A NEW SHADE TEEE. 



25 



ushels of corn, valued at $20,076,508. Thus it will 

 soon that fruit culture is in no way behind the 

 thcr brauches of industry in comparison to the num- 

 er of persons engaged in its cultivation. 



J W. H. Looms. 

 Fort Way.ve, Ind. 



A NEW SHAD E TREE 



A cELEURATEp Writer has lately issued a work to 

 low who was, or who was not, the writer -of the 

 orhl-laiued "Letters of Junius;" I wish some oue 

 :iually an.\ious to display the acuttness of their leg- 

 al powers would undertake to show us whether the 

 icient Jon was, or was not, a gardener or arborcul- 

 irist. In the absence of all positive proof to the 

 jutrary, I venture to offer a presumptive one that he 

 as not lie never could have sustained his patience 

 ider the numerous tempting circumstances which 

 owd on the gardener. Or, had he the heart of an 

 borculturist, he could not have stood unmoved 

 hen told "that his Elms were smitten with grulis 

 id borers; his Lindens bore wreaths and festoons of 

 sects, and were rotton at the ground; his Ailantus 

 id become the pests of his country: and his Maples 

 e food of drop worms and aphides." Job could not 

 ive been a gardener, and it is well he was not, or he 

 Duld have lost his character and the world its model; 

 d we have gained him as a precedent in the inquiry, 

 low to stop this plague:" for trees are essential to 

 ir existence. If one kind ivu7it do, we must find a 

 bstitute. 



I am going to propose that we introduce a new 

 ade tree! Start 

 t, good reader, 

 3 "vast and lof- 

 ' Himalay's have 

 t been ransack 



to present you 

 th another "cu 

 )us and rare " spe 

 nen of abstract 

 auty ; nor has 

 lina or Japan ^ 

 en made to lay ~^ 

 fore you anothci - 

 iject of a nine 

 ys wonder. Oui ,. 

 bject has got no 

 lims of kindred ^ 

 th either the ^*5 

 Tree of Heaven 



the "Deodar 

 t is one "to the 

 inor born," in 

 h you , all, ei- 

 er by birth or liquidamp-er styraciflua. 

 option, claim an inheritance. But its country must 

 t depreciate its value. It is American! It is ii- 

 ^idamher styraciflua, Lin., better known as the 

 yeet C4um. But the Sweet Gum I allude to is not 

 Sweet Gum" as we find it in densely crowded 

 oods, with its stem as slender and as straight as a 

 id-sail boom; nor the "Sweet Gum" as we fre- 

 lently see it in damp, half swampy places, with 

 Dots as weak and and delicate as a card-basket 



osier; but the Sweet Oum'somotimos seen growing by 

 itsolf unsurrounded by other trees, and with its roots 

 free to extend themselves unchecked in a cool, deep, 

 and rich loam. In such situations it has not, perhaps, 

 the rural grandeur of the Oak, or the graceful ele- 

 gance of a Weeping Willow — not, probably, the stiff 

 majestic foliage of the 

 Magnolias, or the 

 lightness and case of 

 the "gentle" liirch; 

 but yet a claim to 

 picturesque and sim- 

 ple beauty which no 

 other can eclipse, be- 

 side combining many 

 other traits of inter- 

 est separate in other 

 trees. It is a very 

 rapid grower, will at- 

 tain a height of eighty 

 fcst, and a circumfe- 

 rence of seven, under 

 favorable circumstances, and has a widely spreading, 

 roundish, conical head. The branches have a rigid, 

 though much divaricating mode of growth, and are 

 covered with that corky barked appearance so much 

 sought after and admired in some varieties of Elms, 

 Maples, and Nettle trees. The leaves and fruit re- 

 semble the Buttonwood in all except size and hue, 

 and there is, indeed, a sort of distant relationship be- 

 tween the two families. The leaves are not one-third 

 the size of the Buttonwood, deeply lobed — star-like, 

 and produced in abundance. (See annexed figure.) 

 The ujiper surface shines as if varnished; and as the 

 foUage moves with the slightest summer breeze, gives 

 the tree a playful and pleasing character in its fre- 

 quent successions of light and shade. This pleasing 

 character of the foliage is heightened at the approach 

 of fall by its brilliant colors. It has no compeer in 

 this character. The leaves change to every describa- 

 ble shade of orange, yellow, and red. 



But beautiful as the tree really is, I would not rec- 

 ommend it as a shade tree solely on that account. It 

 abounds with a resinous princijile apparently obno.x- 

 ious to insects. Extended observation has led me to 

 believe that not a species attacks it. This property 

 alone is worth a "plum" to the planter. 



Having stated its merits as a faithful historian, T 

 must narrate its short-comings. I do not believe it 

 is adapted to a great diversity of soil, or to a high 

 northern latitude. In poor, dry soils, it is of slow 

 growth and short duration; and it may not probalily 

 do well in the dry and confined air of a densely built 

 city; but what does well in such extremes? 



It is easily propagated. Seed should be sown as 

 soon as ripe, orearly in the spring, in a loose, loamy soil, 

 somewhat shaded. Plants w ill appear in a few weeks in 

 the spring, and grow over a foot the first season. The 

 seed vessels do not ripen till late in the fall, but should 

 be gathered before the first severe frost, which is apt 

 to split open the capsules and sutler the seed to escape. 

 It is singular that so handsome and useful a tree 

 should be so long neglected ; and the only explana- 

 tion probably is, that it did not come to us with a 

 reconmieudation from some one of "the ends of the 

 earth." — Thomas Median, in HorticuUurisL 



