L.VWN TREES. 



are exceedingly difficult to transplant. We think we are safe in saying that for every 

 one hundred that have been planted, not more than ten are in existence. They are 

 difficult to propagate, also. Seeds are always scarce and dear, and it takes several 

 years to make a respectable sized tree. Planters are in the habit of committing a 

 great error in regard to this, as well as many other trees. They are not satisfied to 

 plant young specimens that would involve little risk ; they must have them large — 

 large enough to figure at once on the lawn Avith other trees — and therefore they fail 

 with their magnolias much more frequently than they succeed ; and that, too, after 

 they have paid the nurseryman a good round price. We must say candidly, to those 

 who wish to plant successfully, that they must come to this. They must either take 

 small plants, say one or two year transplanted seedlings, of such as are raised from 

 seed, or pay the nurserymen for raising good specimens in pots. From what experi- 

 ence we have, this would be our course. The spirit of impatience must abate before 

 we really set on the right course in regard to planting. The cry has been to a great 

 extent, and is so at present, *' we want large trees — trees that will grow up rapidly 

 and produce an immediate effect !" This spirit has filled the country with the coarsest 

 and most unsuitable trees that could possibly be selected for the purpose of embel- 

 lishment. It has scattered broad-cast abeles and ailantus, and whatever else promised 

 the greatest amount of shade in the shortest given time. The mistake begins to be 

 felt, and thousands of vain regrets are daily uttered. All manner of hard things are 

 said about the rapid growing trees, and they are threatened with nothing less than 

 extermination. It should be remembered that they have been merely misapplied. 

 There are situations and circumstances in which the judicious planter may use such 

 trees to advantage. There are bleak exposed situations, where the very first object 

 of the planter is to provide shelter, because this is no less indispensable to that comfort 

 which every wise man seeks in his residence, than to the success of his cultivation. 

 In such cases the most rapid growing trees are needed, and it would only be absurd 

 to plant others. But such a plantation would be made on the outskirts of the 

 grounds, and on the principle of utility, — not on the lawn or in the door yard, or 

 wherever it may be desirable and necessary to display taste and beauty. 



Among our hardy American deciduous species of magnolia, the acuminata (cucum- 

 ber tree,) is much the largest ; specimens from sixty to eighty feet in height may yet 

 be found in the scattering remains of the forests of New York, and especially south- 

 ward towards the AUeganies. Michaux says :* " It abounds along the whole moun- 

 tainous tract of the AUeganies to their termination in Georgia, over a distance of 

 nine hundred miles. The situations particularly adapted to its growth are the decliv- 

 ities of mountains, narrow vallies, and the banks of torrents, where the air is con- 

 stantly moist, and the soil deep and fertile." When this tree is transplanted at an 

 early age to the lawn, where it has abundant space on all sides to assume its natural 

 habits of growth, it throws out side branches near the ground, takes a pyramidal 

 form, and tapers upwards with striking regularity and symmetry. In this way only 

 eal magnificence developed. Its leaves are large, — and especially where the 



* North American Syiva. 



