HISTORIC TREES OF WASHINGTON 



By B, R. WINSLOW 



THE cry of "Woodman, spare that 

 tree," that has been sent ringing 

 through the parks and gardens of 

 the Nation's Capital by the champions 

 of the trees who are fearful that a new 

 order of archit-ecture will destroy them, 

 has brought to public attention some 

 of the many historic trees of Wash- 

 ington. 



Every country has its memorial trees 

 which are highly venerated and around 

 which cluster traditions and hallowed 

 memories of antiquity dear to the 

 hearts of the citizens. In the parks of 

 European and Asiatic cities these trees 

 are quite numerous, but in the cities 

 of the United States they are compara- 

 tively few, not that we are lacking in 

 veneration, but for the obvious reason 

 that we are comparatively young. 



Nevertheless, Washington's public 

 parks and gardens contain many speci- 

 mens of trees which are notable because 

 of the historic interest attached to them. 

 It is seldom, however, that the aver- 

 age sightseer runs across them for they 

 are not tagged, at least not all of them. 

 Memento hunters, who are always 

 found among the large number of an- 

 nual visitors to the Capital, make the 

 labeling of these trees dangerous. The 

 knives of souvenir hunters would soon 

 ruin them. The superintendents in the 

 various parks are acquaintetl with the 

 location of the trees and the facts re- 

 lating to their planting, and can point 

 out the memorial trees to visitors. 



In the Botanic Garden there are 

 planted a large number of trees as me- 

 morials of men prominent in the Na- 

 tion's history. One of the most inter- 

 esting memorial trees in this garden is 

 that planted in commemoration of 

 President Garfield. It is growing on 

 the border of the walk near the south 

 entrance to the large conservatory. 

 270 



This tree has a novel history. At the 

 funeral ceremonies of President Gar- 

 field a small seedling branch of acacia 

 was placed on the coffin by a member 

 of the Masonic order. After the burial 

 this seedling plant was brought to 

 Washington and was subsequently 

 planted in its present location, where it 

 has thrived from the first. Near this 

 tree on the opposite side of the walk an 

 acacia tree has been planted as a me- 

 morial to the late Gen. Albert Pike. 



An Overcup oak tree was planted in 

 1863 by former Senator Crittenden of 

 Kentucky, south of the eastern gate to 

 the garden. The acorns from which 

 this tree grew were brought from Ken- 

 tucky by Robert Mallory, a warm per- 

 sonal friend of Senator Crittenden. 



There is also in the garden a speci- 

 men of Chinese oak tree which has a 

 novel history. Many years ago a friend 

 of the late Charles A. Dana, while 

 traveling in China, picked up a number 

 of acorns under a tree shading the 

 grave of Confucius and brought them 

 to America, giving them to Mr. Dana, 

 who planted several in his garden. One 

 of the saplings grown from these 

 acorns was sent to the Botanic Garden 

 and was planted south of the green- 

 house near Maryland Avenue and Sec- 

 ond Street. 



There are many other memorial trees 

 in these gardens, among the most no- 

 table being the following : 



The Beck memorial tree, an Ameri- 

 can elm, planted by the late Senator 

 B'eck of Kentucky south of the east 

 gateway entrance. It was propagated 

 from the roots of the Washington elm 

 that was removed wheu' the Capitol 

 grounds improvements were in prog- 

 ress. The Alexander Shepherd memo- 

 rial tree, another American elm. locat- 

 ed near the Beck tree ; the J. W. For- 



