-
ated with legend and worship. A good example

is the Nigatake ginkgo at Ichou Machi, Sendai
City, Miyagi Prefecture. It is a female tree about
115 feet in height with a trunk diameter of
about 8.2 feet at chest height; it is said to be
a thousand years old. Of its many "breast
columns," the largest is 63 inches in diameter.
According to legend, the dying wish of
Byakkouni, a wet nurse of the Emperor Shoumu
(reign 724-749), was that a ginkgo be planted on
her grave mound. A god is said to be enshrined
at the foot of the tree. Women who cannot pro-
duce their own milk often worship there.

Another famous old ginkgo tree, called
mizufuki (water-spray) ginkgo, stands in front of
the Founder's Hall at the Nishi Hongwanji
Temple in Kyoto. Its age is estimated to be 400
to 500 years old. A legend tells that when the
fire that swept through Kyoto in 788 threatened

Nigatake ginkgo at Ichou Machi. Sendai City, Miyagi
Prefecture.

32 Arnoldia 60/4

When the Mizufuki ginkgo showed signs of decline, a Kyoto tree doctor, Shoji Yamada, was
called in to restore its vigor. First, he studied the tree externally and found spreading trunk
rot and hollowing. Next, to investigate the soil layers and the distribution of the root system, soil
excavations 4 feet deep and 3.2 feet wide were made at three locations under the tips of the canopy.
This revealed that the soil was severely compacted by foot pressure to a depth of 4 to 6 inches,
hampering the growth of feeder roots and causing asphyxiation. The measures taken to help the tree
recover its vigor were:

1 . Dead parts of the trunk and
large branches were pruned
to remove rot, taking care
not to harm the tree's beau-
tiful shape. Then, urethane
resin was injected into the
tree; putty was used to pre-
vent rainwater from pen-
etrating this repair work.
Finally, an antibacterial
agent was applied.

2. The soil beneath and
around the tree was exca-
vated to a depth of 20
inches — using great care
not to damage the fine
roots — then filled with
new soil, a soil-improve-
ment agent, and fertilizer.

3. A shallow embankment was
formed and groundcovers
planted to retain moisture
in summer and prevent
freezing in winter.

4. To protect the tree from
soil compaction, a fence
and curbstones were placed
around the tree to keep
people away from it.

By mid-April of the same year,
fresh young buds had formed.
The tree has recovered its
vigor and appears to be in good
condition.

Mizufiiki ginkgo at Nishi Hongwanji Temple, Kyoto, photographed in 2000.

Ginkgo biloba 33

to spread to the Hall, this large,
male ginkgo sprayed a column of
water on the flames, saving the
building. It is 39 feet in height
with a circumference at the roots
of 29 feet and a canopy of 85 feet
in diameter. In 1994 the tree was
losing its vigor: its branches were
drying up, and the size and den-
sity of its leaves were dwindling.

Fortunately, treatment carried
out at that time has restored the
tree to health.

Perhaps the most famous
ginkgo stands in Hiroshima.

When the atomic bomb was
dropped on that city on August 6,

1945, some of the trees in the
temple called Housenbou sur-
vived the atomic blast, although
it was only one kilometer from
its center. One of these survi-
vors was a ginkgo tree that
stands near the main building of
the temple. The building was
instantly destroyed but the
ginkgo survived; fresh young
buds appeared soon afterward,
and new branches formed.

The temple's followers were
eager to rebuild the main build-
ing, but the ginkgo tree presented
a problem. There was no room for
it elsewhere on the temple
grounds, and in any case, it would
have been risky to move such a
large tree, estimated to be 150
years old. Rather than cut it
down, the building was modified to preserve
the tree where it stood. The roof was changed to
give the tree more space, and two stairways
were built in the front of the building to form an
inverted "U" with the ginkgo protected inside
it. An opening under the stone stairs allows
air to flow past the tree. This accommodation
expresses the intense feelings that this ginkgo

A Hiroshima survivor stands before the Housenbou Temple,
Hiroshima City.

tree inspires, still living today, a precious wit-
ness to the disaster. It has a powerful impact on
all who see it.

