34 HAND-BOOK OF PRACTICAL 



Broussonetia are valuable trees for such uses. 



Mountain Ash. — Pyrus. — Among professional as well as 

 amateur planters, the European Mountain Ash is a deserved and 

 general favorite. Its white flowers in the month of May, 

 profusely spread out over its surface in thick, flat clusters, 

 followed by bunches of round scarlet berries in autumn, and 

 which if not destroyed or eaten by birds often hang on a great 

 part of winter, making the tree highly ornamental when planted 

 by itself, and still more so when it is the foreground of a cluster 

 of Spruces or Pines. It does not grow of sufficient size for a 

 street or park tree, but for small grounds, narrow roads and 

 parks in cemeteries it is admirably adapted. It may be, and 

 usually is, grown with a single stem with its branches thrown 

 out at three or four feet from the ground, but on lawns or grass 

 plots, and as connected with evergreens, it is much handsomer if 

 permitted to throw out a number of stems directly from the 

 crown. The American variety does not make quite as large a 

 tree as the European, but it is more abundant in its flowers and 

 fruits. The Sorb or Service tree (Pyrus Domestical), and the 

 White Beam (Pyrus Yestita), the Pyrus Hybrida, and the Pyrus 

 Quercifolia, with a number of dwarf and variegated foliaged 

 varieties, are all of value. 



Oak. — Quercus. — The Oak is a tree of song and tradition, but 

 the difficulty of transplanting it after it has acquired a suitable 

 size for position. Downing says of it that "to arrive at its 

 highest perfection, ample space on every side must be allowed," 

 and where such position can be given it in public or private 

 grounds we should plant it ; but in small suburban and village 

 home grounds there are no such places, and their owners must 

 be content with trees of a less historical or poetical interest. Of 

 the varieties most ornamental, we enumerate the Eock Chestnut 

 Oak (Quercus Prinus Monticola), Chestnut White Oak ( Q. 

 Prinus Palustris), the Yellow Oak ( Q. Prinus Acuminata), the 

 Pin Oak ( Q. Palustris), the Willow Oak (Q. Phellos), the Over- 

 cup White Oak ( Q. Macrocarpa), the Scarlet Oak ( Q. Coccinca), 

 and English Oak ( Q. Pobur). The Live Oak (Q. Virens) of the 



