1895.] ESSAYS. 65 



States in Their Rehitiou to Agriculture." There is a kind of ftishion 

 just uow of taking some restricted locality and making a study of 

 its plant life or its animal life, its rocks or its soils. 



It looks then as if we must all be either specialists or smatterers : 

 you may contend that a specialist is necessarily narrow, but I know 

 it is one of your horticultural axioms that a small field well cultivated 

 will yield a better harvest than a large area which one has neither the 

 time nor strength to attend to in any proper manner. Since we 

 are forced to decide between these two alternatives, it seems to me 

 the part of wisdom, out of the great number of possible interests, to 

 " choose the one that we love best"; and having chosen, to give to 

 that what small portion of our time and strength remains, after the 

 " getting and spending" in which we " lay waste our powers." 



If I were asked what subject of out-door study a dweller in a city 

 could most profitably and easily pursue, I should answer unhesitat- 

 ingly The Trees ! We Americans are reproached witii not knowing 

 the names even of the trees that grow in the streets through which 

 we walk every day, and I think you will agree with me that the 

 reproach is not unjust. Curiously enough, these splendid representa- 

 tives of the plant world are not so generally known as the smaller 

 and less striking forms. Persons of considerable botanical knowl- 

 edge, who may be said to be on terms of intimacy with the common 

 wild fiowers and somewhat familiar with even the rarer species, have 

 hardly a speaking acquaintance with the trees. That is, while they 

 may know a maple from an oak, and an elm from a horse-chestnut, 

 they do not distinguish the different species of maples and of oaks, 

 nor know that the horse-chestnut is not as native to our soil as 

 the elra. This ignorance is partly due to the fact that in the ordi- 

 nary text-books of descriptive botany, the parts of the trees described 

 are mainly the flowers and their organs, which are difficult to get at, 

 generally inconspicuous and always short-lived. In later Manuals, 

 such as Apgar's " Trees of the Northern United States," and New- 

 hall's " Trees of North-eastern America," attention is directed to 

 some of the more permanent characteristics, such as leaves, bark, 

 wood, fruit, &c. ; and the species are identified by means of these. 

 With the help of the very ingenious key which accompanies each of 

 these books, there is no reason why a person with no previous train- 

 ing, should not be able to identify all the trees to be found in our 

 locality. But there is some time and labor involved in getting 

 specimens and comparing them with printed descriptions, and some 

 exercise of discrimination and judgment in deciding whether the two 



