The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 21, 1896, Page 26

o 6 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JUNE 21, 1896. A NEW ORNAMENTAL TREE FOR CALIFORNIA It Is a Near Relative to the American Sycamore. Tested at the State University Sta- tions—Cheap, Healthy, Hardy and Quick in Growing. Many fetters, and at all seasons of the r, come to me and others who are sup- | osed to know something about trees, ask- | ing for information upon cheap, healthy, | bardy and rapid-growing species for ave | nues aud ornament. ese questions are more oft'n asked in summer than in winter, for it is in summer that the need of shade is more felt. There are certainly hundreds of desirable ; species of trees fit for the general planter. | But I propose in this article to name and | describe one particularly useful and long- | neglected deciduous tree which the aver- | age land-owner is justified in planting for quick returns in solid satisfacti In order to avoid any misunderstanding, I will say to begin with that the Oriental plane (Platanus orientalis) is a near rela- | tive of the American sycamore. Never- | theless, for the purposes indicated in this | article, it is far superior to that tree and should not be despised because its poor re- lation is already in our canvons. It is, perhaps, unfortunate that it has been in- oduced under the name of European sycamore instead of its ancient title of plane. While “only a sycamore,” it is | undoubiedly the best and most handsome ‘ s of that family. | C ornians who have been in the lead- | ing cities of Europe cannot have failed to observe the tall, stately specimens of plane in London, Paris, Brussels, Vi-| enna, Milan and eisewhere. Indeed, it is reputed to be the only tree that will thrive on the famous Victoria embank- | ment along the Thames, and its powers of resistance to soot, gas and chemicals of ious sorts is quite remarkable. Its rdy, upright growth enabies it to with- i the sea winds better than most de- cidnous trees. It would certainly thrive where many other. species would fail in nd San Francisco and on the )nt. The use of the plane tree in California w therefore, introduce no new problems, for the tree is of the easiest culture and 1 various parts of to the south la trees has been thoroughly tested I Surope, from the fog y has tested this tree Its growth is very y, and the very important fact proved that the Oriental plane e a large amount of alkali with- A just-published report of the agricultural experiment stations says of Platanus orientalis: *‘This fine tree has lately attracted much attention as a stately and hardy street tree, thriving under many adverse conditions. It will grow from cuttings and seed; it | is a very rapid grower and deserves to be | extensively planted, especially in hot, dry | d It also withstands the sea-winds | better than the lindens and elms. Butthe | chief value of this tree will be in the alkari | districts, where it may safely be recom- ended for extensive planting as the | st alkali- ing tree yet tested. Its | value per cord will be somewhat | eater than our native sycamore, while its r value, under proper conditions, 1ould be considerable, the trunk being straight and ta ile the wood is exten- | sively us lurope for domestic utensils | and furnitur i Three trees of European sycamore are | g at the Tulare station and the | vest stands upon extremely bad alkali This tree, six years old from seed, when measured in the summer of 1895, stood twentv-six feet high (six feet to the lowest branches) and its girth three feet from the ground was twenty-four inches. | It has been five years planted at the sta- | tion. An acre of such trees set close so as | to make clean trunks, would probably be | ready for thinning and furnish consider- | | tree. | was 141 feet in circumference. | is smooth, and takes a bigh polish. mer, or admits as much sunlight in winter able firewood by the sixth year. The tree | will thrive where it is too cold for any eucalypt, and will grow on alkali soil too | strong for E. globulus.” At the Southern California station, near Pomona, the plane tree has shown itself to be one of the most satisfactory of shade trees out of some fifty species which are well tested. Here, as elsewhere in Cali- fornia, the plane grows rapidly, withstand- | ing wind and drought. While there are trees that grow with less rainfall the | plane is notable for its power to push its roots deep into underlying gravel and seck out the needed water supp! In this it resembles its California relative and some of the desert willows, which grow where even a pine