Mariko Handa is in charge of the research department of
Parks and Recreation Foundation, Tokyo. This article is
adapted from "Ginkgo Landscapes" by Dr. Handa, Yasuo
lizuka, and Nobuo Fujiwara, which appeared in the 1997
Ginkgo Biloba — A Global Treasure.

ARCHIVES OF THE ARNOLO ARBORETUM

34 Arnoldio 60/4

;inkgo biloba and shrine in China, the village of Leng che. Valley of the Tung River
'estern Sichuan. Measured at eighty feet in height and twenty-five in circumference and
hotographed by E. H. Wilson. 1 August 1908.

35

Arnold Arboretum Weather Station Data — 2000

Avg.

Max.

Temp.

(°E)

Avg.

Min.

Temp.

(°F)

Avg.

Temp.

(°F)

Max.

Temp.

(°E)

Min.

Temp.

(°E)

Precipi-

tation

(in.)

Snow-

fall

(in.)

JAN

36

17

27

65

-2

3.87

16.2

FEB

43

22

33

66

0

3.35

8.85

MAR

54

33

44

78

14

4.49

3

APRIL

57

38

48

78

24

6.88

0

MAY

72

48

60

97

35

3.16

0

JUNE

82

56

69

96

44

6.67

0

JULY

84

62

73

93

52

4.91

0

AUG

83

61

72

96

50

1.78

0

SEPT

77

52

65

93

32

4.52

0

OCT

66

43

55

84

32

3.54

0

NOV

47

34

41

66

12

4.87

0

DEC

37

18

27

66

5

5.73

0

Average Maximum Temperature

62°

Average Minimum Temperature

40°

Average Temperature

51°

Total Precipitation

53.77 inches

Total Snowfall

28.05 inches

Warmest Temperature

97° on May 8

Coldest Temperature

-2° on January 17

Date of Last Spring Frost

28° on April 15

Date of First Fall Frost

32° on September 29

Growing Season

167 days

Note: According to state climatologist R. Lautzenheiser, the year 2000 was abnormally cold and wet; compared
to 1999, it was 2.2 degrees colder and more than 5 inches wetter. February, March, and April were very mild —
March 2000 was one of the warmest on record — but this was offset by the unusually wet and cool June and
July. June ranked eleventh for precipitation in 130 years. September through December were also below normal
in temperature; the first killing frost arrived on September 29. Snowfall totaled only 28.05 inches, 13.5 inches
below normal.

The consistent rains through spring, summer, and fall made 2000 a very good planting year. Trees and shrubs
put on more than average growth and appeared to be recovering well from the droughts of a few years ago.

ARCHIVES OF THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM

36 Arnoldia 60/4

Tree climbing iii the Arnold Arboretum. 1949. Heman Howard photographed
arborist William Stef any near the top of a white pine.

Index to Volume 60 (2000)

Numbers in brackets refer to issues, those in boldface to illustrations of the entries.

Abies koreana [4] inside front cover,
17

Academy of Natural Sciences
[Philadelphia] [1] 4, 5, 8, 9
Acer [4] 26

— buergerianum [4] 26

— griseum [4] 1 5

— palmatum [4] 15

— pseudosieboldianum [4] back
cover, 15

— rubruin [4] 23

— triflorum [4] 15
Actmidia, bower [1] 18
Actinidia arguta [1] 18
Aesculus [1] 17

— pavia [1] 17

— parviflora [4] 13, 14

— X planteriensis [1] 1^

Ailanthus altissima [4] 26
Amelanchier florida [1] 7
American-fapanese congeners [2]

11-13

Amur cork tree [4| 1 1
Andersen, Phyllis, "'Master of a
Felicitous English Style': William
Augustus Stiles, Editor of Garden
and Forest" [2] 39-43
Anderson, Edgar, "Rhododendrons"
[1934] [1] 27-28
Anderson, Rob [4] 6
Arhorvitae, eastern [4] 18

— western [4] 18
Aristolochia macrophylla [4] 1 1

— mandshiiriensis [4] inside front
cover, 1 1

Arnold Arboretum [1] 7, 8, 13-19,

29, 32; [2] 7, 8, 39, 42, 44, 45; [4] 3,
10, 12, 14-16, 18

Bulletin of Popular Informa-
tion [ 1 ] 32

Weather Station Data — 2000

[4] 35

Artemesia frigida [1] 7
Ashton, Peter [2] 44; [4] 3, 6, 9
"Axe in Its Relation to Ornamental
Trees" [1890] [2] 21
Azalea [1] 24-25, 31

