City Trees 



47 



'A city of monumental buildings, like Washington, particularly needs trees . . .' 



Magnolia soulangeana, the saucer 

 magnolia, gets the spotlight, but the 

 equally deserving star magnolia, M. 

 stellata, and some of the soulangeana 

 varieties remain relatively obscure. 

 There is an encouraging trend toward 

 the planting of more varieties of Jap- 

 anese cherries, but several of the 

 finest, Akebono, Mt. Fuji, and rosea, 

 are still seldom seen. Among the flower- 

 ing crab apples, sargenti, theijera, and 

 Oekonomierat Echtermeyer are a few 

 that deserve wider recognition. 



Yellow is a relatively rare color 

 among our flowering trees, and the 

 yellow-blooming things, such as cor- 

 nelian-cherry, goldenchain, and gold- 

 enrain-tree, can show up beautifully 

 against a foil of green. 



A number of other flowering trees, 

 too little used, deserve mention: The 

 red horsechestnut, Aesculus carnea; 

 the fringetree, Chionanthus virginica; 

 snowball, Styrax japonica; the silver- 

 bells, Halesia tetraptera and monti- 

 cola; and various hawthorns, Cratae- 

 gus cordata, punctata, oxyacantha and 

 its varieties. 



These flowering trees can be planted 

 as single specimens, in groups, or in 



great drifts to enrich park and park- 

 way plantings and add greatly to the 

 interest of home grounds. 



Chinese scholartree, Sophora japon- 

 ica, and the zelkova are examples of 

 outstanding shade trees that are little 

 used. Both of these shade trees have 

 the reputation of being trouble-free 

 and long-lived. The scholartree gives 

 additional dividends in its long white 

 bloom panicles in August. The Ken- 

 tucky coffeetree, too, offers great possi- 

 bilities for more extensive use. 



Most of us can visualize the spruces, 

 firs, and pines at maturity, but not 

 many, perhaps, think of the little con- 

 ical sheared cypress or cedar, bought 

 from the nurseryman, in terms of its 

 ultimate magnificence in size and con- 

 tour. Groups or specimens of Deodar 

 cedar, cryptomeria, baldcypress, Law- 

 son cypress, and umbrella-pine acquire 

 character as they grow, and only when 

 these less common trees have a chance 

 to develop naturally do they attain 

 their full picturesqueness. 



City officials can do much to foster 

 the propagation and development of 

 good city tree types for example, the 

 pyramidal type of tuliptree, the py- 