finds a start difficult. Still a fairly good soil and. moderate rainfall are necessary for growth. The plane is not a tree of the arid belt, but it has great adaptability to harsh conditions. Turning now to a more minute account | of the species we find that the Oriental | plane, so celebrated in history and litera- ture, is one of the finest trees of Asia Minor, growing to a height ot from sixty to eighty feet, with wide branches and a massive trunk, forming altogether a noble The growth is very rapid, and young trees have an especially well-balanced and shapely appearance. If it grows too large | for a shade or street tree in the place de- sired the trunk can easily be cut off ard a new shoot be allowed to rise from the roots. It is found wild in Greece, the Caucasus and as far east as Persia. The most famous plane known in the world is the great clustered tree which until recently stood at Buyukdere, in Asi- | atic Turkey, described by many travelers, and estimated by DeCandole to be over | 2000 years oid. It presented the appear- | ance of seven or eight closely united trunks growing around the decayed base of a still older tree. The circle thus formed | The Oriental plane tree is remarkably free from lichens, fungi, insects and dis- ease. The wood is valuable for cabinet | work ana furniture, and the Persians con- | sider it one oi the most beautiful of woods for finishing purposes. The grain ‘When oiled it resembles walnut. In most re-| spects the wood can be classed with that | of the beech. Hardly any deciduous | shade tree excludes the sun as well in sum- | | an as does the plane. Like the Salisburia, it particularly well adapted to harmonize with architectural effects, presenting a combination of gracefulness, variety of color and peculiar dignity. The grayish- white bark goes well with walls or rough stone, roadsides and pavements. The grayish-green foliage also harmonizes with | prevailing summer tints, while always fresh and healthy. The large roots of this tree clog drain-pipes and sewers to a much less aegree4han do the eucalypti. There are a number of nursery varieties of the plane tree varying considerably in shape and size of leaves, or in mode of wth, but the ordinary npright type is as satisfactory as any, and is tue most popu- lar in Europe. Trees can be produced cheaply and rapidly by nurserymen, and to any desired extent, so that planting on a large scale is easly possible. Platanace®, the order to which the plane belongs, includes six or seven species, a'l nativesof the temperate zones, chiefly of North America and Mexico. Orientalis, the subject of this article, is European sycamore, as previously stated. P. Occidentalis, the American sycamore, or buttonwood of the West, is much less valiuabje for avenue purposes, has little re- sistance to alkali, and is subject to serious leaf disease. Asa tree, the latter is also less hardy, seldom grows so straight and well-proportioned and furnishes timber of less value. P. racemosa is the California species, much resembling P. Occidentalis. It would bs easy to continue these notes upon the plane tree and its relations, but enough has been said to give the reader idea of the There are many trees which the species. landscape gardener would name before it | for lawns and the home acre; there are | many more charming blossom-bearing or fruit-bearing trees for single specimens; there are many finer and grander trees for the amateur and the specialist; there are many trees which will produce more valuable timber. But the street and shade tree for the everyday use of everyday communities in California wili be a tree like the Oriental plane. It is certainly worth the attention of our citizens, for it will thrive equally wellin the Coast Range valleys in Southern California, in the San Joaquin, a1'd in the Sacramento valleys. In fact it bas a wider climatic range than either of the American species, while its decided alkali-resisting power is worth re- membering. CHarLEs H. SHINN. value of the Oriental | THE BLACK-HEADED GROSBECK'S ARRIVAL. { A Study of the Family Affairs of Treetop Inhabitants. The California Canary Is a Good House- Father—Something About the Birds of the City. Sitting behind a great clump of the wav- ing southern-wood this morning watching the labors of a pair of brown towhees to keep fillea four gaping little mouths, clamoring in a near-by nest, my ears were suddenly greeted by a burst of melody. Up, up the scale ran the liquid notes, only to fall again in a rippling torrent of sweet sound that satisfied and delighted the ear as fresh sprinewater cools and delights the