SCHOOL AND HOME GROUNDS. 373 



The American beech makes a fine specimen 

 tree in rich soil. "In autumn there is a harvest 

 sunlight on the beech leaves very fair to see, but, 

 after all, the beech trunk is the tree's treasure." 



The elm, ash, catalpa, chestnut, alder, mul- 

 berry, walnut, tulip-trees, maples, and oaks by 

 the score surely give ample material for choice 

 of trees to be used in groups or singly. 



As street trees, none can excel the American 

 elm. "The elm-tree is always bewitching. In 

 summer, when you can tell this tree as far as 

 you can catch the contour across the fields by 

 the grace of its pose and its rhythmic swaying 

 of branches, as keeping time to music we do not 

 hear; ... in winter the tree has its winter array. 

 Flung on the snow or seen against the blue sky 

 or gray, it is as graceful as any tree that spreads 

 under the sky." * 



The American sycamore, with its striking 

 color and texture of foliage, is one of our first 

 trees. It is grown on the capitol grounds at 

 Washington. 



The sugar-maple is also an excellent street 

 tree ; in fact, it is beautiful in many places, 

 especially so in its autumn tints. 



The linden may also be used to good advan- 

 tage as a street tree. 



" The general effect of an evergreen forest is 

 that of somberness." In the North the use of 



* W. A. Quayle's In God ' s Out-of-Doors, p. 52. 



