II 



SOME TREES ARE FAMOUS 



CHARLES E. RANDALL 



Some trees, like some persons, be- 

 come famous. In every section there 

 are trees that have the esteem of local 

 people because of their associations 

 with notable persons or events or be- 

 cause of their great size or age. Some 

 of the trees that figured prominently 

 in the early history of our Nation have 

 become national shrines. 



Trees are natural landmarks and 

 memorials. Because they have more 

 than the allotted life span of man, they 

 carry their associations through gener- 

 ation after generation. There are trees 

 still living that were planted by the first 

 President of the United States. There 

 are trees that have been immortalized 

 by poets and artists. There are trees 

 with special religious, esthetic, or sen- 

 timental associations. There are trees 

 that are respected as the oldest living 

 things on earth. 



Almost as numerous as the places 

 where George Washington is reputed 

 to have slept are the trees associated 

 with him. Living trees planted by 

 Washington or under his direction at 

 Mount Vernon include some tuliptrees, 

 buckeyes, elms, pecans, hollies, lindens, 

 hemlocks, and mulberries. Two pecan 

 trees on the lawn near the mansion at 

 Mount Vernon, grown from nuts given 

 to Washington by Thomas Jefferson in 

 1775, are said to be the oldest trees 

 now standing on the estate. Washing- 

 ton and Jefferson were kindred spirits 

 in their love for trees, and the "Jeffer- 

 son Pecans" are a living illustration of 

 this congeniality. 



The Washington Elm near the Sen- 

 ate wing of the United States Capitol 

 in the District of Columbia survived 

 until 1948. Under it, the first Presi- 

 dent was said to have watched the 

 construction of the Capitol. 



The Washington Friendship Tree, a 

 horsechestnut, at Bath, Pa., is said to 

 be a memorial to the friendship ex- 

 isting between Washington and Gen. 



Robert Brown in Revolutionary days. 

 On one of General Brown's visits to 

 Mount Vernon, when peace had come, 

 Washington dug from his garden two 

 young horsechestnuts and presented 

 them to his friend, who carried them 

 on horseback into the hills of Pennsyl- 

 vania and planted them at his home at 

 Bath. One of the trees still lives. 



Charleston, in South Carolina, has 

 its Washington Live Oak. The story 

 goes that when George Washington 

 visited Charleston in 1791 he was a 

 breakfast guest in the beautiful planta- 

 tion home of the Pinckney family. He 

 heard the mistress of the household 

 order her gardener to cut down the oak 

 tree that obstructed the view from the 

 new portico. Washington, the tree 

 lover, expressed the wish that the tree 

 should be spared. It was. 



There were many other "Washing- 

 ton trees." One of the most famous 

 was the Washington Elm in Cam- 

 bridge, Mass., under which the leader 

 of the American Revolutionary Forces 

 assumed command in 1775. The tree 

 is now dead, but its true descendants 

 are growing on the campus of the Uni- 

 versity of Washington in Seattle and 

 in the Arnold Arboretum at Jamaica 

 Plain in Massachusetts. (Incidentally, 

 some supposedly pedigreed cions of 

 the Cambridge elm have been planted 

 that were found to have a bar sinister 

 on their escutcheon. When a forester 

 inspected them a few years ago, all 

 proved to be either English or Scotch 

 elms and not the native American elm, 

 and so could not be descendants of 

 the historic tree. Somebody distributed, 

 at fancy prices, plants or seed that 

 were misrepresented as being from the 

 original Washington Elm.) 



And the John Quincy Adams Elm, 

 planted on the White House grounds 

 during the administration of President 

 Adams, the great beech and other fine 

 old trees on the estate of President 



