DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 161 



extreme vigor and luxuriance of growth. In a good soil it 

 will readily reach a height of thirty-five or forty feet in ten 

 years. It is easily transplanted ; and in new residences, 

 bare of trees, where an effect is desired speedily, we know 

 of nothing better adapted quickly to produce abundance 

 of foliage, shelter, and shade. When the requisite foliage 

 is obtained, and other trees of slower growth have reached 

 a proper size, the former may be thinned out. As the 

 plane tree grows to the largest size, it is only proper for 

 situations where there is considerable ground, and where 

 it can without inconvenience to its fellows have ample 

 room for its full development. Then soaring up, and 

 extending its wide-spread branches on every side, it is 

 certainly a very majestic tree. The color of the foliage 

 is of a paler green than is usual in forest trees ; and 

 although of large size, is easily wafted to and fro by the 

 wind, thereby producing an agreeable diversity of light 

 pleasing to the eye in summer. In winter the branches 

 are beautifully hung, even to their furthest ends, with the 

 numerous round russet-balls, or seed-vessels, each sus- 

 pended by a slender cord, and swinging about in the air. 

 The outline of the head is pleasingly irregular, and its 

 foliage against a sky outline is bold and picturesque. It 

 is not a tree to be planted in thick groves by itself, but 

 to stand alone and detached, or in a group with two or 

 three. In avenues it is often happily employed, and 

 produces a grand effect. It also grows with great vigor 

 in close cities, as some superb specimens in the square 

 of the State-house, Pennsylvania Hospital, and other 

 places in Philadelphia fully attest. 



There is but a trifling difference in general effect betweea 



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