314 



HORTICULTURE 



October 23, 1920 



BOSTON FLORAL SUPPLY & SNYDER CO. 



Wholesale Florists 



15 Oti8-96 Arch St. BOSTON, MASS. 



Largest distributors of flowers in the East. 

 Manufacturers of artificial flowers, baskets, wire frames, etc 



,Fort Hill 1083 



„ , . Fort HIU 1084 



Telephones ^^^ „„, ^gg 



Main 2674 



William F. Kasting Co. 



568 570 WASHINGTON STREET 



ris-ts 



BUFFALO, N. Y. 



THIS SEASON'S NEW ROSES 



PILGRIM CRUSADER PREMIER RUSSELL HADLEY 



W« are receiving dally shipments of these new Roses, tn larsre qaantltles, mnd 

 van fornlsh same on sliort notice. 



We have a large stock at aU times of choice CARNATIONS, ORCHIDS, 

 VALLEY and AJfERICAN BEAUTIES. 



Tel.. M^ MJT WELCH BROS. CO. ''' ''^olTly'.^^lI!''^ 



THE TREE OF HEAVEN 



It is Still of Great Value for Street 

 Planting 

 The Tree of Heaven of the Chinese, 

 which botanists now call Ailanthus al- 

 tissima, although it is still better 

 known as Ailanthus glandulosa, is one 

 of the remarkable trees of the north- 

 ern hemisphere. Raised in Europe in 

 1751 from seeds sent from Peking, the 

 Ailanthus was one of the first Chinese 

 trees known In western countries. The 

 first Ailanthus was planted in the 

 United States by William Hamilton in 

 1784 in his famous garden near Phila- 

 delphia; and in 1804 it was first plant- 

 ed in New England near Portsmouth, 

 Rhode Island, where it is still abun- 

 dant. For many years little attention 

 was paid to the Ailanthus in Europe 

 until it was found that one of the 

 silk worms could be successfully fed 

 on its leaves. This discovery led to 

 the establishment of great .\ilanthus- 

 plantations in France where they have 

 succeeded beyond the most sanguine 

 expectations, the best results having 

 been obtained in calcareous soil and 

 on the sandy seacoast. 



The date of the first planting in 

 Europe of the Ailanthus as a street 

 tree is not known, but when the 

 streets of Paris were generally bor- 

 dered by trees in the early years of 

 the second Empire it was largely and 

 successfully used for this purpose. As 

 early as 1820 its remarkably rapid 

 growth, the tropical appearance of its 

 long gracefully drooping leaves and its 

 freedom from the attacks of insects 

 attracted general attention to the 

 Ailanthus in the United States. 



It was found to flourish equally well 

 in the country and in the streets of 

 New York and Philadelphia where it 

 grew more rapidly than any tree 

 which had been planted in those 

 cities; and it was believed that a tree 

 had been found which would take the 

 place of all others for city planting. 

 So great did the popularity of the 

 Ailanthus become in a few years that 

 the number of the trees planted was 

 only limited by the ability of nursery- 

 men to supply the demand. 



The popularity of the Ailanthus in 

 the United States, however, was 

 short-lived, for when the trees began 

 to flower it was found that some of 

 the flowers emitted a strong and to 

 most persons an offensive odor, that 

 the clouds of pollen shed from the 

 flowers and the flowers themselves 

 dropping on neighboring roofs so 

 affected the water caught on them that 

 it was unfit for use, and that the 

 flowers which dropped on the ground 

 made the city sidewalk and the coun- 

 try yard unbearably disagreeable. The 

 peculiarity of the flowers discovered, 

 the Ailanthus sank rapidly in popular 

 esteem, and its general destruction in 

 this country was advocated and put 

 into execution. 



Unpopular as the Ailanthus has be- 

 come, it is one of the handsomest and 

 most valuable trees in the world. 

 Planted in cities it can resist better 

 than any other tree heat, drought, dirt 

 and gas escaping from defective pipes 

 which menace the life of city trees. It 

 grows rapidly even in the most un- 

 promising situations; it is never se- 

 riously injured by insects; and few 

 trees can be more easily propagated. 



for small pieces of the root covered 

 with soil will soon grow into plants 

 large enough to ti-ansplant. 



The suckers which the Ailanthus 

 produces in great numbers from the 

 roots are the real drawback to this 

 trees but when it is planted in city 

 streets they are unable to force their 

 way through brick sidewalks and con- 

 crete is impervious to them. The 

 male and female flowers of the Ailan- 

 thus are chiefly produced on different 

 trees; only the male flowers have a 

 disagreeable odor and drop to the 

 ground. The female flowers are 

 scentless. In the clusters of female 

 flowers occasional male flowers are 

 found, but there are so few of these 

 that their odor is not perceptible. 



It is perfectly easy to propagate only 

 the female tree which is the one 

 which should he planted, and apart 

 from the absence of the disagreeable 

 smell of the flowers it is more orna- 

 mental than the male for the winged 

 fruit of the Ailanthus produced in 

 great terminal clusters is handsome 

 and conspicuous in the late summer 

 and autumn. Their fruit is usually 

 yellow, but in one variety it is bright 

 red (var. erythrocarpa) and more bril- 

 liant and conspicuous than the fruit of 

 any tree of large size which can be 

 grown in the northern-states. 



The leaves of the red-fruited varie- 

 ty are darker on the upper surface and 

 paler below than those of the yellow- 

 fruited form; and the handsomer 

 leaves and more brilliant fruit make 

 this the desirable form to cultivate. 

 There is certainly no better tree than 

 the Ailanthus to shade the streets of 

 American cities provided they afford 

 sufficient room for its development, 

 for the Ailanthus even when it is 

 planted in cities may become a tall, 

 wide-branched tree, demanding space 

 in which to display all its beauties. 

 Although the attempt has not been 

 made on a large scale in this country 

 to fix shifting sand dunes by planting 

 the Ailanthus, it has been successfully 

 used for this purpose in Europe, espe- 

 cially in the neighborhood of Odessa 

 on the Black Sea. where large planta- 

 tions of Ailanthus have been success- 

 ful on steril soil so shifty that 

 other trees have not been able to se- 

 cure a foothold on it. 



