TEEES OF EUROPE AITD AMERICA COMPARED. 327 



enous trees of Europe do not succeed well in our climate."'* The 

 European mountain-asli — which in beauty, dimensions and health- 

 fulness of growth is superior to our ownf — the horse-chestnut, and 

 the abele, or sUver poplar, are valuable additions to the ornamental 

 trees ot North America. The Swiss arve, or zirbelMefer, Pvnus 

 cembra, which yields a well-flavored edible seed and furnishes 

 excellent wood for carving ; the umbrella-pine,:j: which also bears 

 a seed agreeable to the taste, and which, from the color of its 

 fohage and the beautiful form of its dome -like crown, is among 

 the most elegant of trees ; the white birch of Central Europe, 

 with its pendulous branches almost rivalling those of the weep- 

 ing willow in length, flexibility and gracefulness of fall ; and, 

 especially, the " cypresse funerall," might be introduced into the 

 United States with great advantage to the landscape. The Euro- 

 pean beech and chestnut furnish timber of far better quality than 

 that of their American congeners. The fruit of the European 

 chestnut, though inferior to the American in sweetness and flavor, 

 is larger, and is an important article of diet among the French 

 and Itahan peasantry. The walnut of Europe, though not equal 

 to some of the American species in beauty of growth or of wood, 

 or to others in strength and elasticity of fibre, is valuable for its 

 timber and its oil.§ The maritime pine, which has proved of 



* I am very courteously informed by my highly valued correspondent, Prof. 

 C. S. Sargent, of the Botanic Garden, Harvard University, that the above 

 statement, even with its qualification, is hardly borne out by his observation — 

 that, in fact, a large proportion of the most valuable European trees are found, 

 under favorable circumstances, to thrive extremely well in North America. 



The same excellent authority assures me that the experiment, recommended 

 on p, 328, of introducing the maritime pine into the United States, has been 

 tried — that this tree is not hardy enough to stand the climate of the New Eng- 

 land coast, and that ia the more southern Atlantic States the Pinus australis is 

 believed to be more valuable and, on the whole, to answer a better purpose. 



f In Northern Tyrol mountain-ashes fifteen inches in diameter are not un- 

 common. The berries are distilled with grain to flavor the spirit. 



X The mountain ranges of our extreme West produce a pine closely resem- 

 bling the European umbrella-pine. 



§ The walnut is a more valuable tree than is generally supposed. It yields 

 one-third of the oil produced in France, and in this respect occupies an inter- 

 mediate position between the olive of the south and the oleaginous seeds of the 

 north. A hectare (aliout two and a half acres) will produce nuts to the value 

 of five hundred francs a year, which cost nothing but the gathering. Unfor- 



