98 HOW TO PLAN THE HOME GROUNDS 



insects do, after all, attack the European linden during 

 some seasons, while the American species is compara- 

 tively free from pests of all sorts, thriving on the poorest 

 soil in the most crowded parts of the city. 



Of all the sonorous-sounding names of horticulture, 

 the most impressive is the liriodendron tulipifera, the 

 familiar tulip tree of American woods. Yet familiar as 

 it is, and in spite of its somewhat high-sounding name, 

 it is a precious possession for all tree-lovers, who fully 

 realize that for beauty, dignity, and general effectiveness 

 it has few superiors among shade trees of the largest- 

 sized class. It is almost always found to be healthy, 

 vigorous, and rapid-growing, after it has been for a 

 year or two in the ground, for, like the magnolia, it has 

 roots of a spongy texture which are easily injured in 

 transplanting, and made to suffer on account of sensitive- 

 ness to drought and the sudden changes of winter and 

 early spring. For this reason, it has been found better 

 to plant tulip trees in the spring rather than the autumn. 

 The great rounded trunks of mature tulip trees, rising 

 in some specimens fifty feet in the air before the foliage 

 begins, are particularly impressive. The foliage seems 

 to recede as the years pass, for in youth the mass of 

 leaves is large, and spreading and dominant. The indi- 

 vidual leaves are of a fresh and lovely green, and most 

 curious and elegant in shape, and in autumn they often 

 assume an attractive golden hue. 



Pruning seldom needs application to the tulip tree, 

 except for removing a dead limb ; indeed, the author is 

 inclined to wish that the use of the pruning knife could 

 be totally abolished, for the injuries it perpetrates are 

 far greater than the good it does. There are few trees, 

 or shrubs either, that do not lose their most character- 



