Trees, Shrubs and Vines 



The leaves of this cedar are much like spruce-needles, 

 but clustered as in the larch, and the cones are globu- 

 lar. Besides the one in the '' Ramble," near the boat- 

 house, is a fine specimen about a hundred feet or more 

 east of the " Bethesda Fountain," and another on the 

 east slope of the Bolivar eminence, on the west side. 



Yellow-wood. — A native tree that is but little 

 known, rare even in its habitat, which is in the South- 

 ern States, and not yet widely cultivated, is the yellow- 

 wood. Its greatest altitude is only fifty feet, but it is 

 usually of much lower growth, and its habit of dividing 

 the trunk quite close to the ground gives it a more 

 shrubby appearance. Its lithe branches, weighted with 

 long pinnate leaves of from seven to eleven leaflets, 

 spread and droop most gracefully, and its finely dissected 

 foliage makes it desirable for picturesque ornament 

 rather than for substantial shade. Late in June long 

 loose clusters of white blossoms hang from the ends of 

 the branches, and the leaflets have a way, oftentimes, 

 of falling one by one and leaving the stem bare, whose 

 swollen base, when detached, is found to be a hollow 

 cup enclosing the next year's bud. 



Wild Yellow Plum. — One looks so eagerly for 

 bloom in spring that he will give to the wild plum a 

 more cordial welcome in early May than a few weeks 

 later. It has just one talent ; but it took warning and 

 put it out at moderate usury, so that it was not sum- 

 marily deprived of it, and one is likely to run across its 

 small but pretty clusters of white flowers in any moist 



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