1895.] ESSAYS. 69 



present wholesale adoptiou of tbe Norway spruce, — not ouly more 

 planted here than auy other evergreen, but more than all others put 

 together, — a mistake similar in kind and hardly less in degree. Not 

 only does the fact tljat a tree is an exotic give it great value in the 

 eyes of inany, but if in addition to that it shows some abnormal char- 

 acteristics in foliage, or habit of giowth, it becomes almost irresistible. 

 For example : it being natural for leaves to be green, we seem to prefer 

 almost any other color ; and trees that show purple or bronze, varie- 

 gated or si)otted foliage, fill up much of the space in the dealers' cata- 

 logues. Nature gives us some leaves that are handsome because of 

 the way they are cut or lobed, as the maple and the oak, but it is art 

 that produces leaves that look as if they had been snipped out regu- 

 larly witli a pair of scissors till hardly any leaf substance remains ; 

 then if these little segments are curved in such a way as to suggest 

 an eagle's claw, we get a very popular tree. A tree whose habit of 

 growth is erect is greatly in favor if it can be made to weep or send 

 its branches downward, and weeping ashes and birches find ready 

 sale ; while if the tree grows naturally in a somewhat drooping manner, 

 like the elm, we are not satisfied till we have produced a pyramidal 

 variety that sends its branches straight up like a Lombardy poplar. 

 After scouring the whole continent of Europe for new species of trees, 

 adventurous arboriculturists, sighing for new worlds to conquer, have 

 turned their eyes toward Asia, and the latest fashions are all from 

 the East. It looks as if there would be no halt till we have tried 

 every tree that China and Japan can furnish. The similarity between 

 the flora of these countries and our own renders it likely that such 

 introductions will adapt themselves more readily to their new environ- 

 ment than have many of the Euiopeans ; the ailanthus, the gingko, 

 the mulberry and some of the magnolias have so far seemed to en- 

 courage this view, but the question is not one that can be settled in 

 short periods of time. Since we must wait almost a lifetime before a 

 final verdict can be pronounced in experiments of this kind, and as we 

 are all a good deal restricted in the matter of lifetimes, our mistakes 

 become practically irremediable. It is the province of the arboretums 

 and other public experiment stations to pass upon all doubtful cases. 

 With unlimited time and the power to command a great variety of 

 conditions, they can give the foreign immigrant the most thorough 

 trial, and decide whether it is capable of naturalization and what sort 

 of a citizen it would make in our republic of trees. Failures here 

 would not be so costly nor so depressing. Pending the decision of 

 such a tribunal, let us restrict our individual planting to those trees 

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