72 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1805. 



makes a handsome as well as a very valuable tree. Opposite No. 38 

 Hanover Street is growing a real English walnut, a tree that is sup- 

 posed to require a warmer climate than this. I have been unable to 

 find out anything of its origin or history, but it produces an annual 

 crop of nuts in no way inferior to those of the markets. 



The Sapindaceo' includes the horse-chestnuts and the maples, each 

 genus having a good many valuable species. To the Rose family 

 belong, as all know, our best fruit trees, and in addition to the 

 apples, pears, and cherries, it gives us the mountain-ash, the wild 

 thorn, and the shad-bush. The Salicacece is the family that gives us 

 the poplars and willows, quick-growing trees, whose wood is of slight 

 value. Our native willows are mostly shrubs, but two of the P^uro- 

 pean species, which make good-sized trees, were introduced here so 

 long ago that they have become thoroughly naturalized in the older 

 parts of our country. The locusts, the virgilia, and. the red-bud are 

 found in the bean family, the Leguminosce ; the tulip tree and the 

 magnolias make up the family MagnoUacem; the nettle tree and the 

 mulberries belong with the elm to the order Urticaceai ; while of the 

 remaining species, the linden, the sumach, the tupelo, the ash, the 

 eatalpa, the sassafras, and the button wood, each is the sole represen- 

 tative of its family. Of all these trees, some are suited to one sort 

 of planting and some to another, not all are adapted to being set out 

 in our streets ; but I wonder if a much larger number might not be 

 profitably used for this purpose than is used here at present. One 

 hesitates before making a suggestion to such a body of men as the 

 Parks-Commission, who have done so much and such judicious work 

 for the future in providing our new streets with trees ; but I some- 

 times think the future citizen may weary of his miles of Norway 

 maples, his leagues of rock maples, and his avenues of white ash. 

 Perhaps these three species have proved themselves the best all-round 

 trees for the purpose under the conditions that prevail here, where 

 the two most necessary qualifications for a good street tree are said 

 to be the ability to pick up a living on a scanty diet, and patience 

 under abuse of every sort. But the best, if used exclusively, may 

 become monotonous. Has the elm fallen into disfavor as a street 

 tree ? It would be hard to understand why, with such examples of its 

 possibilities as Lincoln Street shows. The silver maple is seldom 

 planted, and I know the objection is made that it is fragile and easily 

 damaged in storms ; but such trees as that at the Washburn place on 

 Summer Street, and the one at the corner of Harrington Avenue, go 

 far to restore our confidence in its hardiness. The linden and the 