throat onahotday. Then upagainsprang the song to end in the melodious and char- acteristic call “Sweet! Sweet! Sweet! Here-I-am | Here-I-aru! Here-I-am!” There was no mistaking it. The black- headed grosbeak had come, and was al- ready engaged in a melodious duel with some rival, for from a distant tree 1 im- mediately heard the song defiantly an- swered. This is a favorite trick of these birds during the mating season. I have lain by the hour, sheltered in a tree, lis- tening, enraptured, to the vocal contests ot two of them for the favor of ademure little feathered lady who perched upon a live- oak bough, looking at and hstening to everything apparently save the songful rivals who were evidently suing for her favor. But where was the chap whose singing sounded so close at hand? Vainly I scanned the tall eucalyptus trees on every side. Right above me I spied an oriole, worm in beak, hovering fatherlywise over a perfect beauty of ornithological archi- tecture. At any other time the sight would bhave held me spellbound, bat some- thing more wonderful even than this now claimed my attention. Over by the big willow I caught a flash of black and white wings, and in another moment I was snugly established along a thick, low- hanging branch, with my fieldglass lev- eled at the songster. The black-headed | grosbeak is rather a handsome bird, with | shining black head, an orange-colored collar and black and white wings. These, | with his neavy olive-colored bill, and, | above all, his clear, loud song, will serve to identify him to the most casual ob- server. The only other bird he can possi- bly be confounded with is the Oregon tow- hee, and, although I know this mistake is sometimes macde, it is not clear to me how it can be. The Oregon towhee has a black head and the black and white wings, but ne has not the orange-yellow collar of the | grosbeak, and his sides are-a light chest- | nut-brown. His bill, 00, is slenderer and black, and there is no music in his soul. He has only a querulous, cat-like, mewing call, that has won for him the name of the Oregon catbird. Farther out upon the branch where the erosbeak was singing sat the lady of his choice, this time evidently considering him very seriously. Low he lay aiong tte branch, his wings dragging at his side, his tail slightly spread, his head moving from side to side in the suggestive, serpent- like way characteristic of birds in court- ship and in combat, and all the while he | poured forth a low, bubbling, tender song, very different from the clear, loud melody |of & few moments before. There was something so exquisitely loverlike in the whispered notes that it is hard to see how | the plain little hen resisted his advances. She did, however, and presently flew away, leaving him disconsolate. I have never been able tolearn just what decides the female bird in her acceptance of a mate. I have seen one take up with the victor in a combat, and I have known one to fly off with the vanquished con- testant, leaving his rival in victorious pos. session of the field, but minus the lady. Again, I have seen a song-sparrow scorn the advances of a perfect specimen of song- | sparrowhood and mate with a forlorn | | provider. little chap without the vestige of a tail. The mating and nesting ways of our birds are not the least interesting of their charm- ing performances. Now that vacation is be- ginning, and our City folk are flitting hill- ward and canyonward, there is a delight- ful field here for a study that will store up a fund of pleasant memories against the season of our winter’s discontent. That quarrelsome little chap, the com- mon English sparrow, for instance, is a most engaging paterfamilias. Seeing him in this capacity, one is inclined to forgive him all his rowdyish ways and his pugna- city for the sake of his kindly chivalry and forbearance under very trying circum- stances. Just above my window, all the spring, a pair of these birds have made their home. This week the young birds are hatched, and father sparrow has had a hard time of it, for his better balf, 1 regret to state, is a most egregious little domestic tyrant. She has apparent hysterical at- tacks, during which she will not let him approach the nest. She will pounce upon him as he fliecs homeward; and, at times, seems to find serious fault with him asa Once I saw her actually compel him to drop the nice fat little bug he had brought and fly away, while she followed, scolding like a veritable virago and mak- ing feints at him in the air. But I haye never seen him show any resentment of her conduct. Sometimes he will retire around the