182 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[June, 



shrubs indigenous to our Island, and sketches of 

 their habits and usefulness, and when completed 

 and it is published will endeavor to send a copy 

 to thee. This appears to be only a few extracts 

 from his notes. The largest tree I believe 

 found here is a Black Walnut, growing on the 

 farm of the late W. C. Bryant, at Roslyn. It is 

 twenty-eight feet in circumference, and is a 

 monster. Its arms must extend to a radius of 

 fifty feet from the body, and the branches would 

 make ver}- large trees of themselves. Our trees 

 seldom rise very high in proportion to their size, 

 except the Liriodendrons ; and finer specimens I 

 have no where seen than are found growing 

 among us. Long Island is much better wooded 

 than it was when first discovered. The settlers 

 soon protected the scattered trees from the fre- 

 quent fires, and soon learning the importance of 

 preserving the young timber from the depreda- 

 tions of cattle, it has greatly increased in quality 

 and quantity. When timber is cut off in forty to 

 sixty years, it grows thicker and faster ; many 

 pieces of woodland fenced in and properly cared 

 for are worth from one to two hundred dollars 

 per acre, while laud immediately adjoining and 

 cleared is not worth fencing. We have found 

 no evergreen withstands the salt spray in proxi- 

 mity to the ocean, like the Austrian Pine and 

 Poplars and' Dutch Cork Elm among deciduous 

 trees. 



The following are the extracts referred to by 

 Mr. Hicks from the Brooklyn Eagle : 



" For timber the locust ranks among the most 

 valuable of Long Island trees. It is abundant 

 and widely distributed. It grows on almost 

 every variety of soil, but best in the light or 

 sandy loams. In Queens County, especially 

 from Oyster Bay westward, this tree has been 

 seriously damaged by insects, but from Stony 

 Brook eastward to Wading River, in Suffolk 

 County the insects have not appeared, and the 

 trees are extremely thrifty and beautiful. Among 

 the most persistent enemies of the locust are 

 the caterpillar of the locust tree moths. This 

 attacks old and large trees, boring the wood in 

 winding avenues ; a grub of the painted Clyrus 

 beetle burrows in the young bark, devours its 

 soft inner portions in the Fall and penetrates 

 the wood in the Spring. Beside these is a small 

 reddish caterpillar which lives in the pith of 

 small branches, causing a swelling and spongi- 

 ness of the branch, so that it readily breaks. For 

 full aud interesting details upon this subject we 

 refer the reader to Dr. Harris' work on ' Insects 



Injurious to Vegetation' and to our ' Common 

 Insects,' by Dr. Packard. 



"Three Locust trees on the lawn around the 

 residence of Daniel Bogart, Esq., of Roslyn, are 

 one foot from the ground, nine, ten and twelve 

 and a-half feet in girth. A still larger one in the 

 dooryard of the late Elwood Valentine, at Glen 

 Cove, was measured by Isaac Coles, Esq., and 

 found to be thirteen feet in girth. Several 

 nearly as large have been cut down or have 

 fallen from decay at Glen Cove, Doxies, Sands 

 Point and elsewhere during the last thirty years. 

 These trees were among those imported from 

 Virginia. It is believed that those on Mr. 

 Bogart's ground, several now or recently at 

 Sands Point and two on the dooryard of the old 

 Thorne mansion at Little Xeck, now occupied 

 by Eugene Thorne, Esq., are of the first im- 

 ported and planted on Long Island. 



"The date must have been not far from the 

 year 1700. It is not doubted, I believe, that 

 they were first introduced by Captain John 

 Sands, of Sands Point. He moved from Block 

 Island to that place about 1695, and died in 

 March, 1712." 



" A few more facts illustrating the character 

 of our forests may be of interest. Near the resi- 

 dence of Samuel B. Parsons, Esq., of Flushing,^ 

 are two White Oaks, estimated by that gentle- 

 man to be as old as the celebrated Fox Oaks 

 were at the time of their fall. Two Chestnut 

 Oaks, on land of William T. Cocks, near Glen 

 Cove, were found by Isaac Coles to measure 

 fifteen feet in girth, respectively. A White Oak 

 on land of Mrs. Young, of Greenvale, is fourteen 

 and three-fourths feet around, and a hickory 

 near bj' is twelve feet in girth. The Post Oak 

 is found by Mr. Elihu Miller, at Wading River^ 

 to measure from nine to eleven feet in girth.- 

 The Spanish or Pine Oak attains a large size in 

 Kings County, and the so-called scrub oak grow& 

 in favorable soil to a height of twenty-five feet^ 

 A tree of that species in Greenwood, is thirty feet 

 high. The White and Black, or the Sweet 

 Birch, the Hornbeam or Ironwood, the Dog- 

 wood, Sassafras, Tulip, Tupelo or Pepperidge. 

 Sweet Gum, Red Maple, Red Mulberry, the 

 Black Wild Clherry and Black Walnut, with 

 many others abound in woodlands or in swamps 

 and hedgerows. Mr. Miller called our attention 

 to the value of the White Birch and Balsam Pop- 

 lar, as among the deciduous trees which grow and 

 flourish in the poorest soil. Few trees are clad 

 in more beautiful foliage than the White Birch.. 