— deciduous [1[ 24, 25, 26

— evergreen [1] 22, 23, 24, 25, 26

— Exbury [1] 20, 25

— flame [4] 12

— Korean [1] 24

— Kyushu [1] 25

— Oconee [1] 5

— sweet [4] 15

Bailey, Liberty Hyde [2] 41; [3] 30
Bartram, John [1[ 2
Bartram, William [1] 4

Baxter, Sylvester, "Climbing Plants
on Boston Buildings" [1894] [3[
42-44

Begonia [2] 44

"Bernice Giduz Schubert, 1913-2000,"
Richard A. Howard [2] 44-45
Betula platyphylla [4] back cover
Bottle-tree, Chinese [4] 26
Briand, Christopher H., "Cypress
Knees: An Enduring Enigma" [4]
19-25

British Museum [2] 34
Bronx Park [NY] [2[ 43
Brooks, Henry, photo by [2[ 18
Brooks, Richard [Dick], "A Fresh
Look at a Traditional Favorite:
Rhododendrons" [1] 20-26

photos by [1] front cover

Broom, Scots [1] 18
Buckeye, bottlebrush [4] 13

— red [1] 17

Calocedrus decurrens [4] 17, 18
Camphor, [4] 28, 30
Caparn, Harold A., "Correspon-
dence: Madison Square Again"
[1896] [3] 19

Carr, Ethan, "Garden and Forest
and 'Landscape Art'" [3] 5, 7-8
Castanea [4] 26
Catalpa, western [1] 17
Catalpa specioso [1] 16, 17
Cedar [4] 28, 30

— deodar [4] 18

— Mount Atlas [2] inside back cover
Cedrus deodar 'Shalimar' [4] 18

— libani ssp. atlantica [2]: inside
back cover

Central Park [New York City] [2] 40,
42, 43

Cercidiphyllum japonicum
'Morioka Weeping' [4] inside front
cover, 14
Chai, Paul [4] 4, 7
Cherry [4] 26, 28
Chestnut [4] 26
Chionanthus retusus [4] 12

— virginicus [4] 1 1
"Christmas Green" [1888] [3] 38
"Chrysanthemums" [1888], John

Thorpe [3] 37

Cinnamomum camphora [4] 28
Cladrastis kentukea [1] 16
Clavigero, Abbe Francisco [3] 44-46
Cleveland, H. W. S. [3] 5
"Climbing Plants on Boston
Buildings" [1894], Sylvester
Baxter [3] 42-44

Codman, Henry S. (Harry) [2] 41; [3]
5, 31

"The Squares of Paris"

[1888] [3] 9

Coe, Charles H., "The Floating Gar-
dens of Mexico" [1895] [3] 44-46
Collecting Plants Beyond the
Frontier [Mary G. Henry] [1] 8
Columbian Exposition [Chicago) [3]
8, 11

Connor, Sheila [2] 3
Cook, Robert E. [2] 3
Cornell [University] [3] 30
Cornels [2] 1 7
Cornus [4] 26

— stolonifera [ 1 ] 7
"Correspondence. Madison Square

Again" [1896], H. A. Caparn [3] 19
"Correspondence. The Plans of
Madison Square" [1896], S. A. [3]
17-19

Corylopsis glabrescens [4] 12

— spicata [4| 12
Cotylelobium malayan [4] 6
Coulston, Mary B. [2] 41
Cryptomeria japonica [2] 30, 31, 32;

[4] 28

Cyclamen cherry [4] 12
Cypress [3] 4

— bald [2] 14-17; [4] 19-24, 25

roots [2] 15; [4] 19, 20, 21-24

looping [4] 23, 24

— dome [4] 24

— knees [2] 14-17; [4] 19, 20, 21, 22,
23, 24

— pond [4] 19, 22

— swamp [4] 19

"Cypress Knees: An Enduring
Enigma," Christopher H. Briand
[4] 19-25

Cytisus scoparius [1] 18

"Delights of a Rough Garden"
[1896], D. H. R. Goodale [3] 35
Dogwood [4] 26

Downing, Andrew Jackson [1] 28
Dutchman's pipe, Manchurian [4] 11

"Effect of Gardening Upon the
Mind" [1891] [3] 33
Eliot, Charles, [2] 41; [3[ 5, 7

