DECIDUOUS TREES. 11 



which it is grown, renders it desirable for planting in grounds 

 of an extent of two or more acres. There is a variety of this, 

 macrophylla, with larger foliage and stronger growth, that is 

 desirable where two or more trees are to be planted. 



AILANTUS Glandulosa. The Chinese Ailantus, or Tree of 

 Heaven as it is often called, has received much fulsome praise 

 and equally unjust censure. It is a tree that grows rapidly, and 

 in almost any soil ; is entirely free from insects, and although not 

 graceful, yet its strong shoots or arms of rusty brown young 

 wood, taken with its long and singular foliage and profusion of 

 whitish green flowers, create a tree of no mean attraction. There 

 are two sexes, both of which produce flowers, the male much 

 less abundantly than the female; and while the male suckers 

 freely, the female does not. It should never be planted near 

 dwellings, or where the ground is to be dug. It grows freely 

 while young; but once it has attained a height of fifteen to 

 twenty feet and comes into flowering, it increases in size more 

 slowly. 



BEECH Fagus. Our AMERICAN BEECH fagus Americana 

 we rank as combining in itself more of beauty, grace, and mag- 

 nificence than perhaps any other of our forest trees. True, it has 

 not the grandeur of the oak ; but with its stateliness of upright, 

 spreading growth, every line and twig is one of graceful ease ; 

 and from the first opening of the buds in spring, onward until 

 in full foliage, its glossiness and changing shades are a constant 

 and varying feature of beauty. In winter, its delicate spray 

 combined with the prominence of its long pointed buds make 

 it especially an object of attraction and admiration. Some 

 planters object to the beech on account of a tendency to sucker, 

 but we have never found it so where the roots remained 

 unbroken by cultivation. 



Young trees should always be procured with branches starting 

 from near the ground, and rarely does it need the knife applied 



