DECIDUOUS TREES 185 



that I saw were too haphazard, some too botanical. We have a 

 good many wrong kinds in America. The best pattern for us is 

 the Arnold Arboretum. Mr. Thomas Proctor has a very good 

 private arboretum at Topsfield, Mass. 



The commonest point of view toward pleasure woods in 

 America is to "let them alone." That is why our woods are so un- 

 interesting. American woods are full of diseased, crooked, and 

 spindly trees, and there is no comfort in walking among them 

 because of mosquitoes, brambles, and burrs. The slowest and most 

 imperfect way to restore a piece of woods to its primeval grandeur 

 is to let it alone. We can make it wilder and more interesting at 

 once by planting great quantities of wild flowers that will spread 

 out of their own accord. I saw acres of bluebells in English woods, 

 and this effect we can reproduce literally. The cheapest method of 

 carpeting the forest floor with wild flowers I have explained in 

 Chapter VI. At present I can speak only of wild gardening in 

 which trees are dominant and flowers incidental. 



The loveliest effect of this kind which I saw in England was 

 that of beech woods. The beeches themselves are a constant revela- 

 tion of beauty. All have exquisite, smooth bark, and retain much 

 of their foliage all winter. Some are beautiful, others grotesque; 

 some are high branched, others low branched; some are developed 

 on all sides, others only on one; some are spotted with gray lichens; 

 others uniformly coated with green. The finest moss in the world 

 grows under beech trees. Holly grows to perfection under beech, 

 and makes an ideal companion for it, but there is an atmosphere 

 in beech woods that is positively not of this world, and therein 

 lies its mystic charm. Tennyson reproduces it in "Pelleas and 

 Ettare." 



But I realize that private forestry is only for people with 