"The Necessity of Planning"

[1896] [3[ 14-15
Elliott, Stephen [2] 9
Enkianthus, white [4[ 15
Enkianthus perulatus [4] inside
back cover, 15, 16
Euonymus, glossy [4] 16
Euonymus carnosus [4] 16

38 Arnoldia 60/4

Evolution, floral |1| 14

"Farming on Vacant City Lots"
(1896] (3] 35-36

Faxon, C. E., drawings by [2] 6, 8, 10
Fernald, Merritt [2] 44
Fernow, Bernard [2| 21, 22, 23
Ficus [4] 2

"Field of Landscape Art" [1897] [3] 8
Fig, strangler [4] 2
Fir, Korean [4] 17
Fiimiana simplex [4] 26
"Floating Gardens of Mexico" [1895],
Charles H. Coe [3] 44-46, 45
"Flowering Plants and Their
Pollinators at the Arnold Arbo-
retum," David Giblin [1] 13-19
Fly, lacewing [1] 29
"Foreign Plants and American
Scenery" [1888] [3] 22, 24-25
"Forests of the National Domain"
[1895] [2] 34-37

Fothergilla major 'Mt. Airy' [4] 12
Fragrant winterhazel [4] 12
Fraser, John [1] 27; [2] 10
Fraxinus [4] 26
"Fresh Look at a Traditional
Favorite: Rhododendrons,"

Richard Brooks [1] 20-26
Friedland, LeeEllen, "Garden and
Forest’s Journey to Cyberspace"

[3] 2-3

Fringetree, Chinese [4] 1 1

Garden and Forest [1] 32; [2] 2-42;

[3] 2-48

"Garden and Forest and 'Landscape
Art,"' Ethan Carr [3] 5, 7-8
"Garden and Forest: The Botanical
Basis of It All," Stephen A.
Spongherg [2] 7-9
"Garden and Forest's Journey to
Cyberspace," LeeEllen Friedland
[3] 2-3

"Gardens at Monte Carlo" [1891] [3]
12-13

Gebfert, C. H. L., paintings by [1]
inside front and back covers
Giblin, David, "Flowering Plants
and Their Pollinators at the
Arnold Arboretum [1] 13-19
Ginkgo [4] 26-33

— as street tree [4] 26-29

— giant [4] 30-31

— in legend [4] 31-33
Ginkgo hiloba [4] 34

"Ginkgo biloba in Japan," Mariko
Handa [4] 26-33

Gladwyne, PA [1] 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10,

11, 12

Gleditsia japonica [1] 6
Goh, Melvin, "The View from the
Forest Canopy," with Richard
Primack and Meekiong Kalu [4]
3-9

Goldenrain tree [1] 18
Goodale, D. H. R., "Delights of a
Rough Garden" [1896] [3] 35
Goodale, George L. [2] 7; [3] 32
Gray, Asa [2] 7

Gray Herbarium [Harvard Univer-
sity] [2] 44, 45

Griswold, Mac, "The Influence of
Garden and Forest on the
Development of Horticulture" [3]
29-32

Handa, Mariko, "Ginkgo biloba in
Japan" [4] 26-33

Harrison, J. B., "Value of Mountain
Forests [1890]" [2] 24-25
Harrison, Mary, "Mary Gibson
Henry, Plantswoman
Extraordinaire" [1] 2-12
Harvard Botanic Garden [2] 7
Harvard Botanical Museum [2] 7
Harvard University [4] 3

Herbaria [2] 44, 45

Hemlock, Chinese [4] 18
Henry Foundation for Botanical
Research [1] 10

Henry, Josephine deNancrede [1] 3,
5, 8, 12

Henry, Mary Gibson [1] 2-12, 3, 6,

9, 11

Heptacodium miconioides [4] inside
back cover, 16

"High-Grade Paper: Garden and
Forest and Nineteenth-Century
American Forestry," Char Miller
[2] 19-22
Hill, Polly [1] 25
Holly, longstalk [4] 16
Honeysuckle [2] 10
Horse-chestnut [1] 17
"Horticultural Education" [1896] [3]

