STREET PLANTING 87 



well might such a tree fill the place of thousands of tortured planes and 

 limes! It was not until I visited Eastbourne some years ago that I 

 found its value had already been appreciated by, at any rate, one 

 township. It is the chief tree of that popular resort, lining the streets, I 

 imagine, to a total of several thousands. Whilst it is there, to my mind, 

 planted too much to the exclusion of other trees, it offers a splendid 

 example of the ideal street tree. Some of the older specimens, like those 

 in Devonshire Place, have trunks 18 ins. in thickness, but if they have 

 ever been pruned the evidences of it are not visible. 



The Cornish elm, Ulmus stricta, is very similar to the Wheatley elm, 

 but rather less erect in its branching. There is a pyramidal form of 

 hornbeam, Carpinus Betulus var. pyramidalis, somewhat slower of growth 

 than the two elms just mentioned, but of similar habit. It is sometimes 

 planted in the towns of Northern France. 



Poplars. Of this genus two sorts stand out for recommendation : the 

 one, Bolle's poplar (Populus alba var. pyramidalis), quick-growing, of 

 slender growth, broader based and not so slender as the Lombardy 

 poplar, is attractive for the pure white undersurface of the leaves. It would 

 be effective alternated with a broader tree. The other is P. berolinensis^ 

 a suitable tree for sunny, not too moist, localities. It is a hybrid probably 

 from the Lombardy poplar and P. laurifolia. I saw a street avenue of 

 it in the environs of Berlin a few years ago, which had a very handsome 

 effect. (For other trees of pyramidal shape, the reader is referred to the 

 chapter on "FASTIGIATE TREES.") 



Horse-chestnuts. Whilst the common horse-chestnut is not, in my 

 opinion, a very suitable tree for any but wide streets, it possesses such a 

 marked beauty of leaf and flower that it ought, if possible, to be repre- 

 sented. There are two of its varieties which for the present purpose are 

 preferable to the type. The first is var. pyramidalis, whose naturally 

 pyramidal form well adapts it for street planting, as it does not grow in 

 diameter to the same extent as the common form. The second is var. 

 fiore pleno. This, the double-flowered horse-chestnut, is not much known, 

 but it has at least three advantages over the type. Its flowers last longer 

 in beauty; the tree is of slower, closer, and more compact growth; and, 

 finally, as no fruits are developed, it escapes the annual battery of sticks 

 and stones which the youth of the neighbourhood with a passion for 

 "conkers" inflict on fruit-bearing trees. 



Of all horse-chestnuts the one I would most strongly recommend is 

 jEscitlus plantierensis, a description and history of which occW in the 

 body of the book. It will suffice to say here that it is a hybrid between 

 the red and the common horse-chestnuts, and is less vigorous than the 

 latter. Its flowers are pink, and as it is sterile it escapes, like the double- 

 flowered one just referred to, the attentions of boys. Then there is 



