118 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



yellow nerrilla {^Menispermum canidemis), virgin's bower (^Clematis vir^ 

 ginicd), wild false bittersweet {Celastnis scandens), and the wild yam (Vios- 

 airea villosa). 



Yines are my favorites. No grounds are complete without them. 

 There is a peculiar grace and beauty, a charm about vines which pertains 

 to nothing else. They are the poetry of the forest, the emblem of affec- 

 tion, the companion of love. Nature has given us liberally of them. She 

 never plants a park without interspersing it with vines. Let us not over- 

 look or neglect this, her crowning beauty. 



There are other trees, shrubs and vines that are worthy of cultivation 

 for ornament, especially in Northern and Southern Illinois, but these are 

 among the most prominent and valuable ones in the middle portion of 

 the State. I will not occupy your time with a description of them, as 

 that can be obtained from any of our text-books on Botany. 



For planting, training and handling ornamental trees, and for other 

 information on the subject, I refer you to a valuable and well-written 

 article by Mr. J. H. Garrison, of Greenwood, McHenry county, that was 

 published in last year's Transactions of this Society, page 366. 



There are different views on the subject of tree planting on road- 

 sides, some contending that all our roads should be lined on either 

 side with trees, and others that they should not. I think both are right 

 and both are wrong. If all road-sides were set in trees, it would un- 

 doubtedly add immeasurably to the beauty of our country and the pleasure 

 of traveling; but other things must be taken into consideration. In some 

 flat districts, where the mud becomes deep and is long in drying, the 

 shade of the trees would materially retard the drying of the roads, and 

 thus impede travel. This would be a serious detriment to farmers in 

 carrying their produce to market. Again, in case of small farms with 

 roads passing through them, the injury to crops on the side of these 

 rows of trees might be seriously felt. And where roads pass through farms 

 in the vicinity of large forests, where there is already a full fourth of the 

 area of the region roundabout in timber, they may give no adequate com- 

 pensation for the loss, or partial loss, of the land adjacent to them. But 

 in all places where roads pass through large prairie farms that are reasona- 

 bly well drained (and if they are not they should be), in all places where 

 they pass through waste land, these objections do not exist. 



Besides the beauty they give to the country and the pleasure they im- 

 part to those who travel on these roads, they are very useful. The protec- 

 tion they give a farm is more than most people estimate, usually more than 

 compensates for the loss of land they induce. In pasture lands, the protec- 

 tion they give to stock in winter and the grateful shade in summer are no 

 mean considerations. And the wood they make will be an item of great 

 value to the next generation. Ordinarily, a farm with its road-sides lined 

 with trees is enhanced in value, and will sell more readily and for a higher 

 price than one that is not. 



As to the kind of trees that are most suitable for road-side planting, 

 many circumstances must be taken into account. In the large prairies, 

 where it is desirable to have a speedy growth to make screens and wood 



