FEBRUARY. 95 



The Salisburia (fig. 5) is one of the rarest of our foreign trees. 

 Though originally introduced as long ago as 1780, into the 

 vicinity of Philadelphia — where the trees are now growing, 

 in good health, and upwards of seventy feet high — there is 

 not, probably, a hundred large specimens in the country. 

 The finest are at the Woodlands near Philadelphia, and the 

 next best at the old Bartram Botanic Garden, and other 

 places in that vicinity. In Boston there is a tree of good 

 size, which was transplanted in 1835 from the old residence 

 of G. Green, Esq., to the Common, nearly opposite the State 

 House, where it now stands about fifty feet high, having 

 grown but very little since its removal, at which time it was 

 about forty feet high and three feet in circumference near 

 the ground. There are some smaller trees scattered through- 

 out the country, but generally of only moderate size, and 

 planted out within the past ten or fifteen years, since the 

 Salisburia has attracted more attention as an ornamental tree. 



The Salisburia forms a large tree, of a conical form ; rising 

 with a straight trunk, regularly furnished with alternate 

 branches ; upright at first, but, as they become older, assum- 

 ing a more horizontal direction ; forming, when full grown, a 

 regular, conical, and somewhat spiry-topped head. The bark 

 is gray and slightly rough. The leaves of medium size, 

 somewhat triangular in form, wedge-shaped at the base, broad 

 and obtuse at the ends ; smooth, shining and pliant ; of a 

 yellowish green, with minute parallel ribs, resembling those 

 of the common fern, (^diantum vulgare,) from whence its 

 specific name. The male catkins, which appear with the 

 leaves in May on the old wood, are about one and a half 

 inches long, and of a )'^ellowish color ; the female flowers are 

 inconspicuous, and are borne on separate trees. The fruit 

 or seed is a drupe, about one inch in diameter. 



The Salisburia is not a rapid growing tree, attaining the 

 height of ten to fifteen feet in ten years, at which age it is 

 represented in our engraving. Its average growth in Great 

 Britain is about a foot a year ; though it is undoubtedly more 

 in this country, the specimens introduced in 1780 being near- 

 ly as large as those first raised in England in 1754. The 



