A List of the Forest Trees and Shrubs 

 To be found in Meride^i, Conn. 



By Chas. H. S. Davis, M. D. 



I have endeavored in this article to give an account of all of the 

 forest trees and shrubs that are to be found in Meriden. 



There are persons now living who can remember when the 

 greater part of Meriden was covered by a forest. The original 

 forest has long ago disappeared, and in many places has been re- 

 placed by a second and sometimes by a third and fourth growth 

 of trees, and the forest area of Meriden now consists to a great de- 

 gree of coppice growth, which is cut in rotations of about thirty 

 years, for fire-wood mainly. 



There are in Connecticut 650,000 acres of woodland, or 21 per 

 cent. Hitherto our forests have been destroyed for the sake of 

 immediate pecuniary gain or convenience, with no regard to the 

 future supply of a material so valuable and neccessary for almost 

 all pursuits. 



During the last few years great attention has been paid to the 

 maintenance of timber supply by cultivation, and to the raising of 

 forest trees from seed, their care and treatment in the nursery, and 

 their permanent planting. In 1886 the legislature passed the fol- 

 lowing act to encourage the planting of forest trees : 



Section 1. The governor shall annually in the spring designate by official 

 proclamation an arbor day to be observed in the schools and for economic tree 

 planting. 



Sec 2. Chapter forty-nine of the public acts of eighteen hundred and seven- 

 ty-seven is hereby amended to read as follows : Whenever any person shall plant 

 land in this State not heretofore woodland, the actual value of which at the time of 

 planting does not exceed twenty-five dollars per acre, to timber trees of any 

 of the following kinds, to wit, Chestnut, Hickory, Ash, White (3ak, Sugar Maple, 

 European Larch, White Pine, Black Walnut, Tulip, or Spruce, not less in num- 



