HISTORIC TREES 155 



Another tree resident of Third Avenue, which 

 survived the Gates willow by a number of years, 

 was Peter Stuyvesant's pear tree. It lived at the 

 corner of Thirteenth Street, at the exact spot where 

 the old Dutch governor's country estate used to be. 

 Old Peter himself is supposed to have planted the 

 tree with seeds or shoots brought from Holland. 

 In 1862 the tree was reported to be at an advanced 

 age, minus most of its branches and most of its 

 leaves. 



Among other historic trees of former days in the 

 Big City was the group of cypresses at the old 

 Jumel Mansion near 159th Street. They were a 

 present to Mr. Jumel from Napoleon, who im- 

 ported them from Egypt. In 1802 Alexander 

 Hamilton planted thirteen gum trees at his country 

 seat outside the city to represent the thirteen col- 

 onies. Though carefully looked after, they steadily 

 declined throughout the century. .When the last 

 one died in 1908 it found itself in the centre of the 

 metropolitan up-town residential section at Con- 

 vent Avenue and 143d Street. 



Still standing on the Mall in Central Park is 

 an American elm started by Edward VII when on 

 a visit to New York as Prince of Wales in 1860. 

 He planted an English oak alongside the elm to 

 indicate the friendliness of the two peoples, but 



