CHAPTER XXXIII 

 SHADE-TREES IN CITIES* 



T^v OWN with the ailanthus!" is the cry we hear on all 

 f sides, town and country, now that this "tree of 

 heaven" (as the catalogues used alluringly to call 

 it) has penetrated all parts of the Union, and begins to show 

 its true character. Down with the ailanthus! "Its blos- 

 soms smell so disagreeably that my family are made ill by 

 it," says an old resident on one of the squares in New York, 

 where it is the only shade for fifty contiguous houses. "We 

 must positively go to Newport, papa, to escape these horrible 

 ailanthuses," exclaim numberless young ladies, who find that 

 even their best Jean Maria Farina affords no permanent 

 relief since their front parlors have become so celestially 

 embowered. "The vile tree comes up all over my garden," 

 say fifty owners of surburban lots who have foolishly been 

 tempted into bordering the outside of their "yards" with 

 it, having been told that it grows so "surprising fast." "It 

 has ruined my lawn for fifty feet all round each tree," says 

 the country gentlemen, who, seduced by the oriental beauty 

 of its foliage, have also been busy for years dotting it in 

 open places here and there in their pleasure grounds. In 

 some of the cities southward, the authorities, taking the 

 matter more seriously, have voted the entire downfall of the 

 whole species, and the Herods who wield the besom of 



* Original date of August, 18f>2. 



The subject of shade trees, and especially their use in villages, was 

 very dear lo Mr. Downing's heart and he wrote of it frequently and copi- 

 ously. It is fair to believe that his preaching had its effect, for the result, 

 speaking in general terms, has gone in the direction he wished. Ameri- 

 can cities and I owns have done much better of late years, though hun- 

 dreds of them still have far to go. -- F. A. W. 



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