108 



Querais alba, L. In a wood on the south side of the Astoria and 

 Flushing Road, near the school house, a quarter of a mile east of the 

 Trains' Meadow Road, in the town of Newtown, Queens Co., N. Y., the 

 following trees were measured : two of 9 feet each in circumference, at 

 5 feet from the ground; one of 11 feet 9 inches; one of 9 feet 7 inches; 

 one of 12 feet 3 inches; one of 10 feet 6 inches; and one of 13 feet; 

 the last with a spread of 85 feet. The wood of which the above 

 forms a part has recently had much timber cut in it, and there is little 

 doubt that these fine trees will soon fall before the axe. 



Liriodcndron Tulipifera^l.. A few trees from 10 to 12 feet in 



circumference still remain on Bergen Neck, near the M. & E. Canal. 



Before the establishment of a saw. mill on the side of the canal, 



there was a great variety of splendid forest trees in the Pamrapo 

 woods. 



Platamis occidetitalis, L. This seems to have been a favorite 

 shade tree m the olden time. In Brooklyn the course of the primi- 

 tive country roads, long since closed, may be traced by their frequent 

 occurrence, often in pairs, as they stood in front of the farm houses. 

 A pair in front of 121, McDonough Street, measure respectively 14 

 feet, and 14 feet 8 inches in circumference. Another pair still flour- 

 ish on the Jamaica plank road, in New Brooklyn. They are 10 and 

 II feet m circumference. A single tree in front of 684, Atlantic 

 Avenue, measures 1 1 feet. 



The almost entire absence of large forest trees, which is very 

 noticeable on Long Island, is accounted for by Stiles, in his History 

 of the City of Brooklyn, ^ Vol. i, page 310), as follows: 'Tn the fall 

 of every year the Long Island counties would be assessed for 

 many thousand cords of wood, to be cut down and delivered at 

 certain points for the use of the British garrisons in New York and 

 vicinity. In this manner both Queens and Kings Counties were utter- 

 ly despoiled of the abundant forests which had been their pride- and 

 when the British finally left the island, scarcely a stick, except a small 

 piece of oak vvoods a few miles beyond Jamaica, which belonged to a 

 strong Tory, had escaped the axe. All the woodlands now in these 

 counties have grown since the year 1783." 



Either the above statement is too broad, or the locality " beyond 

 Jamaica is a mistake. The Newtown oaks mentioned above arc 

 certainly older than 1783. The oaks of the same species in Flushing, 

 under which George Fox preached in 1672, and which were then 

 presumably large trees, when measured by Messrs. Bruce and G 

 l-urman 153 years afterwards, were but 13 feet and 12 feet 4 inches 

 in circumference, or about the size of the two largest Newtown oaks, 

 (turman s Annq. of L. I., 1875, page 97). 



. The annals of Newtown and of Queens Co. fail to throw any light 

 on the exact locality of the oak woods, which Dr. Stiles states were 

 spared during the Revolution. 



Brooklyn, J 



w 



'^ ^ nf «L ?i- '^S^ 0^?*'°"^ *°^^''^ ^ I-'st Of the State and Local Floras 



of the United States.-It is proposed in this and subsequent nW 

 bers of the Bulletin to enumerate, as far as known to us aU the 



