226 JouTTml of Agriculture, Victoria. [10 April, 1916. 



If all the streets of a town were planted with the same kind of 

 shade tree, or if each were occupied by a mixture, the arrangement 

 would be bad and monotonous; or, on the other hand, if one side of a 

 street were planted with towering elms and the other side with, say, 

 planes, the quality lacking would be individuality, which is most 

 essential to the creation of an environment of imposing grandeur. 

 Mixed planting of avenue trees is undesirable, as it usually creates a 

 patchwork-quilt idea in the observer's mind. Trees of different shape 

 and height with varied hues of foliage suggest natural grouping, and 

 such arrangement should be adopted in the planting of parks and 

 ornamental plantations, but in street planting it is different. The 

 incongruity of a natural arrangement on a city street is easy to under- 

 stand, as nature did not make the street, neither does she plant trees 

 in straight lines. Avenues of trees are planted because they are useful, 

 but the simple arrangement of an avenue composed of one species or of 

 one variety is also beautiful. Its charm is to be found associated with 

 the things which are naturally dignified in their simplicity. 



As we enter such streets or boulevards, call them what we will, 

 varied beauty greets the eye as avenue after avenue, in its arrangement, 

 its mode of growth, and in its utmost simplicity, harmonizes so perfectly 

 with its neighbour as to make discordancy unknown. 



The following beautifixl and descriptive words have been written on 

 the characteristics of an ideal tree-planted avenue under Canadian con- 

 ditions : — • 



" Consider for a moment an avenue composed of four rows of trees, 

 two on each side of the roadv/ay. At all times beautiful, not only in 

 spring with bursting bud, in summer with garb of livid green, or in 

 autumn with russet and gold, but also in winter's mantle of white, for 

 then its beauty approaches the magnificent. Clearly silhouetted against 

 a frosty sky, the very beauty of the trees in their nakedness baffles human 

 expression. Silent as the snow which caresses them, words fail to 

 describe their imperious beauty as queen-like out of the haze they rise 

 to be crowned by the morning sun. An imposing avenue always reminds 

 one of strength, every limb denotes it as it stretches out from the parent 

 trunk in its unconscious grace, every tree in line forming a massive 

 colonnade, silent, majestic, in its very grandeur sublime, and in its 

 sublimity eloquently expressive of its purpose to lead to something 

 dignified." 



For street planting it is essential that the choice of varieties be 

 limited to those of a deciduous character. In winter-time such trees 

 allow of the free entrance of sunshine to streets, whilst they are shade- 

 producing during the heat of summer. Surely such arrangement is 

 ideal from an economic point of view. 



" From the burning heat of summer 

 Is offered cool retreat." 



To find trees possessing all the desirable qualities which have been 

 enumerated is rather a difficult task, and certainly the range of our 

 choice is limited to a few varieties. 



The Oriental Plane (Platamis orientalis) probably fills the require- 

 ments better than most varieties. It is hardy, resists adverse 

 atmospheric conditions of smoke and dust, is amenable to pruning, and 



