TREES AND SHRUBS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



565 



to develop new buds, and a strong set of 

 fresh and thrifty shoots, with large and 

 healthy leaves. This young and vigorous 

 foliage, put forth at this late season, appears 

 to have the power of resisting the malaria, 

 so fatal to the ordinary, or normal growth. 

 The tree rapidly makes wood, in a short 

 time presents a rich head of large leaves, 

 and in a few years becomes larger and more 

 beautiful than ever. 



Six years ago, when this disease had be- 

 gun to destroy a large number of Sycamores 

 in one of our more southern cities, we re- 

 commended this course, as an experiment, 

 to be made on. four specimens in a row of 

 fine old trees, standing in one of the prin- 



cipal streets. They were very much head- 

 ed-back in the branches, and very speedily 

 put out a fine new growth, which was not 

 again attacked, and are now very beautiful 

 and healthy trees. The other trees that 

 were left to themselves, are now entirely 

 dead, or so miserably bare of foliage, as to 

 appear so. 



Since that time we have seen the same 

 treatment pursued in other parts of the 

 country, Avith similar good results. We 

 therefore make it more public, now, in the 

 hope of saving many specimens, in various 

 districts, that otherwise would fall victims 

 to the malady, to the injury of many a pretty 

 bit of landscape.* 



< » • » > 



REVIB"V7S. 



A Report on the Trees and Shrubs of Massa- 

 chusetts; published agreeably to an order of 

 the Legislature. By Geo. B. Emerson, 1846, 

 8 vo. p p. 547. 

 If we have been unintentionally tardy in 

 noticing this admirable volume, published 

 at tlie close of the last yenr, we are happy 

 to know that it has not needed any com- 

 mendation at our hands. A work so intrirasi- 

 cally excellent, and which fulfils the end in 

 view so completely as this does, seldom re- 

 quires any praise from the press. The pub- 

 lic soon find out its quality, and the critic's 

 labor is superfluous. 



The Survey of the State of Massachusetts, 

 has, like most things, planned and executed 

 in that commonwealth, b.een, in the main, 

 executed with signal care and ability. Dr. 

 Harris' volume on the Insects oi \.\\a.i State, 

 decidedly the best popular treatise yet pub- 

 lished on either side of the Atlantic, is now 

 the standard work en this subject, for the 

 use of all persons engaged in the culture 



of the soil. Mr. Emerson's volume on the 

 Forest Trees of Massachusetts, now before 

 us, is a worthy companion to it, and should 

 have its place on the book-shelf of every 

 country gentleman, and every person inter- 

 ested in our native forest trees in the northern 

 states. It will teach the student in nature, 

 and the ornamental planter, new sylvan 



* Dr. Harris, while we ^vere with him in the library at 

 Harvard University, placed in our hands, an English volume, 

 published in 1815, called " Foster's Researches into the Condi- 

 tion of the Atmosphere," from which we made the following 

 extract. It appears that the Sycamore disease was not alto- 

 gether unknown previously. 



" Not only the animal, but also the vegetable kingdom, ap- 

 pears to be alfected by the peculiarities of the atmosphere, 

 which do not consist in its temperature or pressure. For ex- 

 ample, in the summer of 1810, almost uU the Plane trees with 

 rough bark or rind, P. occidentalis [our American Buttonwood, 

 Ed] became diseased, in the neighborliood of London, and 

 for many miles round: while the smooth-rinded Plane trees, 

 (P. orienialis) remained in liealth." The season, he remarks, 

 was neither unusually hot or dry. 



We would add to this, that we have remarked in our own 

 neighborhood, that the trees of the Oriental Sycamore have as 

 yet, entirely escaped the disease which has prevailed among 

 our native species. 