30

"House at Honmoku in Japan"

[1888] [3] 20-21

Howard, Heman, photo by [4] 36
Howard, Richard A., "Bernice Giduz
Schubert, 1913-2000" [2] 44-45
Hunnewell, H. H. [1] 1, 29, 31, 32
estate of [Wellesley, MA] [1]

31

Hydrangea, early [4] 14

— peegee [4] 14

Hydrangea paniculata 'Grandiflora'
[4] 14

'Praecox' [4] inside back cover,

14

'Tardiva' [4] 14

— quercifolia [4] inside front &
back covers, 14

Hymenocallis henryae [ 1 ] 8

Ilex pendunculosa [4] 16
"In Pursuit of Ironclads," Karen
Madsen [ 1 ] 29-32
Incense cedar, California [4] 1 7

"Influence of Garden and Forest on
the Development of Horticul-
ture," Mac Griswold [3] 29-32
"Interesting Rediscovery" [1891] [2]
10

Jack, John George [2] 8, 9
Japan, forest flora, [2] 1 1-13, 30-32
"Japanese Flower Vender's Basket"
[1888], Theodore Wores [2] 34
Japanese winterhazel [4] 12
Judd, William [1] 9

Kalmia latifolia [1] 15, 17, 32
Kalu, Meekiong, "The View from
the Forest Canopy," with Richard
Primack and Melvin Goh [4] 3-9
Katsura 'Morioka Weeping' [4] 14
Kimball, Theodora [2] 40
Kiwi, kolomikta [4] 13
Knap Hill nursery, Surrey [England]
[1130,31,32

"Knees of the Bald Cypress" [1890],
N. S. Shaler [2] 16-17
"Knees of the Bald Cypress: A New
Theory of Their Function" [1890],
Robert H. Lamborn [2] 15-16
Knott, Cheryl [4] 3
Koelreuteria paniculata [1] 18

'Rose Lantern' [4] inside front

& back covers, 16
Korean weigela [4] 12
Kuching [Sarawak, Malaysia] [4] 3,

6, 8

Kyoto [4] 3 1

Lake Monroe [FL] [1] 14-17
Lake Yumoto [Japan] [2] 12
Laman, Tim [4] 3

Landers, M., drawing by [23] inside
back cover
Lapland rosebay [1] 7
Leach, David [1] 22, 25, 30
Library of Congress [2] 3; [3] 2-3
Lilac, common [4] 12
Lilies [1] 8, 10

Lilium iridollae [1] 10, 11, 12

— philadelphicum [1] 10
Lily, pot-of-gold [1] 12

Lindera obtusilobum [4] inside back
cover, 16

Linnaea borealis [1] 4
Linnaeus [2] 1 7
Liriodendron tulipifera [4] 26

X chinense 'Chapel Hill' [4]

inside front cover, 14
Locust, black [4] 26

— bristly [1] 16
Lonicera flava [2] 10
Ludong, Banyeng [4] 3-9, 6, 7
Lyon, John [2] 17

Macoun, John [1] 7
Madsen, Karen, "In Pursuit of
Ironclads" [1] 29-32

Index 39

"Preface"[2] 2-3

Magnolia family |1) 15
Magnolia [ 1 ] 1 5

— acuminata var. subcordata [1)13

— kobus [4] 12

— salicifolia [4] 12

— virginiana var. australis [4] 16
virginiana [4] 1 7

— X 'Wada's Memory' [4] 12
Magnoliaceae [1] 15
Mallotus japonicus [4] 26
Manning, Warren H. [3] 5
Maple [4] 26

— Japanese [4] 15

— Korean [4] 15

— paperbark [4] 15

— trident [4] 26, 28

— twisted-bark [4] 15
Marsh, George Perkins [2] 20
"Mary Gibson Henry, Plantswoman

Extraordinaire," Mary Harrison [1]
2-12

'"Master of a Felicitous Style':
William Augustus Stiles, Editor of
Garden and Forest," Phyllis
Andersen [2] 39-43
Mayfair Nurseries [Hillsdale, NJ] [1]
10

