Forest Trees. 169 



for everybody, a desert worthy of the feast of good things chroni- 

 cled in preceding chapters, and this finishes my task — a pleasant 

 one — so adieu for the present. 



FOREST TREES. 



(Continued.) 



BY D. W. RAY. 



The observing mind cannot fail to wonder why native forest 

 trees, combining equal merit and beauty, do not command the 

 same attention, and why they are not as eagerly sought after, as 

 foreign varieties of deciduous ornamental trees. We^think there 

 is no variety of foreign forest trees that, in elegance of foliage, 

 size, beauty, and fragrance of bloom, can compare with our native 

 Magnolia. Every part of this tree is magnificent, from the indi- 

 vidual beauty of its leaves to its grand effect as a whole. There 

 are many species of European forest trees cultivated on lawns in 

 this country, that, were it not for rarity and association of ideas 

 connected with the land of their birth, would not be noticed. I 

 would not place any tree in a lawn that was not in itself intrinsi- 

 cally beautiful. There is no country which produces finer speci- 

 mens of forest trees than America ; and some of our varieties are 

 better known and more prized, as specimen lawn trees, in Europe 

 than in this country. Their Governments have been engaged for 

 years in importing seeds of our forest and fruit trees, and many of 

 them are now vieing in beauty and magnificence of growth with 

 their kindred on this side of the water. 



I discontinued my former article describing the Oak (or Quer- 

 cus) family, which I considered the most useful, beautiful, and ex- 

 tensive, as to variety, of any species or family of forest tree. 



The cultivation of the Sycamore, or Plane Tree, (Platanus Occi- 

 deutalis,) should become more common, as it grows to be a superb 

 spreading tree ; its large white arms stretching towards heaven as 

 if in adoration to its Creator for allowing it to overtop nearly all 

 its fellows. This tree is a remarkably rapid grower, and in good 

 strong soils, especially in the alluvial deposit of river bottoms, 

 it attains the enormous size of forty to fifty feet in circumference. 



There is a lofty grandeur and symmetry of form in the American 



