THE HISTORIC TREES OF MASSACHUSETTS 



223 



CUN'DERLAND possesses a gigantic "Old Buttonwood," the largest, 

 doubtless, in Massachusetts. The giant limbs, stretching upward for 

 a hundred feet, more or less basket-shaped, and spreading to an equal 

 distance, are plainly visible from Sugar Loaf Mountain, and from several 

 points along the highway leading north. Their characteristic color stands 

 out conspicuously against the green background of other trees. More 

 marked than any other particular feature is the ponderous trunk. It 



reminds one of 

 an e 1 e phant. 

 The girth at 

 breast height is 

 20 feet 6 inches, 

 and it is very 

 nearly uniform 

 to the dividing 

 point, which 

 comes at about 

 fifteen feet. 

 Historically, the 

 tree ranks with 

 those of Deer- 

 field, although 

 no battles are 

 actually known 

 to have taken 

 place in its im- 

 mediate vicinity. 



'Y RULY the 



author 



quotes : "The 



trees of Boston 

 Common are 

 historic trees 

 because the 

 Common itself 

 is historic." The 

 earliest record 

 of famous trees 



THE SUNDERLAND BUTTONWOOD 



THE OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES PINE 



now mark the passing of many trees 

 of individual historic fame on Bos- 

 ton Common trees which will, how- 

 ever, live forever in the documents 

 which shape the earliest history of 

 our country. Surpassingly beautiful 

 are the trees of the Common today, 

 but there are few now standing on 

 this historic ground more than one 

 hundred years old. 



within the bounds of the Common is Bonner's map of 1722, which gives 

 the location of the Great Elm and of a group of elms at the corner of 

 what are now Washington and Essex Streets. One of these was the 

 famous Liberty Tree. The scene has been a constantly changing one 

 hrough the years that have followed since this early map of Boston was 

 made, for practically every tree now standing on the "peninsula" was 

 p'aced there by the hand of man. The Liberty Tree was destroyed by 

 the British in 1775, while the Great Elm, the true native and king of 

 the Common, survived until 1876, when it fell in a gale. Memorials 



A S you walk along the old road to 

 -^Lenox, you will mark in a wide 

 sweep of lawn the lone and superb 

 pine so much loved by Oliver Wen- 

 dell Holmes. This historic pine, one 

 of the favorite trees of a noted per- 

 sonage, is an excellent representative 

 of our great Xew England conifer. 

 You measure its trunk and find that 

 it is 16 feet 4 inches in girth. You 

 wonder at the great depth of its 

 shadow and find that the spread of 

 its branches is nearly 90 feet ; and 

 vou look upward to its topmost 

 branch and find, if you have a meas- 

 uring instrument, that it is 97 feet 

 from the ground. There may be a 

 larger white pine than this somewhere 

 in Massachusetts, but where? 



BOSTON COMMON IN WINTER 