McCusker, K. F. [1] 6, 7, 8
Mehlquist, Gustav [1] 21, 23, 24
Melanson, Joseph [2] 3
Metropolitan Museum [NY] [2] 43
Metropolitan Park Commission
[Boston] [3[ 7
Miller, Wilhelm [3] 5
Monarda mollis var. menthaefolia
[117

Mount Auburn Cemetery [Cam-
bridge, MA] [2[ 45
Mountain laurel [1] 16, 17
Mulu National Park [Malaysia] [4]

4, 7

Museum of Natural History [NY]

[2[ 43

Jesup collection of

American woods [2] 32
"Museum Specimen of Sequoia
Gigantea" [1892] [2] 32-34

"Necessity of Planning" [1896],
Charles Eliot [3] 14-15
"New Dangers to Public Parks"
[1897] [2] 42-43

"r4ew Jersey Pine Forest" [1888], C.

5. Sargent [2] 26-27

"New or Little Known Plants. Rosa
Minutifolia" [1888], Sereno
Watson [2] 9

Nikko Mountains [Japan] [2] 12
"Notes," Garden and Forest [2] 38;
[3] 28, 47-48

"Notes on the Forest Flora of
Japan — II" [excerpt, 1893], C. S.
Sargent [2[ 1 1-13

XXIII"

[excerpt, 1893], C. S. Sargent [2]
30-32

Nyssa [2] 1 7

— aquatica [2] 17; [4] 23

— sylvatica [2] 17

Oak, willow [4] 15

Oconee bells [2] 8

Olive tree [3] inside back cover

Olmsted, Frederick Law [2] 40, 41;

[3] 5, 1 1

"To the Editor of Garden

and Forest" [1888] [3] 22-24
Olmsted, Frederick Law, Jr. [2] 40
Olmsted, J. C. [3] 5
Olmsted, Vaux & Co. [3] 1 1
Opuntia frigida [1] 7
Orishimo, Yoshinohu [4] 30

Pagoda tree [4] 26
"Park-Making as a National Art"
[1897] [3] 27

Parsons, Samuel B. [1] 32
Parsons, Samuel, Jr. [2] 39, 40, 41;

[3] 5

Pennell, Francis [1] 4
Persian lilac [4] 12
Phellodendron amurense [4] 11
Phlox X bifida [1)10
Pinanga tomentella [4] 7
Pinchot, Gifford [2] 21, 22
Pine [4] 26

— black [4] 26, 28

— Japanese red [4] 28

— pitch [2] 26-27

— pond [4] 23

Pinus densiflora [4] 28

— X henry ae [1] 10

— ponderosa [2] inside front cover, 26

— serotina [4] 23

— thunbergii [4] 26

"Plan of the Columbian Fair
Grounds" [1892, 1893] [3] 10-11
Plane tree [4] 26, 27, 28
Plant documentation [4] 10

— identifications [4] 10
Platanus [4] 26
Pneumatophore [4] 21-23
Pollination [1] 13-19

Primack, Richard, "The View from
the Forest Canopy," with Melvin
Goh and Meekiong Kalu [4] 3-9
Pringle, Cyrus Guernsey [2] 7
Prospect Park [Brooklyn, NY] [2] 43
"Proposed Plan for Madison Square,
New York City" [1896], M. G. Van
Rensselaer [3] 16-19
Prunus [4] 26

— cyclamina [4] 12

Quercus phellos [4] inside front
cover, 15

— pumila [1] 9

Raup, Hugh [1] 7, 10

Rehder, Alfred [ 1 ] 7
Resak batu tree [4[ 6
Rhododendron [1]: 20-26, 27-29,
30-32

