RARE AND NOTABLE PLANTS 



which reached 100 feet in height, a 

 plant figured and described in A. J. 

 Downing's "Landscape Gardening," 

 was removed several years ago, and a 

 memorial apolinian fir was planted in 

 its place. 



Here is a famous American yew, a 

 plant distinct from English yew; a 

 noted catalpa, a dwarf spruce, a hand- 

 some tulip-poplar, a number of tow- 

 ering white pines, an exceedingly fine 

 cryptomeria or Japan cedar, which 

 greatly excels specimens at "Pair- 

 field," at Edward Hacker's on Wister 

 street, at Peter Keiffer's on Livezey's 

 lane; and here is a California red- 

 wood or "big-tree" (sequoia gigantea), 

 a plant now about 25 feet in height, 

 the rarest, and so far as known to me, 

 the only specimen of a size worthy of 

 consideration in Philadelphia. This 

 tree, now showing the effects of last 

 winter's unusual frost, stands directly 

 in front of the mansion, and my prayer 

 is that "Upsala" unaltered, and its 

 owner in health and "perpetual youth," 

 may continue until it attains the pro- 

 portions of its most illustrious progen- 

 itors. 



Time presses upon us, so we shall 

 pass rapidly Billmyer house, where 



91 



