THE TREES OF BOSTON COMMON 



dred and ninety annual rings. The oldest 

 trees now standing on this historic ground 

 are slightly over one hundred years old. 

 There is something very typical of democ- 

 racy in the present arrangement, where every 

 tree is accorded equal attention and care, 

 and shares with every other its "place in 

 the sun." 



The Common of the present time is en- 

 tirely surrounded by "malls" all of which 

 have names derived from the streets which 

 form their outer boundaries. That on Trem- 

 ont street is the oldest and was therefore 

 originally named the mall; although sub- 

 sequently, when there was a second one it 

 acquired the name of the great mall, and 

 now, as there are several, it is called the 

 Tremont street mall. Early in the eight- 

 eenth century it had two rows of trees, 

 mostly English elms, with a few sycamores 

 at the northerly and some poplars at the 

 southerly end, the outermost of which was 

 set out about the year 1734. In 1784 John 

 Lucas, Esq., the commissary of pensions 

 for Massachusetts, who resided and had his 



