98 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



forms and foliage, is in fact rapidly- 

 increasing. 



Somehow, in what of planting we 

 have done, we have not given in this 

 country the same prominence to the 

 Oak as is given in England. The oak 

 is slow, comparatively, of growth, and 

 somewhat difficult to transplant, but it 

 is a majestic tree, and where ample room 

 can be given for its development makes 

 a most beautiful feature in the land- 

 scape. With us the maple and the 

 elm are the favorite trees. In the New 

 England States the elm has been very 

 generally planted as a village street 

 tree. The author of " Norwood " says 

 of our graceful American elm, "No 

 town can fail of beauty, though its 

 walks were gutters and its houses 

 hovels, if venerable trees make mag- 

 nificent colonnades along its streets. 

 Of all trees, no other unites in the 

 same degree majesty and beauty, grace 

 and grandeur, as the American elm. 

 Their towering trunks, whose massive- 

 ness well symbolizes Puritan inflexi- 

 bility, their over-arching tops, facile, 

 wind-borne and elastic, hint the endless 

 plasticity and adaptableness of the 

 people, and both united form a type of 

 all true manhood, broad at the root, 

 firm in the trunk, and yielding at the 

 top, yet returning again after every 

 impulse into position and symmetry. 

 What if they were taken away from 

 village and farm house 1 Who would 

 know the land ? Farm houses that 

 now stay the tourist and the artist, 

 would stand forth bare and homely; 

 and villages that coquette with beauty 

 through green leaves, would shine white 



and ghastly as sepulchres. Let any one 

 imagine Conway or Lancaster without 

 elms ! or Hadley, Hatfield, Northamp- 

 ton or Springfield ! New Haven with- 

 out elms would be like Jupiter without 

 a beard, or a lion shaved of his mane." 



The maples well deserve their popu- 

 larity because of their beautiful sym- 

 metry, their abundant foliage, and great 

 depth of shade. They are among the 

 first to expand into full leaf in spring, 

 and when autumn comes they glow 

 with such rich colors and varied tints 

 as only our sunset clouds can rival. 

 The maples too are healthy trees, not 

 very subject to insects, though by no 

 means entirely exempt, and from their 

 neat style of growth and moderate size, 

 well suited to the dimensions of by far 

 the greater number of our Canadian 

 towns. 



Sugar Maple. 



The two varieties of maple that have 

 been most generally planted with us are 