— ironclad varieties [1]: 21, 26, 28, 32

— rosebay [1]: 28
Rhododendron [1]: 20

— 'Album Elegans' [1]: inside front
cover, 32

— 'Album Grandiflorum' [1]: inside
back cover, 32

— 'Alexander' [1[: 24, 25

— 'April Gem' [1[: 24

— arborescens [4] inside back cover,
15

— arboreum [1]: 28, 30

— 'Arctic Gold' [ 1 [: 22

— 'Atrosanguineum' [1]: inside back
cover, 32

— 'Bali' [1[: 21

— 'Bicolor' [1]: inside back cover, 32

— 'Big Deal' [1]: front cover, 22

— 'Calsap' [1[; 21, 22

— calendulaceum [4] inside front
cover, 12

— 'Capistrano' [1[: 22

— 'Casanova' [1]: 21, 22

— caucasicum [1[: 27

— cawtabiense [1]: inside front
cover, 27, 28, 30

— 'Charles Dickens' [ 1 [: 28

— degronianum [1]: 25

'Golfer' [1]: 25

'Teddy Bear' [1]: 25

subsp. yakushimanum [1]: 22,

23

— 'Delicatissimum' [1]: inside front
cover, 32

— 'Dexter's Champagne' [1]: 21

— 'Dolly Madison' [1]: 22

— 'Dorothy Swift' [1]: 23

— 'Edmond Amateis' [1]: 22

— 'Everestianum' [1]: 31, 32

— 'Firestorm [1]: 20

— flammeiim [1[: 5

— 'Ginny Gee' [1]: 23

— 'Grandiflorum' [1]: inside front
cover

— 'H. W. Sargent' [1]: 28

— 'Hachmann's Polaris' [1]: 23

— 'Henrietta Sargent' [1]: 28

— 'Hino Crimson' [1]: 20

— 'Indian Run' [1]: 25

— 'Janet Blair' [1]: 21

— 'Jonathan Shaw' [1]: 21

— kiusianum [1]: 25

— 'Landmark' [1]: 24

— 'Late Love' [1]: 25

— lapponicum [1]: 7

— makinoi [1]: 25

— maximum [1]: 24, 26, 28

— 'Mrs. Charles S. Sargent' [1]:
inside front cover, 28, 32

— 'Mrs. Harry Ingersoll' [1]: inside
back cover, 32

40 Arnoldia 60/4

— nmcioculatum |1]: 24

— 'Parsons Grandiflorum' [1]: 32

— 'Percy Wiseman' [1]: 23
— 'PIM' [1]; 20, 24, 26

— ponticum 'Goldflimmer' [1]: 26, 27
'Variegatum [1]: 26

— 'Purple Splendour' [1): 21

— 'Purpureum Elegans' [1|: inside
back cover, 28, 32

— 'Purpureum Grandiflorum' [1];

28, 32

— 'Roseum Elegans' [1]: 20, 28, 32

— 'Santa Fe' [1): 22

— 'Sappho' [1]: 22

— 'Scarlet Romance' [1]: 21

— 'Scintillation' [1]: 21

— smiinowii [1]: 17, 29

— speciosum flammeum [1]: 4, 5

— 'Summer Glow' [1]: 25

— 'Summer Snow' [ij; 24, 25

— 'Tow Head' [1]: 23

— 'Vinecrest' [1]: 22
— • 'Vivacious' [IJ: 21

— 'White Peter' [1): 22

— 'Wojnar's Purple' [1]: 21

— yakushimanum [1]: 23-24
"Rhododendrons" [1934], Edgar

Anderson [1]: 27-28
Rhododendrons at 'Wellesley' [1]:

back cover
Robbins, M. C. [3] 27
Robinia hispida [1] 16

— pseudoacacia [4] 26
Rollins, W. H., photograph by [2]

inside front cover
Roots, looping [4] 23, 24
Roper, Laura Wood [3] 5
Rosa minutifolia [2] 9
'Rose Lantern' golden raintree [4] 16
Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh [ 1 ]

4, 5, 8

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew [1] 10
Sake [2] 30

Sarawak [Malaysia] Forest Depart-
ment [4] 3-9

Sargent, Charles Sprague [1] 29, 32;
[2[ 2-3, 7, 8, 19, 20, 22, 39, 42; [3[

5, 29

from "Notes on the Forest

Flora of Japan— 11" [1893] [2] 1 1-13

from "Notes on the Forest

Flora of Japan- XXIll" [1893] [2]
30-32

Sargent, Henry Winthrop [1] 28-29
Schenck, Carl A. [2] 21
Scholar tree [1] 16; [4] 26
Schubert, Bernice Giduz [2] 44-45
Seng, Lee Hua [4] 9
"Sentimentalism and Tree-Felling"
[1893] [3] 36
Sequoia [2] 30

Sequoia gigantea [2] 18, 32, 33

Sessions, Kate [2] 41
Seven-son flower [4] 16
Shortia galacifolia [2] 8
Sihlwald [2] 29
"Sihlwald— I" [1890], Gifford
Pmchot [2] 27-28

11" [1890], Gifford Pinchot [2]

28-30

"Slaughtered Giant" [1890] [2] 19
Smythies, B. E. [4] 6
Sour gum [2] 17
Spicebush, Japanese [4] 16
Spongberg, Stephen A., "Garden
and Forest: The Botanical Basis of
It All" [2] 7-9

"Squares of Paris" [1888], Henry S.

