DECIDUOUS TKEES. 37 



our American wants, our American people have appreciated it 

 correctly, for with all its grandeur and beauty, many of the 

 varieties have the habit of retaining their dead brown leaves, 

 hanging in dirty masses all winter, marring rather than adorning 

 the landscape. 



Downing says of it, that " to arrive at its highest perfection, 

 ample space on every side must be allowed," and where such 

 position can be given it in public or private grounds, we should 

 plant it ; but in small suburban and village home grounds there 

 are no such places, and their owners must be content with trees 

 of a less historical or poetical interest. 



Of the varieties most ornamental, we enumerate the rock 

 chestnut oak Quefcus prinus monticola; chestnut white oak 

 Q.prinus paliistris ; yellow oak Q. prinus acuminata; pin oak 

 Q.palustris; willow oak Q. phellos ; overcup white oak Q. 

 macrocarpa; scarlet oak Q. coccinea ; and English oak, Q.robur. 



The live oak Q. mrens of the South is beautiful, and there 

 can be grown as a park tree ; but it will not endure the climate 

 of the Northern States. A very interesting and curious tree is 

 the cork oak Q. suber. Its branches are covered with a cork- 

 like excrescence that gives to the tree a very unique and singular 

 appearance. 



Where the proprietor of a place has a desire for oaks, our 

 advice is for him to prepare the ground in the several places 

 where the trees are to stand, and then plant the acorns, staking 

 around the same to prevent injury to the young plant. If the 

 soil is made deep and rich, the plants will grow very rapidly, 

 sometimes making four to five feet in a single season. 



OSAGE ORANGE Madura. The osage orange is generally 

 grown for the purpose of forming hedges, but when grown 

 singly it makes a tree of medium size, with a regular round 

 head, covered with clean glossy foliage and rich golden fruit, 

 in appearance resembling the orange of commerce. 



