74 The greater summer-leafing trees 



group or colony, so that one can take choice of the 

 strongest as they grow up, putting Larch or other trees 

 between them at first to keep the ground cool, though 

 these can be removed in due time. 



The Bald Cypress. This beautiful hardy tree is in 

 our country too often treated as * ornamental ' only, and 

 frequently ill-placed at that, so that in many country 

 places usually it comes to little. Many years ago, before 

 the taste for Californian conifers arose, it was planted 

 more frequently, and so we see in some valley gardens 

 stately trees of it, mostly by or near water. About the 

 time our own people were busy planting the tree many 

 were planted in the north and west of France, and in 

 the valleys of the Loire and the Seine beautiful examples 

 may be seen, some over loo feet high. Near Orleans 

 there lived once a nurseryman having some fine trees 

 of this on his ground, who left his property to some 

 good Sisters in the town on condition that they should 

 always preserve his Cypress trees. The ground that 

 was once a nursery is now a grazing plot, adorned with 

 several stately trees standing up over their surroundings 

 as distinctly as the great church of Orleans towers above 

 the houses around, their stems like enormous pillars, 

 beautiful in colour and form. They are not beside water, 

 but on a rich bottom. 



It is not necessary to have a river bank on which to 

 plant, though very often that is the best position, as 

 rivers carry down deep soil. But that may occur with- 

 out the immediate presence of water, and wherever there 

 is this deep, moist, and free soil, we may in our country 

 hope for success with this tree. Having proof of its 

 hardiness, fine form, and great size, we should give up 

 the practice of regarding it as an ' ornamental ' tree only. 



