ORNAMENTAL PLANTING. 



in foliage, silvery in bark, very effective when disposed in groups, and 

 ig finely with the heavier forms of our native larger trees, hut, 

 like almost all "trees of small growth, too apt to be neglected. The 

 .\cced them in size, but are inferior to them in elegance. 

 nevertheless most interesting trees, and should be in every col- 

 \Vith their tough bark, which is readily detached in large 

 \orth American Indians roof their houses, and manufacture 

 a variety of domestic utensils. Of it are formed those light canoes which 

 dian over the vast lakes, or down the rapid rivers of his 

 3, at one moment bearing along the trader, his valuable 

 car^o, and adventurous companions; at the next moment carried upon 

 their shoulders across the intervenient portage. It is not too much to 

 say, that, without the assistance of this invaluable material, the fur trade 

 would have been confined within narrow limits instead of pervading half 

 a continent; and the progress of geographical discovery, the long labours 

 of a Ilearne, a Mackenzie, and a Franklin, would have been incom- 

 plete for another century. 



A near relation to the birch is the neglected alder, neglected' because 

 common, and rarely seen, except in the shape of coppice-wood, yet 

 reaching, in favourable situations, to a size not generally suspected. 

 At Gordon Castle, in Bamffshire, some exist of extraordinary stature, 

 when seen at a distance, having much the appearance of oaks. Three 

 of them, which are described by Joseph Sabine, Esq., in the Seventh 

 Volume of the Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London, 

 measured, one, seventy-one feet high and nine feet four inches in girth; 

 one, sixty-one feet and a half high and seven feet four inches in girth; 

 and another, fifty-eight feet high and eight feet in girth, the girth being 

 taken at five and six feet from the ground. To those who wish for trees 

 capable of enduring abundant moisture, we recommend the cut-leaved 

 alder (Alnns glutinosa, var. laciniata) a derivative apparently of equal 

 size, and of growth as rapid as its type, which it greatly excels in elegance ; 

 ral other curious varieties of the common alder are to be found in 

 the nurseries. Alnus quercifolia is probably of smaller growth, and the 

 habit of Alnus oxyacanthifolia appears to be feeble ; but Alnns cordifolia 

 of southern Italy is a fine ornamental and hardy tree. There are some 

 other species, rather shrubs than trees, which maybe used advantageously 

 in rnoi'-t localities, where a low growth of definite height is desirable. 



W<- attribute the comparative disuse of the common ash in park scenery, 

 and its rare occurrence as an insulated specimen, to the extreme avidity 

 i which it is attacked and barked by deer, those enemies of the 

 planter. Yet it is a tree of singular elegance, both in itself, and contrasted 

 heavier foliage : it grows to immense sixe, attains to great 

 longevity, and when old is strikingly picturesque in outline, in bark, and 

 in the almost hori/ontal disposition of its main branches. The entire- 

 nus sirnplicifolia) is an interesting variety; the weeping 

 ash (F. evelsa, var. pemlula) is well known, yet hardly enough appre- 

 ciated. When larire, it is remarkably beautiful, but it must be planted in 

 an incl from the approach of cattle and sheep, who, by 



browsing Upon its pendulous branches, would destroy the whole beauty 

 of the specimen, and irretrievably check its growth. Fraxinns ornus, 

 the flowerinir ash, is a beautiful small tree, especially in early spring, when 

 in flower. l-'raxinns lentiscitolia is a charming small tree; most of the 

 Ar re fine iii foliage, and deserve a trial in the arboretum. 



, ; st in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, where they cannot 

 fail to attract the attention of any person interested in forest trees. 



