Vol. VI. 



82.00 a Year. 

 24 Numbers. 



CHICAGO, OCTOBER i, 1897. 



Single Copy 

 10 Cents. 



No. 122. 



RHODODENDRONS WITH BACKGROUND OP HEMLOCKS. ARNOLD ARBORETUM. BOSTON. 



Trees and Shrubs. 



VIEWS IN TftBfiRNOLD ARBORETUM, BOSTON. 



The Arnold Arboretum comprises about 

 165 acres with five miles of driveways 

 and contains the most varied collection 

 of hardy trees and shrubs in America. By 

 an arrangement between Harvard Uni- 

 versity, which controls the fund from 

 which the Arboretum draws its support, 

 and the city of Boston, the entire grounds 

 are made practically a part of the park 

 system of Boston. Many of the planta- 

 tions are recent and it will be some 3'ears 

 before the young trees attain sufficient 

 size for the groups to show their ultimate 

 character. 



The South street entrance, which is 

 shown in our illustration, was the first 

 to be constructed and on the avenues 

 leading from this entrance, one of which 

 we also illustrate, the growth is more 

 advanced than in the newer portions. 



Hemlock Hill, however, which rises to 

 the left of the entrance, is an original 

 forest. The steep ledges are clothed with 

 giant hemlocks, and at the foot of the 

 declivity a brook fed by cold springs 

 plunges and splashes over its rocky bed. 

 Every feature of the surroundings is wild 

 and picturesque in the extreme, and it is 

 hard to realize when standing in the 

 shadow of those grand old hemlocks that 

 one is less than five miles from the very 

 heart of a great community of nearly a 

 million and a half inhabitants. Boston 

 is fortunate indeed in having had citizens 

 through whose foresight and patriotism 

 these rare bits of landscape have been 

 preserved for the perpetual benefit of the 

 people. 



SHRUB OAKS. 



In the minds of every one the oak is so 

 associated with the idea of a large tree 

 that it is a great surprise to many to be 

 told there are dwarf shrub-like oaks. 

 Three of our northern oaks are of this 



class, viz.: Ouercus ilici/oiia, prinoides 

 and a variety of nigra. 



Botanical works give three to four feet 

 as the height to which ilici folia and 

 prinoides attain, but though they can be 

 found in apparent perfection when but 

 two feet higHi, I have seen them at times 

 eight to ten feet, but from four to six 

 would represent the size usually met with. 

 Those who have never seen these low 

 growing bushes are surprised to see such 

 little oaks loaded with acorns. I was 

 greatly surprised myself two years ago, 

 'when botanizing in southern New Jersey, 

 to come on a large woods of the Quercus 

 nigra, the black oak, and to find in it lit- 

 tle fellows but two feet high full of acorns. 

 It was an acorn year, and there were all 

 sizes of trees, from the little shrub forms 

 of two feet to those of forty feet, and all 

 were bearing acorns. I have found no 

 mention in any work of a tendency in 

 this oak to apparently become mature at 

 such an early age and so small a size. In 

 Pennsylvania this oak grows to about 

 thirty to forty feet, and makes a round- 



