40 TREE-PLANTING. 



trees play a very important part, the umbrageous 

 shade and canopy-like form of many studded about 

 in park-like meadows being peculiar to Britain 



The pendulous masses of the ash' are gracefulness 

 itself, when agitated by the influence of the breeze. 

 For beauty of foliage and flower, perhaps nothing 

 surpasses the locust, or acacia, trees. The plane is 

 another noble tree which often excites admiration, 

 while the birch, growing on the sides of precipitous 

 crags, frequently redeems many an otherwise barren 

 scene from an aspect of desolation. The oak, which 

 has often been symbolised as a picture of sturdy 

 strength, will, under favourable conditions for its 

 growth, attain a height of eighty-five feet, with a 

 trunk measuring twelve or thirteen feet in circum- 

 ference. But look at the same tree under adverse 

 circumstances ! Disliking extreme heat or cold, under 

 either condition it becomes dwarfed and stunted ; and 

 in exposed situations, where the Scotch fir would 

 flourish, the oak becomes merely a shadow of itself 

 when grown under conditions not favourable to its 

 full development. Some of the American trees, such 

 as the western plane where the summers are hotter, 

 and the winters more severe, in its native country than 

 in England need to be planted in a sunny sheltered 

 spot, as much as possible guarded from the frosty winds 

 of March and April ; for the tender buds, exposed to 

 ungenial blasts, exhibit a scorched appearance, and 

 sufficiently attest the difference of climate, for in their 

 own, the hot summers cause their leaves to expand 

 rapidly, thus maturing the young wood, so as to 

 enable it to withstand the severity of the winter 

 season. And in planting trees, to cause them to be 



