Trees, Shrubs and Vines 



it challenges admiration beyond almost any other 

 growth. 



The ailanthus is what botanists call dioecious ; i.e., its 

 stamen-bearing flowers grow on one tree, and the pistil- 

 bearing on another. The staminate blossoms emit a 

 very disagreeable odor in June, which caused a reaction 

 from its popularity when first introduced into the coun- 

 try. But pistillate trees are now being exclusively 

 planted, and for certain situations nothing could be 

 more desirable ; and with large room a stately ailanthus 

 becomes the focal point of a broad landscape. 



Beech. — One of our staple decorative trees is the 

 beech, a forest ornament, but much more beautiful 

 when, in ample space, with light and air on every side, 

 it can realize its type as a broad and shapely growth of 

 elegant form, with handsome bark and well-fashioned 

 leaf. An atmosphere of serenity always envelops a 

 beech ; we as instinctively associate it with sunshine as 

 the oak with storm. Its noble trunk and bark of fine 

 texture, with shelving sprays of full foliage, betray a dif- 

 ferent temperament from that of any other forest tree. 

 No tempests ever invade its spirit. 



Our one native species will do credit to the most 

 select surroundings, but it is the European beech that is 

 commonly cultivated, having the slight advantage of 

 more delicate leaves, and the important merit of coming 

 into leaf earlier than our own by a couple of weeks. 

 This fact, and its great abundance in the Park, make it 

 the most conspicuous foreign species in spring. Noth- 

 ing sets off the prevailing green more effectively than 



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