105 



equal intelligence, we value too little the pleasant additions -which 

 the fruits of these trees make to the dessert, and to the economi- 

 cal produce of those who cultivate them. 



The wild black cherrj unites, in a remarkable degree, all the 

 qualities which should recommend it for the forest, the lawn and 

 the avenue. It is a hardy, rapid grower, of shapely trunk and 

 beautiful bark, leaves and flowers ; it bears a valuable fruit ; and 

 its wood is hard and durable, and suited at once to the uses of the 

 joiner and the cabinet maker. And it is so attractive to many in- 

 sects as to draw them away from the more valuable fruit trees. 

 Yet it is improvidently destroyed wherever it is found growing, 

 from a belief that it actually creates injurious insects. It seems to 

 do this only because it draws them away from the trees of the or- 

 chard, and concentrating them, gives the cultivator the oppor- 

 tunity of destroying them at once on one tree. 



Few people have ventured to plant pines as shade trees on the 

 sides of roads. The white pine is, however, well suited to this 

 purpose. It is a rapid grower. Its lower branches may be re- 

 moved Avith safety ; and it has a fine, symmetrical head. One of 

 t\iQ most imposing rows of trees I have ever seen in this country, 

 is a row of tall, old white pines in North Berwick in Maine. 

 When all its branches are permitted to grow, the white pine 

 furnishes a better protection against the winds in winter than any 

 deciduous tree. 



When there is room for them to grow to their full develop- 

 ment, several of the firs and spruces, and the common hemlock, 

 are excellent for road sides. But they must have ample space, 

 as their beauty is destroyed by cutting away the lower branches. 



The various species of nyssa, pepperidge or tupelo tree, have 

 rarely been cultivated as shade trees, or for ornament. Yet no 

 other tree in our forests has such resplendent leaves ; none is so 

 brilliantly green in summer, and none is more vividly scarlet and 

 red and purple in autumn. And in its port it is altogether pecu- 

 liar. Its fault is, that its leaves fall early, and its brilhancy is 

 transient. 



The attention of cultivators has been so exclusively fixed upon 

 the valuable properties of the thorns as hedge plants, that they 

 have often failed to perceive or to recognize their great variety of 

 beauty for the lawn. 



In Scotland, and in the northern continental countries of Eu- 

 rope, the beauty of the birch is felt and lias often been sung. 

 The poorest of our birches is almost as good as the European 

 birch, while the latter is young ; and we have three others, all far 

 more beautiful, at all ages, the yellow birch, the black birch, 

 and the canoe birch. They are unsurpassed in the delicacy of 

 their outUne, in the graceful sweep of their branches, in the vivid 

 play of the sun's rays upon their leaves, and in the charming mo- 



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