TREES AND PLEASURE GROUNDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



him in great glee, said, " see what a lovely flower I have plucked." Mr. Hamilton ex- 

 claimed with an oath, " Madam, I had rather have given you one hundred guineas than 

 that you should have picked that precious blossom." [A rather ungallant speech, 

 for doubtless the lady was herself, the fairer flower. Ed.] The grounds Were planted 

 with taste; the grouping and variety of trees produce a picturesque eflect; yet the place 

 has suffered severely from changing owners, and is now far inferior in beauty to what it 

 was during Hamilton's life time. He bequeathed it to his nephew, James Hamilton, 

 by whom it was finally sold to a gentleman of Philadelphia, who occupied the house for 

 a time, and felled many of the finest trees for fuel. Quite recently, one of the most state- 

 ly specimens of the black oak (Quercustinctoria) existing in this neighborhood, was laid 

 low. This regal tree was four feet in diameter. A walk leading from the mansion in a 

 northerly direction, and of which there is still some remains, was termed the " EnglLsh 

 walk," on account of its sinuous course; it is skirted with the yellow Broom (Cytisus 

 scoparius,) which grows here luxuriantly. He probably first brought the plant to this 

 countrjr, and it seems to have been a favorite with him, as it existed on his other estates 

 of Bush Hill and Lemon Hill. Hamilton introduced the Platanus orientalis, of which 

 there is a fine specimen still flourishing at the Woodlands, probably the first in the coun- 

 try; it was under the eastern plane that Xerxes halted his army of seventeen hundred 

 thousand men, according to Evelyn, " to admire its pulchritude and procerity, and be- 

 came so fond of it, that spoiling both himself, his wives and great persons of all their 

 jewels, he covered it with gold gems, necklaces, scarfs, bracelets and infinite riches, * * * 

 and when he was forced to part with it, he caused the figure of it to be stamped on a medal 

 of gold, which he continually wore about him." 



Hamilton also introduced (besides the Wych Elm from Britain, and the Tartarian 

 ]Maple, indigenous to Russia,) the Lombardy Poplar, for a while such a universal favorite, 

 but which is now rarely considered an ornamental tree. The cause of this deterioration 

 ma)^ be explained by the fact that the poplar is dioecious, and only the staminate tree was 

 brought to this country; consequentlj'', it has been propagated b}'- suckers or cuttings, 

 which root easily and grow rapidly, so that the tree is now in its dotage; it would be well 

 for some one to import either seed or a pistillate tree, and thus raise a new stock. Long 

 rows of this stiff tree have justl}^ given to the lovers of the picturesque, a distaste to it, but 

 the landscape-gardener ought not wholly to neglect it on that account, any more than the 

 landscape-painter would refuse to use a certain color because another artist employed that 

 color too profusely; a few Lombardy poplars planted judiciously produce a fine effect — 

 their tall symmetrical forms rising above their neighbors, catch the eye and break the 

 monotony of a view. The stately heads of the pojalars were laid low in New-England 

 many years ago, on account of the stories circulated that a frightful insect had been 

 found to infest them ; this creature seemed to partake somewhat of the fabulous charac- 

 ter of the dragon, but whether real or imaginary it caused the destruction of this tree, 

 which had become so fashionable after the French revolution,* that it was planted in front 

 of nearly every house, to the exclusion of all others. 



The Gingko tree (^Salisburia adantifolia,^ a n&iive o? China, a number of which are 

 flourishing there finely — brought to ray mind, as its strange leaves flashed in the sun-light. 

 Dr. BiGELOw's address to this curious tree : 



Thou queer, outlandish, fcn-leaved tree, 

 "Wliose grandfather came o'er the sea, 

 A pilgrim of the ocean — 



The poplar was adopted by the French as the liberty tree. 