corner of the house, where he will sit, holding his crumb or bug, until she has flown off, when he will appear, de- posit the morsel in one of the uplifted beaks and depart in search of another mouthful. Sometimes he squats upon the ground with a queer, deprecating little hunch of the shoulders and waits until she has said her say and graciously per- mits him toadvance and feed their vocifer- ating offspring; but never, even when she tas dealt him half a dozen vigorous pecks with her sharp bill, has he shown any dis- position to retaliate or administer the chastisement he might be justified in thinking she merited. Another dear little house-father is tne so-called California canary. In a bush, just in front of my window, a pair of these have built a round, compaect, soft little nest. The little hen has just finished lay- ing her complement of eggs and has just begun to set. Nothing could be prettier than the attention paid her by her devoted little mate. He hovers about the bush, encouraging her with little snatches of song, and seems to spare no pains for her entertainment. He even relieves her in her maternal task while she goes for an occasional brief outing. He has not her confiding nature, however, for if [ ap- proach the nest while he is on it he is off like a flash, while she, albeit maintaining an alert head and watchful eye, will let me come close beside the nest. Once, when T came nearer than she liked. she | half arose and greeted me with an inter- rogatory ‘‘cheep!” whereupon I retired, feeling that her right in the premises ex- ceeded my own. An interesting and beautitul bird that is unusually plentiful about the bay this summer is the Lazuli Bunting. I have never before seen them in such numbers as bave appeared this year. They have even invaded the City, nesting in the trees | about Russian Hill. The Lazuli Bunting is | one of the handsomest birds we have about | here. ‘“‘Biuecap,”” the country boys call him. He is somewhat smaller than a spar- row, with head and shoulders of a beauti- ful lazuli blue, and a necktie of orange- red under his chin. The wings and tail- feathers are deep blue, shading into black, and the breast and underparts are a light gray. The female might almost be mis- taken for a sparrow. so plain is she in her garb of soft Quaker-gray, but despite her | sober coloring she is one of the most daint- ily graceful creatures to be imagined. I have come across a great many of their nests this spring, carefuily constructed of grass and soft, pliable twigs, cunningly shaped and lined with horsehair, of which they use a great deal in building, but in nearly every instance the nests are so care- | lessly placed that the chances for the young birds coming to maturity seem very slim, They build beside pathways and among the thistles and in wayside bushes, with | no attempt at concealment, and their pretty blue eggs are a constant temptation to nest-hunting schoolboys. The birds, | too, seem to find their own beauty a peril, for they are being snared by the hundred | for the dealers, who dub them the *“Indigo | birds,” perhaps on the same principle that Lord Dundreary called his brother Robert, ‘‘because his name was Frederick.” for the Lazuli Bunting has nothing whatever— not even his color—in common with the Indigo bird. Moreover, he is not a specially sweet singer ana hedoes not take kindly to captiv ApELINE KxAPP. 1 186 HOW THE RACCOON STRAITS WERE NAMED Told in Letters Submitted by Professor Davidson. In 1814 a British Frigate Stoppad There for R-pairs—She Spelled It With Two C’s. “Speaking of Raccoon Strait, between Angel Island anda the shore of Marin County,” said the secretary of the Csfli!or. nia Historical Society, in conversation a few days since, “‘reminds me that I have among the papers here one that bears upon the naming of that strait,” and the secretary produced the documeqt. which proved to be a copy of a letter written by Professor George Davidson to General W. W. Duffield, superintendent of Coast and Geodetic Survey, and is as follows: The matter of the spelling of “Raccoon” Strait, San Francisco Bay, having been sub- mitted to me by Henry Gannett, chairman of the Board of Geographical Names, I answered that the name was applied after the British vessel-oi-war Raccoon, which was repaired in Raccoon Strait in 1814. As a matter of record I beg to make the fol- lowing report to you: I called upon the United States Surveyor- General for California for such information as he could give irom the Spanish archives. Through the assistance of R. C. Hopkins, for many years keeper of those records, I have ob- tained