Codman [3] 9
Stefany, William [4] 36
Stewartia, Chinese [4] 17

— Korean [4] 1 7

Stewartia, pseudocamellia [4] 11, 17

— sinensis [4] inside front & back
covers, 17

Stiles, William A. [2] 19, 20, 21, 39^
43, 40; [3] 5

Styphnolobium japonicum [1] 16;

[4] 26

Styrax americanum [1[ 11
"Survival of the Most Adaptable,"
Peter Del Tredici [4] 10-18
Sutton, Stephanne B. [2] 19
Sweetbay, evergreen [4] 16
Syringa x cbinensis 'Lilac Sunday'
[4[ 12, 13

— vulgaris [4] 12

Tagi, Jugah [4]: 2-9, 4, 5, 8
Taxodium [4] 19

— distichum [4] front cover

var. distichum [4] 19

var. imbricarium [4] 19

Thorpe, John, "Chrysanthemums"

[1888] [3] 27

Thuja occidentalis [4] 18

— plicata [4] 18

"To the Editor of Garden and
Forest" [1888], Frederick Law
Olmsted [3] 22-24
"To the Editor of Garden and
Forest" [1896], L.G.S. [3] 19
Tokyo [4] 26, 28-30
Trelease, William [2] 7
Tree climber [4] 2-9

— climbing, traditional methods [4]
3-5, 4, 5

Tree-of-heaven [4] 26
Tsuga chinensis [4] 18
Tulip tree [4] 26

Chinese- American [4] 14

Tupelo [2] 17-18

— water [4] 23

"Tupelo Tree" [1890] [2] 17-18
Twinflower [ 1 ] 3-4

Upper Banks Nursery [Media, PA]

[1] 10

"Use of Trees and Shrubs with
Leaves of Abnormal Colors"

[1897] [3] 37-38

"Value of Mountain Forests" [1890],
J. B. Harrison [2] 24-25
Van Rensselaer, Marianna Griswold
[2] 41; [3] 5, 7, 36

"Proposed Plan for

Madison Square, New York City"
[1896] [3] 16-17

"Various Motives for Gardening"
[1896] [3133
Vaux [Calvert] [2] 40, 41
Viburnum, doublefile [1] 18, 19
Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum
[1] 18, 19

"View from the Forest Canopy,"
Richard Primack, Melvin Goh,
and Meekiong Kalu [4] 3-9
"View in Central Park" [1888] [3] 6
Villa Giusti [Verona] [3] 4
Vilmorin, Maurice L. de, photograph
by [2] inside back cover

"Wanted, a Tract on Forestry"

[1891], S. [2] 23

Waterer, Anthony [1] 28-29, 30-32
Watson, Sereno, "New or Little
Known Plants. Rosa Minutifolia"
[1888] [2] 8, 9

"Wayside Beauty" [1888] [3] 26
Weigela, flowering [1] 18

— Korean [4] 12

Weigela middendorffiana [1] 18

— subsessilis [4] 12

'Wellesley' [H. H. Hunnewell estate,
MA] [1] back cover
Weston Nurseries [Hopkinton, MA]
[1] 22, 24

Willaman, J. J. [2] 44
Willow [4] 26

Willowleaf magnolia [4] 12
Wilson, E. H. [1] 9; [4] 18, photo by, 34
World's Columbian Exposition
[Chicago] [3] 10-1 1
Wright-Smith, William [1] 4

Xanthoceras sorbifolium [4] inside
back cover, 13

Xanthorhiza simplicissima [4] 15

Yamada, Shoji [4] 32
Yellowhorn [4] 13
Yellowroot [4] 15
Yellowwood [1] 14, 16

Zelkova, Japanese [4] 28, 30
Zelkova serrata [4] 28