Trees, Shrubs and Vines 



with short, curved, pointed leaves. Another, with mi- 

 nute, heath-Hke leaves, unusually beautiful when lux- 

 uriant, is the Retinospora ericoides, and equally fine is 

 Retinospora pisifera, a most elegant species of cypress. 

 This is quite abundant, and can be recognized by its flat 

 sprays of foliage, resembling arborvitae, and covered 

 with a white " bloom " on the under side. These last 

 three can be found close together in the area chiefly de- 

 voted to evergreens just north of the " Ramble," a hun- 

 dred feet west of the Reservoir. Throughout the Park 

 one may find fully forty species and varieties of conifer- 

 ous growth, some of them in a confirmed state of in- 

 validism, and a few so stately and ornamental as to be 

 an incentive to the study and cultivation of this unique 

 section of our sylva. It is earnestly to be hoped that 

 the conifers of the Park, as representative of the world's 

 best growth, will soon be brought up to the high stand- 

 ard of its deciduous trees. 



Nothing shows better the wide variety and profusion 

 of growth in the Park than the impossibility of making 

 an absolutely complete inventory of its contents. After 

 the most thorough search by the various gardeners, 

 whose lists form the basis of the present catalogue, I 

 chanced to find an oak that had not been recorded, and 

 later, two foreign species ; doubtless this does not make 

 the record perfect. 



One of the two was the white-beam-tree {^Pyriis aria) 

 of Europe, which is close to the small building on the 

 west side, near Sixty-sixth Street, It is noteworthy as 



128 