the following memoranda: FRIGATE RACCOON, PORT OF SAXN Fco., M’ei 4th, 1814. Wm. Black, Captain, to Gov'r Arrillaga: Some seamen have deserted; asks assistance to nave them returned. Has lost & number of his crew from sickness and death. Is short of men. FRIGATE RACCOON, PORT OF SAN Fco., Mcn 29th, 1814. To His Excellency Governor Joaquin Arrillaga: His British Majesty’s ship Raccoon having un- fortunately struck on the bar in getting out of the Columbia River and & great part of the powder being damaged and rendered unfit for use I have to request that your Excellency let me have a supply of 1400 or 1500 pounds of powder, to be furnished, for which I will give receipts or bills on the British Government, that I may be able to put the remaining part of my orders into execution. Ism happy to inform your Excellency that the Raccoon is now repaired and is getting ready for sea again. I hope within ten or twelve days, with your Excellency’s assist- ance, to be perfectly ready. Iam, with great respect, your Excellency’s most obedient humble servant, WILLIAM BLACK, Captain. The following is a letter from Senor Don Luis Arguello to the Governor of Cali- fornia: April 29, 1814. On the 19th of the present month the Briush trigate Raccoon, commanded by Black, at 3 'clock in the afternoon sailad from this port, bound for Monterey, and, as the commauder informed me. from Monterey he would proceed to the Sandwich Islands, in pursult of the Anglo-A mericanos. Mr. Hopkins informs me that the roport smong. the old Ca.iforniuns was that the vessel was re- paired ac Kaccoon Cove, Angel Isiand, Raccoon Strait. From these letters it appears that Cap- tain Black has considerable difficulty with the name of the then Gov- ernor, and that the amount of powder he wanted to secure, probably a considerable amount for an English frigate, would in these days make but three loads for a modern piece of United States ordnance. Assassinations of a Centary. 1. Czar Paul, choked to death in 1801. 2. Sultan Selim III, strangled in 1308, 3. Count Kapodistrias, President of the Greek republic, murdered at Nauplia in 1831 . Duke Charles of Parma, murdered in President Abraham Lincoln, shot in 6. Michael Obrenovic, Prince of Servia, stabbed in 1868 in Belgrade. 7. Salnave, President of Hayti, shot in 1870. 8. Dr. Garcia Moreno, President Ecuador, murdered in Quito in 1875. 9. Sultan Abul-Aziz, stabbed in 1876. 10. President James A. Garfield, shot in of | 1881. 11. Czar Alexander II, killed by a bomb in 1881. 12. Sadi-Carnot, Presiaent of France, stabbed at Lyons in 1894, 13. shah Nazr-ed-Din of Persia, shot in Teheran in 1896. GALIFORNIA INSTITUTE FOR THE When we think of the system of public | schools we usually think of the grammar | and high schools and their culmination in | the State University, but on the gentle slopes of the Berkeley hills, overlooking the fair cities of the bay, is the purest jewel in the crown. It is thought by many that the institu- tion for the deaf and the blind is a half- charity-half-pay place, where these af- flicted children are taken care of and | educated. It is as truly a part of the public school system of California as the grammar schools. No tuition fee is ex- | pected or accepted. There are in all fourteen instructors— eleven for the deaf and three for the blind. During the past year 218 pupils have been received, and a class of six mutes gradu- ated and one blind punil was honorably dismissed. Pupils are given seven years’ instruc- tion. The rule used to be seven yeass | after the age of 12, but with the modern idea they are taken at seven years, or even younger, at the discretion of the man- agers. If achild has a good home, and is under good influences, the principal would rather let him remain at home until the age of 10. | The principal, Warring Wilkinson,M.A., | has been with the institution thirty-one uf! the thirty-six years of its existence. He | has seen the school moved from a crowded lot in the Mission to the large and lovely | quarters they He saw it de- stroyed by and the present | buildings are of his pianning. Not only | hes be studied the best institutions of the nd in the tern States, but he has ex- amined those of Europe in search of the best method No one who comes'in con- tact with rong and genial nature can | doubt that he is the right man in theright pl His brother, Charles Wilkinson, who is the head of the blind department, has printed many textbooks for his pupils in the raised type. Professor Otto Fleissner of San Fran- | cisco is, as one of the teachers says, the head of the wind department. He teaches music. The