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■what should be left or planted in pastures, and what are most or- 

 namental and most suitable for public squares, large or small, and 

 what for the sides of a road in the country or a street in a city or 

 town ? 



Every tree is more or less beautiful. Every tree is a picture, 

 varying in color, in freshness, in softness or brilliancy, in light and 

 shade, in outline, in motion, in all the accidents of vegetable life, 

 through all the seasons and all the hours, from the beginning to 

 the end of the year. Every long-lived tree of the taller sorts, 

 such as oaks, elms, beeches, ashes, pines, may become a picture 

 for many generations of the children of men ; a precious heir-loom 

 full of pleasant associations, and hallowed with the memories of 

 parents and grandparents, or of children early lost or long gone 

 away never to return. 



Every species of tree has its own peculiar inhabitants. Each 

 is the favorite resort of particular birds, who prefer to build their 

 nests in it, or, if they build elsewhere, like to come and sing in its 

 branches. Each species has its own insects, beautiful and friend- 

 ly, or hostile ; its own epiphytes and parasites, lichens on its bark 

 or dependent from its branches, and mosses and fungous plants 

 which live upon its trunk or on its leaves, in health or in decay. 



The grandest of trees, in our climate, is the oak, and none will 

 more generously repay every care which is bestowed upon it, or 

 more surely carry our remembrance down to future generations, as 

 it is the longest lived. There are many different species in America, 

 all distinguished for different excellencies. There are twelve well 

 known as growing naturally in Massachusetts ; and there are proba- 

 bly others ; certainly there are others in New England. Several 

 of the west of Europe thrive here, and doubtless many from Asia, 

 and from other parts of America, would grow well here. Our 

 native species deserve our first attention. 



The most valuable for the forest, and the most magnificent for 

 the lawn, is the white oak, nearly allied to the European white 

 oak. For the lawn, therefore, it is first to be chosen. The ob- 

 jection to the white oak as a roadside tree, is, that it takes up too 

 much space ; when allowed to grow unrestrained, it stretches out 

 its vast arms to too great a distance on every side. We want, 

 for roads and streets, trees Avhich will afford shade, but which will 

 lift up their arms out of the way. If we take an oak, it must be 

 the chestnut oak, or the rock chestnut oak, or the scarlet. If we 

 take an elm, it must be, for narrow streets, the English elm. The 

 white oak is admirably suited, better than any other tree, to the 

 corner of a common, or a point where three roads meet at a large 

 anide. In such a situation, it will be able to develope its sublime 

 qualities, and, in a century or two, will become the most venera- 

 ble natural object in the county. 



The red oak becomes a very large tree, grows rapidly, is very 



