100 HOW TO PLAN THE HOME GROUNDS 



that the Or iental plane , above all trees, seems even in 

 those early days to have surpassed other species in lon- 

 gevity , tales being told of sp ecimens living n iore than a 

 th ousand years ; and yet this tree presents the apparent 

 anomaly of being, in spite of the fact that quickness of 

 growth and shortness of days in arboreal life often go 

 together, one of t he most rapid-growjng and easilv-trans- 

 planted trees that we can employ on thej awn in either 

 country or city. In liurope, and all over the Eas t, it has 

 long been hi ghly valued for lawn planting, but in Amer- 

 ica, of late years, it has been undeservedly neglected, 

 although appreciation of its value is again growing rap- 

 idly. 



From the very start, the plane tree gr ows vigorously , 

 and as the years go by its vigor never flags nor its foli- 

 age fails to grow large, umbrageous, and healthy. In old 

 age the trunk is disfigured by scaling bark, and, on the 

 American plane especially, the top of the tree sometimes 

 dies, an accident, however, which may, perchance, happen 

 to any rapid-growing tree, like the American elm, for 

 instance. 



If it were necessary to seek for a more hardy, vigorous 

 tree, under adverse conditions, than the plane tree — and it 

 would be hard to imagine that it would be worth while — 

 we would, perhaps, turn to the honByJucuat (gleditschia 

 triacanthos). This tree has graceful foliag e, and a dark, 

 attractive-looking stem, covered with thorns , which is a 

 drawback, it must be confessed. Its light shade, more- 

 over, renders it scarcely fit for a street tree. The chief 

 value of the honey locust, though otherwise a fine tree, 

 after all ligsjn its wonderful,_adaptability to^all. soiI^, 

 which enables it to thrive in the sands of the seashi}re 

 and the slums of a large city, and to cling to the scanty 



