RARE AND NOTABLE PLANTS 



I never pass "Spring-bank" without 

 thinking of John Welsh, its late and 

 honored owner. Here I often saw him 

 walking "in the cool of the day" un- 

 der the shade of the "glorious" trees 

 which line the front of the estate, and, 

 always excepting Wyck, there is not 

 to me in Germantown a more delight- 

 ful spot. Here we have already noted 

 a few plants, and we shall stop only 

 to look at a perfect tulip poplar, 3 feet 

 in diameter at trunk, with branches 

 rising to 80 feet, a tree vouched for by 

 Martin Constable, the gardener, as 

 "planted by John Welsh himself," also 

 here is a specimen oak now 20 feet 

 high, the acorn producing which N. 

 Dubois Miller told me was brought 

 from Jerusalem and here grown. 

 In this direction we shall now go 

 no further, but will southward 

 turn, and by way of Main street, 

 which we left at Stenton, proceed to 

 a conclusion. Naglee's and "Joe Na- 

 fle's" we shall pass, and the Loudoun 

 pines we have already noted. 



Since the days of John Hart prog- 

 ress has here forced its way, and many 

 fine plants, including those on the ad- 

 joining grounds of James S. Huber, 

 have retreated before its irresistless 



6o 