ructors of the deaf are C. 8. Perry, M.A., Theodore Frank O'Donnell, Henry Frank, Miss A. Dutch, Miss L. Nourse, Theophilus strella, N. F. Whipple, Miss L. Moffat. hose of the blind are Charies Wilkin- son. Miss A, Parker, Miss Mary Eastman. Now, as to what these teachers do and | how they do it. Those who were present | during the exercises last Tuesday, or who | ad the account of them, know some- | thing oi the result, but could kpow from | them abeolutely nothing of the force and | machinery that produced the result. Miss | Mofiat, the teacher of articulation, could | tell them astory of the patient enaeavor, | Grady, B.L., trated attention that takes the place of the lacking senses. The corgenital mute can be taught to speak. Do not, bowever, imagine he will be turned out a fluent conversationalist. | This is not the age of miracles, though the fact that a child who has never heard a sound can be taught to make his needs known by plainly spoken words, and can read the motions of another’s lips, ap- proaches as near the miraculous as we usually get. The semi-mute, one who was once able to talk and who has lost the power throuch becoming deaf, is able to l WARRING WILKINSON, Principal. M.A., DEAF AND THE BLIND AT BERKELEY - ITS TEAGHERS AND GRADUATING CLASS. G Ivert, Ant och. Tsavellc Hennessey, San Franciseo. Mavel Grand, San Francisco. William Caldwell, Their Teacher. =y B - ST BN Isadore Davis, Caroline Crawford, Oakland, : Berkeley. GRADUATING CLASS OF THE DEAF AND BLIND INSTITUTE AT BERKELEY, converse much more fluently than the congenital mute with the same training, for hig brain has had impressions of sound and he has a knowledge of colloqui- alisms. A child who loses his hearing when about 5 years old will lnse his speech in a year at least, and have to be taught just as those are who are born deaf. The mute learns to talk by using his eyes, and ithen imitating the position and movements of his teacher’s mouth and chest. He feeis, with his fingers on his throat, the vibration caused by sound- ing the vowels. The alphabet taught them is one of sounds and resembles the alphabet of stenography. Y It used to cost $10,000 to equip & printing office for the blinda. The modern office fitted up in the Berkeley institution cost $300. Formerly the letters themselves were raised and one who was not blind could read them. This system is being superseded by the Braille system of raised points, which is all Greek to one who has not learned the Braille alphab:t. Wora slgns are coming in, too, reminding one of stenography wgain. There is a typewriter which makes copy in the Braille points. It has only six keys combinations of which make all the signs and letters. One blind girl, whose soft, brown eyes looked as if they could see, wrote on this machine for me thirty-eight words a minute. In the printing office there is a stereo- typer of marvelous simplicity, taking up no more room than a boy's turning lathe, anfl a manifolder, which 1san exaggerated wringer. A sheet of zinc is slipped into the stereo- typer, which has treadles to work little pointed punches; then the keys are played upon as in typewriting, and out comes a zine sheet from which endless copies may be made. Three sheets of dampened pa- per are placed over the stereotyped zinc, a pad of rubber put on top and the whole run throug! the wringer. This gives three finished copies of a page. The music is written the same way and, strange to say, takes up much less room than ours, because they have many little signs for repetition, change of key, etc. Twelve of the sheets for the blind contain often twenty-six sheets of our music. Here let me correct a popular mistake, The blind are not taught to play by ear, They learn music by note, just as other people do, only more thoroughly, for ey- ery piece must be learnea by heart before it can be played. Think of the memory work when listening to the wonderful har- monies falling from a blind player's fin. gers. A musician from this school is as com- p_etfi:n to teach music as a person with sight. gl‘bere are trades classes, cooking clusses. sewing classes; there are kind voices, loving faces, beautifui surroundmxs: Truly He does “temper the wind to the shorn lamb.” —_— — Christian Science Gamp-Meeting. I went out to camp-meeting yesterday and heard a man give in his “‘testimony’” thus: *“Itis nincteen years since the doc- | tor told my wife that I could not live three days. She has been dead sixteen years, glory balleiujah! and I weigh ten pounds more than I dia then." C.T. WILKINSON, Teacher of the Blind. Every time you hi CrAE share a grief you